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beaux-arts
Le succès et l’aura qu’on lui reconnaît
cependant décelé le génie d’un artiste
peut vivre pour l’infini, ne se satisfaire
auj ourd’hui ne datent que des années 1930,
grâce à une immense exposition au MOMA.
prolixe, dont les inspirations diverses ont
Parmi eux, retenons l’emphase d’Antonin
que d’infini, il y a assez d’infini sur la terre
grands génies. »
forcé l’évolution d’un style caractéristique,
par sa maitrise de la ligne et de la couleur.
Certains de ses contemporains avaient
Artaud, dans Van Gogh, le suicide de la
et dans les sphères pour rassasier mille
société : « Il avait raison, Van Gogh, on
Vincent Van Gogh’s �amily has established
that Théo eventually took over. But during
The Potato Eaters.
examinations.
collection o� works.
and Paris. His voracious curiosity led him
He finally reached Paris at the time o� the
to tirelessly explore the museums o� Paris,
his pictorial and literary culture.
In 1882, he moved to The Hague �or twenty
Signac, whom he met in Père Tanguy’s art
background, and took an interest in humbler
Théo went through Goupil & Cie, a company
environments, essentially working class and
When he le�t �or Antwerp in 1885, his palette
his brie� li�e, Van Gogh constantly expanded
peasant society. He read Balzac, Zola and
serious existential and spiritual doubts, the
Delacroix, Millet and Gauguin. Throughout
work o� Daumier. His return to his parents,
was determined by his interest in the social
portraits, and began to build up a personal
cause: this is where he made his studies �or
last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 and the
young man wanted to enter a seminary and
It was only in 1880 that he turned to drawing
developing a deep afection �or Rembrandt,
financial support �rom his brother Théo, he
him. He developed a strong �riendship with
got to know his �ellow contemporary artists
and took inspiration �rom the people around
itsel� over several generations in the sale
become a pastor, but �ailed the theology
o� art works. He himsel� and his brother
purveyors o� merchandise. In the grip o�
period when he painted a series o� sel�-
a trip to Paris, Vincent was shocked by
months, and began drawing prolifically.
He decided to break with his bourgeois
a stay cut short by yet another quarrel,
Dickens and became �ascinated by the
the attitude towards artists, treated as
and then painting, travelling to Belgium
had lightened considerably: this was the
1887 retrospective on Millet. Now set up
in a studio in Montmartre, and receiving
« Il avait absorbé la nature en lui; il l’avait forcée à s’assouplir, à se mouler
aux formes de sa pensée, à le suivre dans ses envolées, à subir même
ses déformat ions si caractérist iques. Van Gogh a eu, à un d ge ré rare,
ce par quoi un homme se différencie d'un aut re : le style. »
Octave Mirbeau, dans un article de l’Écho de Paris publié huit mois après la mort de Van Gogh (31 mars 1891).