A universal genius named Vincent

Abstract

Vincent Willem van Gogh was the son of a clergyman who lived in a small town in the south of Holland, near the border with Belgium. He was born on 30 March 1853, that is, a hundred and fifty years ago, in Groot—Zundert and was the eldest of six brothers; the firstborn of the family baptized with the same name had been born dead a year earlier.

Ovoid head, small eyes, redhead and drooping shoulders, excitable temperament and prone to melancholy, did not seem to have wood at all good. His younger brother Theo was the only one in the family who, from the early and difficult years of childhood, had become involved with him. Theo worked with Goupil's art house in his central galleries in Paris. Vincent came to him in the adversity and reaction of Theo, positive and generous, flourished after an exciting and exemplary story of brotherly love. From his modest income, Theo began sending money to his brother so he could study and buy his colors.

Dedicated first to preacher in coal mines, he goes on to master, then to art dealer in his uncle's gallery, to finally find himself as a vehement painter and passionate about his surroundings. At this point, he would sign all his artistic production with a simple "Vincent". He was not a lonely artist or far from reality; van Gogh was one of the most cultured men in aesthetic matters; He also spoke four languages; his style expresses poetry, not in forms, but a content that has feeling and an almost religious ecstasy before nature.

Vincent belongs to the group of posimpresionists; his pictorial work was developed in Holland and France, and today he is considered a precursor to Expressionism. It has an extraordinary drawing and its color is almost always linear; his character was mystical and at the same time exalted and thanks to his brother Theo he was able to enter the artistic circles of Paris. In his first stage belongs the painting of Holland, where the influence of the masters of his native country is observed, but also that of Millet (1814-1875).