2nd Grade
Vincent Willem van Gogh (
Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləm vɑn ˈɣɔx] (
listen);
[note 1] 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a
Post-Impressionistpainter. He was a
Dutch artist whose work had a far-reaching influence on
20th-century art. His output includes
portraits,
self portraits, landscapes and still lifes of cypresses,
wheat fields and
sunflowers. He drew as a child but did not paint until his late twenties; he completed many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints.
Van Gogh was born to upper middle class parents and spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers. He traveled between The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught in England at
Isleworth and
Ramsgate. He was deeply religious as a younger man and aspired to be a pastor. From 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining region in Belgium, where he began to sketch people from the local community. In 1885 he painted
The Potato Eaters, considered his first major work. His palette then consisted mainly of somber earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid coloration that distinguished his later paintings. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and discovered the
French Impressionists. Later, he moved to the south of France and was influenced by the strong sunlight he found there. His paintings grew brighter in color, and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style that became fully realized during his stay in
Arles in 1888.
Examples from Mrs. Graves class 2015-2016
A cat lives in a house filled with toys, but every day she dreams of being free like the bird she watches through the window. Finally, with the bird's help, she is able to escape and dance on the roofs of the city by moonlight. This lovely story unfolds in a series of playful, brilliantly colourful illustrations based on the artist Paul Klee's work. Influenced by the artist's bright palette and use of shapes and line, the book culminates in a dazzling reproduction of Klee's Cat and Bird. Accompanied by information about the artist and this iconic painting, the book invites appreciation of the unfettered joyfulness that makes Klee one of the most universally loved artists of all time.
