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The tortured genius
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Modern master Van Gogh produced a phenomenal body of work before he died at 37
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THE STARRY NIGHT One of Van Gogh's most popular paintings was done in the mental asylum of Saint-Paul-de Mausole
Don McLean in his ballad Vincent sang: "The world was not meant for one as beautiful as you." Vincent Van Gogh is yet another example of a tortured genius. Only 37 when he died of a self-inflicted bullet wound, his devoted brother, Theo, reported that Vincent's dying words were: "La tristesse durera toujours" (The sadness will last forever).
While Van Gogh's mental instability converted him into a pop-cultural icon, one must not lose sight of his prodigious talent. He produced 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings in 10 years including a phenomenal 70 canvases in the last 70 days of his life.
Born on March 30, 1853, in Netherlands, Vincent's father was a Protestant minister. Theo was born four years later. Vincent had another brother Cor and three sisters. In 1864, he was sent to a boarding school and being separated from his family distressed him greatly. In 1868, he abruptly left school.
At the age of 16, he joined his uncle Cent's art firm. After training, he was sent to the London branch in June 1863. Here he fell in love with his innkeeper's daughter. The unrequited love told on his work and he was dismissed in 1876.
In 1880 Vincent went to Brussels and attended the Royal Academy of Art. By 1885 there was interest in Vincent's work in Paris and he painted his first major work, The Potato Eaters. His work was exhibited for the first time the same year in Hague. He was accused of making one his peasant sitters pregnant and the church forbade anyone to sit for him.
He matriculated at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Antwerp in January 1886. In March he moved to Paris to stay with his brother and there met the Impressionist painters and was for a time fascinated by Pointillism. He met Paul Gaughin in 1886. The tumultuous friendship ended on December 23, 1888 with Vincent chasing Gaughin with a razor and finally cutting off a lobe of his ear, wrapping it in newspaper and presenting it to a prostitute. Vincent got himself admitted to asylums in the hope of being cured of his hallucinations and paranoia but to no avail.
Though he sold only one painting in his life, he has gained colossal stature and has had considerable impact on the fauvists, Impressionists and modern abstract art.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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