Compendium
CaD Langues
VAN GOGH
VAN GOGH - The Last Painting
[VIDEO] [16 minutes]
VAN GOGH's Last Painting
There was always debate about which painting was the artist’s last. For many years it was thought to be this painting, mainly because it featured in a 1930’s book and the 1956 film adaptation of that book. And the painting’s dark and gloomy subject matter seemed to perfectly encapsulate the last days of van Gogh, full of foreboding of his eventual death.
But now, it is widely accepted that this unusual work is his last painting.
The mystery of what it was and where it was painted would take over a century to solve, and that was only thanks to a worldwide epidemic.
What it means is that we now have a deeper insight into what van Gogh’s final last hours were like - before his tragic death.
Vincent van Gogh (born March 30, 1853, Zundert, Netherlands—died July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, France) was a Dutch painter, generally considered the greatest after Rembrandt van Rijn, and one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists. The striking color, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his work powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh’s art became astoundingly popular after his death, especially in the late 20th century, when his work sold for record-breaking sums at auctions around the world and was featured in blockbuster touring exhibitions. In part because of his extensive published letters, van Gogh has also been mythologized in the popular imagination as the quintessential tortured artist.