{"id":1040,"date":"2012-12-04T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/small-vase.flywheelsites.com\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2016-05-09T10:50:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T16:50:46","slug":"van-goghs-portraits-of-his-family-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.vangoghgallery.com\/index.php\/en\/2012\/12\/04\/van-goghs-portraits-of-his-family-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Gogh\u2019s Portraits of His Family Members"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Gogh painted and drew numerous portraits throughout his career and was especially interested in them during his early years of painting.\u00a0 He obviously never lost his passion for portraits, in a letter written to his sister, Wilhelmina, on June 5, 1890, Van Gogh wrote,<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat impassions me most – much, much more than all the rest of my m\u00e9tier – is the portrait, the modern portrait. I seek it in colour, and surely I am not the only one to seek it in this direction. I should like – mind you, far be it from me to say that I shall be able to do it, although this is what I am aiming at – I should like to paint portraits which would appear after a century to people living then as apparitions. By which I mean that I do not endeavour to achieve this by a photographic resemblance, but by means of our impassioned expressions – that is to say, using our knowledge of and our modern taste for colour as a means of arriving at the expression and the intensification of the character.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Van Gogh created portraits, not only of the interesting people he met throughout his life but of his beloved family.\u00a0 In July of 1881, Van Gogh created a pencil and brown ink portrait of his grandfather who was also named Vincent van Gogh.\u00a0 The portrait, Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, The Artist\u2019s Grandfather<\/em> is owned by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.\u00a0 In June of that same year Van Gogh created a portrait in pencil which is thought to be his sister titled, Portrait of Willemien Van Gogh<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Portrait of the Artist\u2019s Mother<\/em> was painted in October of 1888.\u00a0 This portrait was one that Van Gogh created from a black and white photo sent to him by his sister.\u00a0 The portrait portrays his mother as a proud and respectable middle-class woman.\u00a0 Van Gogh\u2019s mother, Anna Carbentus van Gogh<\/a>, was an amateur artist and introduced her son to art.<\/p>\n

In a letter to his brother dated October 8, 1888, Van Gogh wrote about the portrait of his mother:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is to say, I am doing a portrait of Mother for myself. I cannot stand the colourless photograph, and I am trying to do one in a harmony of colour, as I see her in my memory.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In November of 1888, Van Gogh created two portraits that are believed to include his sister, Wilhelmina.\u00a0 Memory of the Garden at Etten<\/em> and The Novel Reader<\/em>.\u00a0 Memory of the Garden at Etten<\/em> is not an actual portrait but is a depiction of a recollection of Van Gogh\u2019s of his mother and sister walking through a garden near his boyhood home in the Netherlands.\u00a0 The Novel Reader<\/em> is not identified as Van Gogh\u2019s sister but the sketchy expressionistic style used leads one to believe that it was an experimental piece and many believe he was imagining his sister as he created it.<\/p>\n

In a letter to his sister he discusses both paintings:<\/p>\n

\u201cHere you are. I know this is hardly what one might call a likeness, but for me it renders the poetic character and the style of the garden as I feel it. All the same, let us suppose that the two ladies out for a walk are you and our mother; let us even suppose that there is not the least, absolutely not the least vulgar and fatuous resemblance – yet the deliberate choice of colour, the somber violet with the blotch of violent citron yellow of the dahlias, suggests Mother’s personality to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have also painted \u201cUne Liseuse de Romans,\u201d the luxuriant hair very black, a green bodice, the sleeves the colour of wine lees, the skirt black, the background all yellow, bookshelves with books. She is holding a yellow book in her hands.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For years art historians had believed that Van Gogh had never painted a portrait of his beloved brother and companion Theo.\u00a0 However, in 2011, a painting that was once believed to be a self-portrait, Self-Portrait with Straw Hat<\/em>, was determined to actually be a portrait of his brother, Theo.\u00a0 Closer examination revealed a number of differences between this painting and other self-portraits.\u00a0 The subject had rounder ears, a cleaner shave and lighter beard.\u00a0 During the time of this painting the brothers were living together so there are no letters providing evidence of who the subject is.\u00a0 The Van Gogh Museum has renamed the painting, Portrait of Theo Van Gogh<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"Portrait<\/a><\/td>\n\"Portrait<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Portrait<\/a><\/td>\n\"Portrait<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"The<\/a><\/td>\n\"Memory<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Letter Source:
\nhttp:\/\/www.webexhibits.org\/vangogh\/letter\/21\/W22.htm<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.webexhibits.org\/vangogh\/letter\/18\/546.htm<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.webexhibits.org\/vangogh\/letter\/18\/W09.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Van Gogh painted and drew numerous portraits throughout his career and was especially interested in them during his early years of painting.\u00a0 He obviously never lost his passion for portraits, in a letter written to his sister, Wilhelmina, on June 5, 1890, Van Gogh wrote, \u201cWhat impassions me most – much, much more than all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[21,33],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-van-gogh-family","tag-van-gogh","tag-van-gogh-portrait"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nVan Gogh\u2019s Portraits of His Family Members -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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