Summary of the life of Vincent van Gogh

1853 - 1890, born Netherlands

Famous Van Gogh Paintings
The Potatoe Eaters 1885
Sunflowers 1888
The Night Cafe 1888
Van Gogh's Chair 1888
The Starry Night 1889
Self-Portrait 1889

Visible Influences
Impressionism, Japanese prints, Jean-Francoise Millet.

Movements & Styles
Post-Impressionism
Van Gogh's style was very expressive and later influenced many Expressionist artists. Vincent's Life story is just as famous as his art. He produced landscapes, portraits, interiors, still lifes and cityscapes. Still lifes included everyday objects ; shoes, potatoes, a chair, books, etc.

Vincent van Gogh Life - Chronology - Biography

1853
Vincent Willem van Gogh
Born on the 30th March, Groot-Zundert, the Netherlands
1857
Vincent's brother Theodorus (Theo) van Gogh was born on the 1st May
1864-68
Attends boarding school at Jan Povily in Zevenbergen (up until 1866)
Attends the state Secondary School King Willem II at Tilburg (up until 1868)
1868
Returns home to his parents in Zundert
1869
Starts working as a junior Clerk for the art firm of Goupil and Co. in the Hague.
1873
Van Gogh is transferred to the London branch of the art firm Goupil and Co.
Lodges with Sarah Ursula Loyer and falls in love with her daughter Eugenie.
1874
Learns that Eugenie is engaged to be married, then returns home to Holland for 3 weeks.
Moved to the Paris branch of Goupils temporarily against his will.
1875
Vincent returned to the London branch for several months before being permanently assigned to the Paris branch of Goupils.
1876
After being discharged from Goupils in Paris, Vincent van Gogh reterns to England.
Teaches elementary French, German & arithmatic at a school in Ramsgate.
Works as as a teacher at a boys' school in Isleworth, Vincent also works as a parish and sometimes preaches.
1877
Finds employment in a bookshop in Tolbrugstraatje.
Prepares for entrance exams for the faculty of theology in Amsterdam, stays with his uncle Jan/ Johannes van Gogh.
1878
Quits theological studies to enroll in a preparatory course for evangelists in Brussels.
Fails to qualify at the mission school in Laeken and returns home to his parents.
Van Gogh moves to Borinage, a coal mining district of Belgium and begins missionary work.
1879
Dismissed as a mission preacher in Wasmes after 6 months.
Vincent continues to work to do missionary work on his own.
1880
After abandoning evangelical work Vincent van Gogh begins to draw with a passion and has serious ambitions of becoming an artist.
Moves to Brussels.
Prepares to enter the Academie des Beaux-Arts
1881
Returns to Etten (where his parents are)
Falls in love with his widowed cousin Kee Vos Stricker but she denies his affections.
Visits The Hague and is instructed by his cousin, the noted Hague School painter of peasant life, Anton Mauve.
1882
Moves into a small studio in The Hague with a pregnant prostitute, Clasina Maria Hoornik ( Sien ) and her five year old daughter.
Paints street scenes.
Commisisioned to do a series of 12 drawings of city views from his art dealer uncle Cornelius Marinus van Gogh.
Receives a second commission by his uncle Cornelius to a further 6 views, but more detailed.
Is treated for a venereal disease at the Municipal Hospital on the Brouwersgracht.
Sien and Van Gogh move into larger quaters next door after she has her second child.
Vincent van Gogh begins to work with oil paints.
Van Gogh also experiments with lithography.
Contemplates the thought of working as an illustrator in possibly England.
1883
Vincent and Sien break up and he moves to Drenthe, then to Nieuw Amsterdam.
Returns to his parent home for 2 years, (now in Nuenen).
Has a love affair with an older woman, Margo Begemann, wich leads to a scandal and her attempted suicide.
Van Gogh gives painting lessons to 3 people.
1885
26th March, Reverend Theodorus van Gogh, father of Vincent dies.
Paint dealer agrees to exhibit some of Van Goghs work in the shop windows in his store in The Hague.
Spends several days in Amsterdam at the Rijksmuseum, admiring Rembrandt and Hals in particular.
1886
Enrols at the Academy at Antwerp and studies painting and drawing.
Works from live models during the night.
Vincent meets his brother Theo in Paris. Theo is working as an art dealer in Barbizon and Impressionist paintings for the Boussod & Valadon group at the Louvre.
Vincent moves into Theo's apartment.
Studies at the atelier of Fernarnd-Anne Piestre, called Cormon.
Experiments with colors, abandoning his sombre palette.
Moves to Lepic in Montmatre with Theo.
Art dealer Portier takes four paintings of Van Gogh on commission.
Vincent and Camille Pissarro (1831-1903) become friends.
Meets Emile Bernard (1868-1941) at the shop of Juien Pere Tanguy and they exchange paintings.
1887
Van Gogh meets Paul Signac (1863-1935)
Receives 2 Portrait commissions from Julien "Pere" Tanguy.
Vincent purchases many Japanese prints from a dealer in oriental art.
Paints outdoors with Paul Signac along the banks of the Seine at Asienres and St Ouen.
Meets Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
1888
Moves to Arles into the Hotel-Restaurant Carrel
Van Gogh exhibits 3 paintings with the Societe des Artistes Independants.
Moves into the "Yellow House" but soon moves out over a dispute with the owner over his bill.
Moves into another hotel close by.
Meets the postmaster, Joseph Roulin (1855-1941)
Vincent moves into the Yellow House and Gauguin arrives in Arles soon after.
Experiments with drawing from memory after being prompted by Gauguin.
Vincent van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his after an argument with Gauguin. He then presents his ear to a prostitute.
Admitted to the hospital after being found in a critical state by the police and is attended to by Doctor Felix Rey (1867-1932)
Theo comes to Arles, then soon returns home to Paris with Gauguin.
1889
Van Gogh is hospitalised for 10 days after having hallucinations and fearing that he is being poisoned.
Theo van Gogh marries Johanna Bonger (1862-1925)
Vincent admits himself to a mental asylum in Saint Remy and is diagnosed as having an epilectic disorder.
Paints in the gardens and environs of the hospital.
"Irises" and "Starry Night on the Rhone" are included in the Independants exhibition in Paris.
Spends 2 days in Arles.
Vincent has a week long relapse.
1890
Six paintings exhibited in the exhibition of Les Vingt in Brussels.
31 January, Birth of Theo's first son, Vincent Wilhelm van Gogh
Suffers a severe attack during a 2 day visit to Arles and is then brought back to hospital.
Exhibits 10 paintings with the Independants in Paris.
Van Gogh leaves the asylum on May 16 and spend several days in Paris with his brother Theo and his family.
Moves to Auvers.
Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909) looks after Vincent.
On the 27th of July, Vincent van Gogh shoots himself in the countryside in Auvers.
Struggles back to the inn where he was staying.
29th July, Vincent dies with Theo by his side.
Buried on the 30th of July.
Theo organises an exhibition of Vincent's paintings in an apartment in Montmatre.
October, Theo becomes seriously ill.
1891
25th of January, Vincent's brother Theo dies in the Netherlands.