Transcript Van Gogh - Read St John's CE Primary School

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Van Gogh was born in Groot Zundert on the 30th
March 1853. His parents were called Theodorus Van
Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. He had a sister
called Anna who was two years younger than him, he
had a brother called Theo, he had two other sisters
called Elizabeth and Wilhelmien , and another brother
called Cornelius who died a tragic death committing
suicide in 1900.
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From the beginning of Van Gogh's artistic career he had
the ambition to draw and paint figures, in 1884 he began
working on mastering weathered hands, heads and
other anatomical features of peasants. He was planning
on creating a multiple figure piece that would make his
name respected in the artistic community. The piece he
created was entitled The Potato Eaters and was
completed in 1885. This piece proved to be success, but
not in his lifetime.
The potato eaters
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Van Gogh suffered from temporal lobe
epilepsy as well as other mental and physical
conditions.
Van Gogh only sold one painting during his
lifetime and only became famous after his
death.
In a short period of ten years Van Gogh made
approximately 900 paintings.
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Houses at Auvers
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Starry night
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Apricot Trees in Blossom
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Two historians suggested that the painter did not
cut off his own ear but was attacked by his friend,
the French artist Paul Gauguin.
Others believed Van Gogh cut off his ear with a
razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding
heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a girl called
Rachel and presented the ear before sleeping in a
blood drenched bed.
But two German art historians, who have spent 10
years researching, argue that Gauguin, a fencing
ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword
during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush
up the truth.
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On July 27, 1890, at the age of 37, whilst
painting in a field he shot himself in the chest
with a revolver. Without realizing that he was
fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux
Inn, where he died in his bed two days later.
He suffered from depression, and it is
suspected that it was a cry for help/attention
rather than a genuine suicide attempt.
The end
By Lucy and Megan