Vincent Van Gogh painting

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Paris: Spring, 1886
Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum
F: 208a, JH: 1089

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Antwerp: December, 1885
Collection Alfred Wyler
New York
F: 207, JH: 979

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Paris, France: Summer, 1886
Private collection
F: 201, JH: 1139

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Arles: March, 1888
van gogh
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 555, JH: 1380

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Cardboard

Paris: Autumn, 1886
Private collection
F: 264, JH: 1179

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Paris: June - July , 1887
Private collection, Japan
Japan, Asia
F: 361, JH: 1260

Drawing, Pencil, reed and quill pens and black and brown ink on Whatman paper

arles: 14-Aug, 1888
New York, New York, United States of America, North America
F: 1462, JH: 1556

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Arles, France: September, 1888
Paris, France, Europe
F: 474, JH: 1592

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Nuenen: September, 1885
Private collection
F: 115, JH: 935

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Paris: March - April, 1887
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 334, JH: 1228

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Nuenen: September, 1885
Private collection
Liege, Belgium, Europe
F: 102, JH: 937

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September - October, 1885
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 106, JH: 936

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September, 1885
Collection Anneliese Brand
Landsberg/Lech, Germany, Europe
F: 212a, JH: 929

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September, 1885
Utrecht, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 105, JH: 926

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September, 1885
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 118, JH: 932

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Spring, 1887
Tokyo, Japan, Asia
F: 283b, JH: 1230

Painting, Oil on Canvas on panel
Nuenen: November, 1884
Private collection
F: 64, JH: 537

Painting, Oil on canvas
Nuenen: November - April, 1884 -85
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 61r, JH: 533

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: November, 1884
The Hague, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 178r, JH: 528

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: November, 1884
Pasadena, California, United States of America, North America
F: 57, JH: 539

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Panel
Nuenen: November, 1884
Private collection
United States of America, Europe
F: 58, JH: 531

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: November, 1884
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 50, JH: 529

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: August, 1885
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 193, JH: 914

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: September, 1889
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 634, JH: 1787

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Cardboard
Nuenen: September, 1884
Mexico City, Mexico, North America
F: 42, JH: 517

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn, 1887
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
F: 359, JH: 1332

Painting, Oil on canvas on panel
Nuenen: September, 1885
Private collection
United States of America, Europe
F: 104, JH: 923

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September, 1885
Ontario, Canada, North America
F: 104a, JH: 924

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn, 1887
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 603, JH: 1336

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn, 1887
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 383, JH: 1339

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: March - April, 1887
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 338, JH: 1237

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn, 1886
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 256, JH: 1169

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: January, 1889
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Upperville, Virginia, United States of America, North America
F: 502, JH: 1664

Painting, Oil on canvas on panel
Nuenen: November, 1884
United States: private collection
United States of America, Europe
F: 60, JH: 540

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Winter, 1887 - 88
Dresden, Germany, Europe
F: 602, JH: 1343

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: December, 1887
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 360, JH: 1349

Painting, Oil on Canvas on panel
Nuenen: November, 1884
Utrecht, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 54, JH: 536

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: November, 1884
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 52, JH: 535

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: April, 1885
Private collection
Paris, France, Europe
F: 202, JH: 738

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Spring, 1887
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 340, JH: 1239

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September - mid month to October, 1885
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 53, JH: 538

Painting, Oil on Canvas on panel
Nuenen: September, 1885
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 63, JH: 920

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: November, 1884
Vienna, Austria, Europe
F: 56, JH: 530

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September, 1885
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 51, JH: 925

Painting, Oil on paper on panel
The Hague: November - late month to mid December, 1881
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 1, JH: 81

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn - Winter, 1887 - 88
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 254, JH: 1342

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: March, 1888
Private collection
F: 395, JH: 1363

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: October, 1885
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 117, JH: 946

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn - Winter, 1887 - 88
St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, North America
F: 379, JH: 1341

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: September - early October, 1885
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 109r, JH: 942

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: late September-early October, 1885 and 1886-87 (doesn't match up): Septmeber - early October, 1886 - 87
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 111, JH: 939

