Van Gogh's works are
perhaps better known generally than those of any other painter. His brief(breve),
turbulent, and tragic life is thought to epitomize(personificar,
tipifcar) the mad genius legend(la leyenda del
genio loco).
During his lifetime(período de vida), Van Gogh's work was represented in two very small
exhibitions and two larger ones. Only one of Van Gogh's paintings(pinturas,
obras) was sold
while he lived. The great majority of the works by which he is remembered
were produced in 29 months of frenzied(frenética) activity and intermittent bouts(rachas) with
epileptoid seizures(ataques epilépticos) and profound despair(desesperación) that finally ended in suicide.
In
his grim(desalentador, sombrío) struggle(lucha) Vincent had one constant ally(aliado) and support(apoyo), his younger
brother Théo, to whom he wrote revealing and extraordinarily beautiful
letters detailing his conflicts and aspirations. As a youth Van Gogh worked
for a picture dealer(comerciante de cuadros), antagonizing(enemistándose,
contrariando) customers until he was dismissed(despedido).
Compulsively humanitarian, he tried to preach to oppressed mining families(familias
mineras)
and was jeered at(se burlaban de él). His difficult, contradictory personality was rejected(rechazada) by
the women he fell in love with, and his few friendships usually ended in
bitter arguments(amargas disputas).
Ten years before his death Van Gogh decided to be a painter, fully
conscious of the sacrifices this decision would require of him. His early
work, the Dutch period of 1880-85, consists of dark greenish-brown, heavily
painted studies of peasants(campesinos) and miners, e.g.,
The Potato Eaters(el comedor de patatas)
(1885; Van Gogh Mus., Amsterdam). He copied the work of Millet, whose
idealization of the rural poor(pobreza rural) he admired. In 1886 he joined Théo in Paris,
where he met the foremost(más destacado) French painters of the postimpressionist period.
The kindly Pissarro convinced him to adopt a colorful palette and thereby(así,
de ese modo)
made a tremendously significant contribution to Van Gogh's art. His painting
Père Tanguy (1887; Niarchos Coll., Paris) was the first complete and
successful work in his new colors. Impressed by the theories of Seurat and
Signac, Van Gogh briefly adopted a pointillist(puntillista) style.
In 1888, in ill health and longing(anhelo) for release(liberación) from Paris and what he
felt was his imposition upon Théo's life, he took a house at Arles. At Arles
he was joined by Gauguin for a brief period fraught with tension(lleno
de tensión), during
which he mutilated his left ear in the course(en el transcurso) of his first attack of
dementia. His paintings from this period include the incomparable series of
sunflowers(girasoles) (1888; one version: National Gall., London); The Night Café
(Yale Univ.); and The Public Gardens in Arles (Phillips Coll.,
Washington, D.C.). During his illness he was confined first to the Arles
Hospital, then to the asylum at Saint-Rémy, where, in 1889, he painted the
swirling(que se mueve en forma de remolino), climactic(culminante)
Starry Night(noche estrellada) (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City).
Van Gogh's last three months were spent in Auvers near Pissarro,
painting the postman Roulin and the sympathetic(compasivo,
comprensivo), eccentric(excéntrico) Dr. Gachet, a
physician and collector who watched over him(cuidó de él). Vincent's consciousness(consciencia) of his
burden(carga) upon Théo, by then married and a father, increased. His work tempo
was pushed to the limit; one of his last paintings, Wheat Field With
Crows (Van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam), projected ominous overtones of
distress(siniestras insinuaciones de angustia). He despaired(perdió
la esperanza) and shot himself, dying two days later in the arms of
his brother. Théo died shortly thereafter(después de eso). |
Inglés
|
Francés |
Alemán
|
Italiano |
Otros
1 (A-E)
| 2 (F-L) |
3 (N-S)
| 4 (T-U)
Árabe |
Chino |
Esperanto
|
Griego
|
Japonés
|
Portugués
|
Rumano
|
Ruso
|
Catalán
|
Euskera