Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) developed his mature work within a career lasting little more than a decade. Born in the Netherlands, he worked in art dealing and religious activity before committing himself to painting and drawing. His early subjects included rural labour and the lives of ordinary people. A move to Paris in 1886 brought him into contact with Impressionism, newer approaches to colour and Japanese prints, transforming the darker palette of his Dutch work.
In Arles and Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh developed the emphatic colour and active brushwork most closely associated with him. Landscapes, portraits and still lifes became occasions for testing how direction, contrast and repeated marks could carry feeling. This was not simply an unconsidered outpouring. His drawings, copies after earlier artists and extensive letters show a painter reflecting on composition, technique and the expressive possibilities of familiar subjects.
The range represented here includes a self-portrait, landscapes and a portrait from his final period. Together they encourage a reading of his work that extends beyond the dramatic events of his life. A field or tree can be examined through the organisation of strokes; a face through the relationship between colour and contour. The emotional force of the image is inseparable from those pictorial decisions. Preserving the original dimensions keeps their spacing and concentration part of the encounter, rather than allowing a familiar image to become only an enlarged emblem.
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