Vincent van Gogh is probably one of the most prominent artists in the world. Almost everyone heard the story about him cutting his ear, and his style is so recognizable that it is hard to make a mistake in art quizzes. I realize why Vincent van Gogh is a household name: his works contain a range of vivid emotions understandable to any generation, and the sharp lines accurately express the psychologism of the moment.
The first drawings of van Gogh were the results of the artist’s studies of Realism. Van Gogh admitted he drew his inspiration from working peasants and considered that the nationwide recognition of them and other working-class people is his mission in the art. A series of van Gogh’s pictures of “voices of the wheat” – peasants working in compliance with cycles of nature were created in circumstances of those poor people’s lifestyle because van Gogh preferred full engagement to be as objective as he could. His pictures, such as Crouching Boy with Sickle (1881), Man Stooping with Stick or Spade (1882), Peasant Woman Digging (1885), have a focus on labor and people’s actions while the elements of nature and the peasants’ faces are barely seen.
However, van Gogh’s character studies included investigations of typical manual laborer’s facial features. The pictures of working-class men and women, such as Head of a Peasant Woman with White Hood (1885), Head of an Old Peasant Woman with White Cap (1884), Head of a Man with a Pipe (1885), are examples of the artist’s attempts to find the reflection of laborer’s hardships in their harsh lines. I think these pictures are archetypical as we can see how the facial features of peasants reflect their path of life.
The famous masterpiece The Potato Eaters (1885) could be considered the result of van Gogh’s artistic experiences. I see coarse worn-out faces of men and women who eat the simplest food of all – baked potatoes with calm expressions on their faces. The color range is modest, the brushwork is rough, but the composition points out the warm relationship of a family – that is the ultimate van Gogh’s understanding of peasants’ spirit. I believe that the picture is outstanding in its metaphorical expression of the psychological image of a working person.
Van Gogh also struggled to paint his landscapes in the open air to catch the moment as impressionists did. The main idea was to touch the audience’s senses, to make them feel the same wind blows as the artist experienced himself while painting Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather (1882) and Pollard Willow (1882). Van Gogh shared his emotions from exposure to nature, such as loneliness and recognition of nature’s power in his Dunes with Figures (1882) and Girl in White in the Woods (1882).
My favorites among van Gogh’s pictures include a series of flowering trees paintings that is fully immersive: I can almost feel the spring air emanating from them. Van Gogh was fascinated by the view of blossoming plum, apricot, and peach trees and, during a month, had achieved to create 14 paintings. Delicate colors, soft lines, and some decorative simplicity of such pictures as Blossoming Pear Tree (1888), The White Orchard (1888), Flowering Orchard (1888) fill the mind with tranquility and evoke the thoughts of nature’s healing powers. The rebirth of hope and dreams that happen every year with the trees blossoming is perfectly conveyed in these works. Their simplicity and expressiveness are reminiscent of poetry expressed on canvas.
I appreciate Van Gogh for loving art like no other: while his art life was rather short, he managed to create more than 2,100 pictures. Nowadays, I often see his masterpieces, such as Sunflowers (1887), The Starry Night (1889), Irises (1889), Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889), Almond Blossom (1890), as fashionable prints on clothing and accessories. These things mean van Gogh captured the people’s minds. I am also a Van Gogh admirer: his pictures inspire, provoke thoughts and emotions, the most valuable things expected from an artwork.