VAN GOGH: Painting European Landscapes

Vincent van Gogh Dutch Painter, 1853-1890, painted magical European landscapes and sea-scapes. (Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)


Beach with Figures and Sea with Ship, by Vincent van Gogh. 1882.
Oil on Paper on Cardboard.

THE ARTIST

Vincent van Gogh, the name does not require any detailed introduction. Van Gogh is one of the most popular artists of all time; so far as the field of painting is concerned. It was a matter of pity, for the artist like him, that his famous paintings were hardly recognized as master pieces during his life time. He went to Paris in 1886 where he became part of the avant-garde art community. He came into contacts of master painters like as Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Edgar Degas, and Paul Gauguin.


THE ART

Painting the ‘European Landscapes’, Van Gogh had added magic into the art of painting. Van Gogh’s palette had expressive and emotive colours on it. Van Gogh used these colours as a master impressionist, painting his canvases in the style of the impressionist who were used to paint outside their studios. He used mostly brilliant colour to produce the striking light in his paintings. The energetic application of the hot colours produced a rich impasto surface conveying the ever-present vibrancy. Van Gogh painting had one special feature, too: the feature that made him an artist painting obvious and contrary to the prevailing standard, acting like a revolutionary painter.

In the above painting Vincent van Gogh, as a master impressionist, seemed to have painted or transformed what he saw, what really was before his eyes. Though the artists imagination is not ruled our here. With his artistic skill Van Gogh had injected beauty in the nature by creating the harmony through the vivid colours. Look at the natural things like green oozing water in the background and the people working on the seashore. Nothing defeats the harmony of the whole painting. The magically looking clouds and the sky speak how the artist was used to paint. The whole painting here, like other famous European landscapes, like his other paintings helps us seeing the nature with a brand new look.

For an impressionist painter, the controlling of effects of light is an issue demanding artistic skill. While painting out of the doors, it is difficult to choose colors; especially when the artists has to work with his or her eyes half shut due to the presence of blazing sunlight. When an artist paint out of the doors, the same set of principles of painting applies; but it is hard to sort out the chaos of colors and keep their tonal values in tact, especially in the impressionist style of painting.

 

From Navaljee to Ms. SeethaHari

Vangogh is the artist who had changed the perception of European painting of his time.

 

From Navaljee to Sriniketan
The outdoor painting is difficult because the artist has to complete the work within a given framework of time.