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Summer, 1886
Basel, Switzerland, Europe
F: 283, JH: 1120

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Summer, 1886
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 203, JH: 1123

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Autumn, 1887
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 378, JH: 1340

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Etten: December, 1881
Wuppertal, Germany, Europe
F: 1a, JH: 82

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: October 8, , 1885

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 211, JH: 973

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Cardboard
Nuenen: July, 1884
Private collection
F: 40, JH: 507

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Arles: August, 1888
Private collection
F: 549a, JH: 1573

Painting, Oil on Canvas

Arles: August, 1888
James Roundell
F: 549, JH: 1572

Painting, Oil on paper on canvas

Saint-Rémy: May, 1889
Ottawa, Canada, North America
F: 601, JH: 1699

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: June, 1889
Copenhagen, Denmark, Europe
F: 611, JH: 1723

Painting, Oil on Panel
The Hague, The Netherlands: August, 1882
Private collection
F: 2a, JH: 176

Painting, Oil on Canvas on panel
The Hague, The Netherlands: August, 1882
Private collection
Bern, Switzerland, Europe
F: 3, JH: 186

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Auvers-sur-Oise, France: June, 1890
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 767, JH: 2034

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Cardboard
Paris, France: Spring, 1887
Private collection
F: 310a, JH: 1273

Painting, Oil on Canvas on panel
The Hague, The Netherlands: August, 1882
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 192, JH: 184

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles, France: August, 1888
Musée d'Orsay
Paris, France, Europe
F: 445, JH: 1554

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy, France: August -late in month, 1889
Private collection
F: 625, JH: 1768

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy, France: December, 1889
Private collection
F: 737, JH: 1862

ainting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy, France: October - early in month, 1889
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America, North America
F: 641, JH: 1795

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris, France: Spring, 1887
Jerusalem, Israel, Asia
F: 305, JH: 1265

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy, France: July - mid month, 1889
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 744, JH: 1802

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: July, 1889
New York, New York, United States of America, North America
F: 622, JH: 1766

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: October, 1889
Norton Simon Museum of Art
Pasadena, California, United States of America, North America
F: 637, JH: 1796

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: September, 1888
New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America, North America
F: 463, JH: 1575

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: January, 1890
Musée d'Orsay
Paris, France, Europe
F: 686, JH: 1881

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: November 16,, 1888
Private collection
F: 497, JH: 1632

ainting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: April - May, 1890
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 702, JH: 1967

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: September, 1888
Buffalo, New York, United States of America, North America
F: 550, JH: 1577

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: January, 1885
Private collection
F: 67a, JH: 602

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: February, 1884
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 34, JH: 459

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Panel
Nuenen: May, 1884
Private collection
F: 184, JH: 458

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: February, 1888
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 390, JH: 1357

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Saint-Rémy: June, 1889
Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America, North America
F: 715, JH: 1759

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Spring, 1886
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 215, JH: 1045

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: early year, 1887
Kröller-Müller Museum
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 329, JH: 1215

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: early year, 1887
rivate collection
Paris, France, Europe
F: 328, JH: 1212

Painting, Oil on Canvas on Cardboard
Nuenen: January, 1885
Collection Niarchos
F: 87, JH: 600

Painting, Oil on canvas on panel
Nuenen: May, 1884
Zurich, Switzerland, Europe
F: 88, JH: 490

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen: May - late month to early June, 1885
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 84, JH: 772

Drawing, Pencil, chalk, pen
Arles: March - late in month, 1888
London, United Kingdom, Europe
F: 1500, JH: 1373

Drawing, Reed pen
Arles: May - 9-10, 1888
Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America, North America
F: 1416r, JH: 1415

Drawing, Pencil, pen, reed pen, brown ink
Arles: March - late in month, 1888
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 1506, JH: 1375

Drawing, Pencil, black chalk, washed, heightened with white
Etten: September, 1881
Private collection
F: 1676, JH: 36

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: April, 1888
Private collection
F: 551, JH: 1396

ainting, Oil on Canvas on Cardboard
Paris: Autumn, 1886
Private collection
F: 264, JH: 1179

