“Great Artists” - a collection about outstanding masters of painting. The book series contains more than 50 illustrations, an “exquisitely written” biography of the artist and the history of the creation of the paintings. The album is dedicated to the work of Van Gogh.

One of the largest representatives of post-impressionism, the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, lived only 37 years (1853-1890), of which only the last seven were devoted to painting. However, his creative legacy is amazing. This is about a thousand drawings and almost the same number of paintings, created as a result of volcanic creative eruptions, when for many weeks Van Gogh painted one or two paintings every day. His art was an attempt to put the world in order; it gave him the opportunity to come to terms with reality and with the internal contradictions tearing him apart. Van Gogh's paintings are a stunning dialogue full of love and suffering - with himself, with the world, with God. At first fascinated by drawing, Van Gogh only turned to oil painting in 1881. Further improvement of the artist’s creativity took place, in his own words, with the help of “the constant study of nature and battle with it.” The main characters of the paintings of the early period are peasants depicted at their daily activities (“Peasant Woman”, “Potato Eaters”, “Weaver”). His creative search for an artistic method led him to Paris, where he painted impressionistic paintings full of light depicting bouquets of flowers, views of Montmartre (“The Hills of Montmartre”), and performed several portrait works. In portrait images, the artist focuses on the inner life of the model, reproducing it from all the individual uniqueness inherent only to her alone against a background devoid of any specific surroundings. Moreover, even the most dramatic images are inextricably linked with the feeling of joy and beauty of life, conveyed by a combination of bright colors and fanciful ornamentation of forms. These are his self-portraits and images of ordinary people, close friends of the artist: “Arlesian. Madame Ginoux,” “Postman Roulin,” “Zouave” and others. The artist’s rather multi-part self-portraits reflect his changing inner life, a series of self-knowledge. In 1888, Van Gogh left for Arles to return to the land and those who work on it. His stay in this southern city restored his lost strength; it was here that his talent as a painter was fully revealed and his unique personality was finally formed. individual style. Van Gogh creates his numerous paintings in a fit of inspiration, controlling his enthusiastic sensory perception of nature with his mind. He no longer strives to convey the “impression” of what he saw, but depicts its quintessence in combination with his own experiences. Van Gogh is looking for emotionally strong combinations of colors - yellow (in the series of still lifes “Sunflowers”) and red (“Red Vineyards in Arles”), endowing them with a special plastic expressiveness of color. The red-yellow and blue-yellow colors of the canvases with views of Arles at night (“Night Cafe”, “Cafe Terrace at Night”) are mysterious and full of alarming foreboding. Physical and spiritual overstrain led to an exacerbation of mental illness, and the artist of 1889 ended up in the Saint-Rémy hospital, where, in the intervals between continues to do his favorite thing in fits and starts. Reproductions of works by famous artists served as his “model,” which he reproduced in his own pictorial language. Thus, based on a drawing by G. Doré, he created his original painting “Prisoners’ Walk,” reflecting his current mood: resignation and doom. But, despite the depressing state, it was here, in the hospital, that Van Gogh created truly cosmic canvases, filled with love for the earth and sky. In “Starry Night” (1889), the cypress trees reaching into the sky resemble tongues of flame, and the earth is perceived as a planet flying in outer space. During his lifetime, the artist managed to sell only one painting (“Red Vineyards in Arles”). However, ironically, the paintings of a man who spent his whole life in semi-beggarly existence, every year after his death they began to be valued more and more, soon soaring in price to dizzying heights. Among the ten most expensive paintings ever sold at auction, Van Gogh owns three (this is more than anyone else) - “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” (4th place, $82.5 million in 1990 ), Self-Portrait without a Beard (7th place, $71.5 million in 1998) and “Irises” (10th place, $54 million in 1987).