VAN GOGH PAINTINGS SHOWN:

March 17, 1901

On March 17, 1901, paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh are
shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. The 71 paintings, which captured
their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors, caused a sensation
across the art world. Eleven years before, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise
outside Paris, van Gogh had committed suicide without any notion that his work
was destined to win acclaim beyond his wildest dreams. In his lifetime, he had
sold only one painting. One of his paintings--the Yasuda Sunflowers--sold for
just under $40 million at a Christie's auction in 1987.Born in Zundert in the
Netherlands in 1853, van Gogh worked as a salesman in an art gallery, a language
teacher, a bookseller, and an evangelist among Belgium miners before settling on
his true vocation as an artist. What is known as the "productive decade" began
in 1880, and for the first few years he confined himself almost entirely to
drawings and watercolors while acquiring technical proficiency. He studied
drawing at the Brussels Academy and in 1881 went to the Netherlands to work from
nature. The most famous work from the Dutch period was the dark and earthy The
Potato Eaters (1885), which showed the influence of Jean-Franýois Millet, a
French painter famous for his peasant subjects.In 1886, van Gogh went to live
with his brother, Thýo, in Paris. There, van Gogh met the foremost French
painters of the postimpressionist period, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,
Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and Georges Seurat. He was greatly influenced by
the theories of these artists and under the advice of Pissarro he adopted the
kind of colorful palette for which he is famous. His painting Portrait of Pýre
Tanguy (1887) was the first successful work in his new postimpressionist
style.In 1888, van Gogh, mentally exhausted and feeling he was becoming a burden
on Thýo, left Paris and took a house at Arles in southeastern France. The next
12 months marked his first great period, and working with great speed and
intensity he produced such masterful works as his sunflower series and The Night
Cafý (1888). He hoped to form a community of like-minded artists at Arles and
was joined by Gauguin for a tense two months that culminated when van Gogh
threatened Gauguin with a razor blade and then cut a piece of his own ear off.
It was his first bout with mental illness, diagnosed as dementia.Van Gogh spent
two weeks at the Arles Hospital and in April 1889 checked himself into the
asylum at Saint-Rýmy-de-Provence. He stayed there for 12 months and continued to
work between recurrent attacks. One of the great paintings from this period was
the swirling, visionary Starry Night (1889). In May 1890, he left the asylum and
visited Thýo in Paris before going to live with Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a
homeopathic doctor and friend of Pissarro, at Auvers-sur-Oise. He worked
enthusiastically for several months, but his mental and emotional state soon
deteriorated. In late July 1890, feeling that he was a burden on Thýo and
others, he shot himself. He died two days later, on July 29, in the arms of his
brother.He had exhibited a few canvases at the Salon des Indýpendants in Paris
and in Brussels, and after his death both salons showed small commemorative
exhibits of his work. Over the next decade, a handful of other van Gogh exhibits
took place, but it was not until the Bernheim-Jeune show in 1901 that he was
recognized as a truly important painter. In subsequent decades, his fame grew
exponentially, and today his paintings are among the most recognized works of
art in the world.