Critical Expressive essays

Critical Expressive essays Vincent Van Gogh was born in Brabant, Holland in 1853. His bizarre sense of colour disallowed his access to any art school. It was however this unique impressionism that made his work so popular and valuable to this very day. Van Gogh moved to Paris later on in his life to join his brother Theo. Theo and Van Gogh were always close friends; he always encouraged and inspired him. It was in Paris that Van Gogh started to substitute the dark tones in favour of pure primary and secondary colours. He also began to use a technique known as impasto: paint applied thickly without any hesitation. After two years in Paris, during which he painted over 200 pictures, Van Gogh moved to Arles in the south of France where he joined Paul Gauguin, one of his close friends. The tension between the two artists became too strong for them to continue working in the same presence as one another. It was due to this that Gauguin later announced to move back to Paris. A while after the statement Gaug uin found himself being followed by Van Gogh whom was making gestures with a razor blade. He returned to the 'yellow house' where he and Van Gogh lived that following morning to find that Van Gogh had been taken to hospital after cutting off part of his ear. After this traumatic episode, Van Gogh voluntarily retired to an asylum for the insane at StRemydeProvence. Van Gogh died a while later in 1890 after shooting himself in the chest whilst painting in the Auvres. The painting I have chosen by Vincent Van Gogh is a self-portrait painted in 1889. The composition of the painting is in portrait format and consists of Van Goghs head and upper body. Van Gogh uses a subtle green in the background of the portrait, which is applied in a curvilinear motion using the technique impasto. He also mixed bees wax with his oil paints to create the thickness of the painting. In his face and cl...