produce a masterwork which would
establish his reputation and his last
self portrait will show the genius of
the life work by tormented man.
Image at left is computer enhanced to
show the use of light by Van Gogh.
Oil on canvas on panel
April, 1885
from his final self-portrait,completed
some months before his suicide.
Tormented by recurring moments of
insanity, the artist resolutely viewed
himself and painted a tortured soul
battling desperately against the terrors
that surrounded him-"
Robert Wallace
Time Life Books
hollow, hypocritical terms?true painters are guided by the consciousness known as
sentiment. Their souls, their minds are not there for the brush, the brush is there
for their minds? ? Van Gogh
The Potato Eater?s was a massive undertaking for the young artist, and even his
closest friends did not meet it favorably. Vincent however was undaunted in his
belief that he had created his first masterpiece. Never shown by the Paris gallery
his brother worked for, Van Gogh felt the work portrayed his commitment and
that technical quality was not related to artist value.
His portrayal of a peasant meal was designed to evoke emotional response. The
coarseness, brutish, and ugly country peasants that worked the fields struck him.
He wanted the coarseness of their hands from working the soil to produce the food
to be so in the painting. Mouths and cheekbones exaggerated, all of the artist?s
portrayals of the peasants of the countryside remain so in all of his works. He
admired they lived in harmony with nature and held traditional rural values.
with Cypress and Stars, May 1890, -The Plains Near Auvers, July 1890,- The
Sower, June 1888 are some of the best known and appreciated works of Van
Gogh. Much of this time, he spent recovering in and out of a hospital from
melancoly, or attacks of depression . Upon hearing the news of his brother's
immenent financal difficulties, Vincent shot himself in the stomach after returning
from an afternoon of painting.He felt he was an additional burden for his brother
to bear. He staggered to his bed unassisted and died thirty six hours later after
refusing to receive treatment. His brother, Theo, drowned in his grief over the lost
of his brother and he himself died six months later.
sold one painting during
his life time for $80.