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: June - July , 1887
Private collection, Japan
Japan, Asia
F: 361, JH: 1260

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: March, 1888
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 607, JH: 1364

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: July, 1888
Destroyed by fire in the Second World War; formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Magdeburg (Germany)
Magdeburg, Germany, Europe
F: 448, JH: 1491

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: August, 1888
New York, New York, United States of America, North America
F: 461, JH: 1569

Painting, Oil on Paper on Cardboard
Paris: January - June, 1886
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 331, JH: 1235

ainting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: July - December, 1886
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 255, JH: 1124

ainting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: early year, 1887
Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, North America
F: 333, JH: 1236

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Paris: Spring, 1887
Private collection
F: 332a, JH: 1233

Painting, Oil on Canvas
Arles: October, 1888
Destroyed by fire in the Second World War
F: 471, JH: 1613

Watercolor, Watercolour, pen, ink
The Hague: January, 1882
The Hague, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 1680, JH: 97

Drawing, Pencil, reed pen and brown ink on laid paper
Arles: May 31 - June 4, 1888
Private Collection
Switzerland, Europe
F: 1479, JH: 1456

Drawing, Pen and Ink
Arles: June, 1888
Winterthur, Switzerland, Europe
F: 1439, JH: 1446

Drawing, Pencil, pen, brown ink
Auvers-sur-Oise: May - late in month, 1890
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe
F: 1638r, JH: 1996

Drawing, Pen and Ink
Arles: September, 1888
Private collection
F: 1453, JH: 1590

Vincent van Gogh:

Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.

In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met pissarro, monet, and gaugein, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. Near the end of 1888, an incident led Gauguin to ultimately leave Arles. Van Gogh pursued him with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his own ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.

In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.

His drawing:

Vincent van Gogh drew thousands of images to better his skills and to fulfill leisure time. He completed over 1,000 drawings, which are known of, from 1877 to 1890. Van Gogh saw drawing as a necessary task to build a foundation as an artist and to study form and movement. However, as he describes, in many of his letters, he also used drawing as an outlet for his depression. The following except about Van Gogh’s drawing comes from a letter Vincent wrote in 1880, at the age of 27, to his brother Theo.

“Well, and yet it was in these depths of misery that I felt my energy revive and I said to myself, I shall get over it somehow, I shall set to work again with my pencil, which I had cast aside in my deep dejection, and I shall draw again, and from that moment I have had the feeling that everything has changed for me, and now I am in my stride and my pencil has become slightly more willing and seems to be getting more so by the day. My over-long and over-intense misery had discouraged me so much that I was unable to do anything.”

Although Van Gogh is mainly recognized for his vibrant use of color, his drawings are exceptional because his representation of figures, light and landscape can be appreciated in their own right without the color to distract the eye.

Van Gogh’s drawings were mainly done in pencil, black chalk, red chalk, blue chalk, reed pen and charcoal, although he often mixed mediums when drawing. The following are some examples:
Pencil and transparent water color – young man with pipes

Pencil, pen, brush, sepia, washed – bent finger of a women

Van Gogh drew on a variety of paper types these included Ingres paper, laid paper, wove paper as some of the more commons types. Although drawing was less expensive than painting, Van Gogh used any material he had available. For example, his drawing present women, half finger was drawn on an envelope.

Van Gogh was happy when he was drawing, but he doubted his abilities. In the same letter to Theo from 1880 Van Gogh writes,

“I cannot tell you how happy I am that I have taken up drawing again. I had been thinking about it for a long time, but always considered it impossible and beyond my abilities.”

Although his paintings are much more popular than his drawings, Van Gogh is considered a master draftsman as well . Even after Van Gogh began painting, he continued to draw often doing studies of paintings before and after he completed the canvas. Through drawing he could capture light and images more quickly than painting. He would also sketch out his vision for a painting as practice before beginning the painting. In order to show his paintings to others, mainly to his brother Theo, Van Gogh drew several paintings after they were completed so that they were more portable and could be mailed. The following is a study of his most famous painting starry night.