Vincent van Gogh Paintings

Vincent van Gogh’s Influence on Western Art

Vincent van Gogh was among the most influential and famous artists during the post-impressionism period and had tons of influence on western art. In his lifetime, he created approximately two thousand, 100 paintings. Most of his paintings were completed within the last two years before his death while staying in France. Additionally, about eight hundred and sixty of his work was wiped out the shape of paintings. His artworks were inclusive of landscapes, portraits of self and others and still life’s which were characterized by the utilization of bold colors and brushwork. Throughout his artistic life, he used expression and drama as a style that helped him in laying the foundations of modern artworks.

The Bedroom in Arles

The Bedroom in Arles is a painting by Van Gogh done in 1888 on canvas using oil. It is a vivid depiction of his bedroom while at Arles. In this painting, Van Gogh makes use of striking colors using a familiar subject matter and an unusual perspective. The painting exists in five versions, two being letter sketches and three different versions in oil on canvas. Van Gogh makes use of bright colors boldly in the painting that resembles the vibrant palette which he used during his period in Paris. For example, he uses the Yellow color, his favorite shade boldly in this painting to illustrate his outstanding admiration towards life itself (Gatys et al., 2016).

The Unusual Aspect of The Bedroom in Arles

The most striking part of the painting is the unusual aspect of the image which is a bit peculiar. In many cases bedroom matters seem private and confidential, however, the artist unrealistically used the bedroom subject to describe his mood and in a wrapped depiction entire room. The abundance of bold colors serves purposes of adding more life to his daily routines which are composed of different activities that he has to achieve successfully (Liu et al., 2016).

The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries

Another great work of Van Gogh is The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries completed in 1888. The title of the painting is inscribed in the region beneath the signature on the bottom right corner. The painting was a depiction of the Café de la Gare which was owned and run by Joseph-Michel Giroux and Marie, his wife, who requested the artwork to be done. The paintings execution was done on French Standard size 30 canvas with the medium of painting being oil on canvas material. The painting expresses details a doorway which are half curtained in the center background as an impression of more private matters in life (van Noord et al., 2015).

The Theme of Oppression in The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries

The room is wildly contrasting with vivid colors used to create imagery and the painting style is thickly applied to the lines of the room. Van Gogh’s painting has, however, failed to use some of the commonly known styles in the art industry. For example, in his two paintings discussed in this essay, Van Gogh has not projected an attitude appreciation of beauty engraved in his portraits. Instead, Van Gogh has infused emotion in this painting leading to the development of a style called expressionism which is quite clear in his paintings achievements (Gatys et al., 2016).

The Feeling of Despair in The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries

The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries boldly depicts the theme of oppression. Both the green and red colors used on the walls can be translated into a series of oppression of mankind. Moreover, the thick paints used by the artist creates an impressive emphasis on the other elements found in the house. The painter has used such elements to portray surreal touch to the image giving an impression of the feeling of despair to the viewer (Gatys et al., 2016).

The Reality of Despair in The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries

Many artistic works have been used to describe their immediate environment. The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Aries painting portrays people who stayed around the café all day and night. Some of them living in despair after long hours of drinking and being unable to settle their bills because they are broke (van Noord et al., 2015).

References

Gatys, L. A., Bethge, M., Hertzmann, A., & Shechtman, E. (2016). Preserving color in neural artistic style transfer. ArXiv preprint arXiv: 1606.05897.

Liu, H., Chan, R. H., & Yao, Y. (2016). Geometric tight frame based stylometry for art authentication of van Gogh paintings. Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis, 41(2), 590-602.

Van Noord, N., Hendriks, E., & Postma, E. (2015). Toward Discovery of the Artist’s Style: Learning to recognize artists by their artworks. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 32(4), 46-54.