VASE WITH TWELVE SUNFLOWERS

The second group of paintings about sunflowers painted by Vincent Van Gogh, was achieved in 1888, in Arles, and it’s chacacterised by the repetitive presence of sunflowers in vase. In this collection there is a contrast between the platness of the background and the flowers that seem to squirm in all directions.

The painting “VASE WITH TWELVE SUNFLOWERS” was painted in August 1888 in Van Gogh’s atelier. It’s 91 cm high and 71 cm wight. The painting it’s pervaded by bright colours and by an atmosphere of serenity. It shows a vase with twelve sunflowers, a support base and the background. The deep blue, chosen as the background colour , allows a fantastic accentuation of the yellow  and brown tones of the petals of the large yellow flowers, which communicate the idea of  Provence in summer .

Now, if you want to see this painting, you  have to go to Munich, in Germany.

Bedroom in Arles

"Bedroom in Arles" is one of the most popular paintings of Van Gogh. This is an oil on canvas, it's 70x90 cm, and he realized this painting in 1888. It's located at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The painting shows the bedroom in Van Gogh's house in Arles, where he lives with his friend Paul Gogain. There are two others versions of this painting, one in the Art Institute of Chicago and another one in the Museè Orsay. In the background there is a green window with yellow glass. On the left side there is a little mirror hanging on the light blue wall, under which there is a small table with three bottles, a vase, a glass, a dish with some food and a brush. In the middle of the background there is a yellow chair under the window; In the right part of the background there is a painting with a Japanese press and a clothes hanger with three jackets and a hat. On the left side of the painting there is a blue door, another chair and a hanging cloth. On the right side there is also a blue door, there are two self-portaits and two drawings, down there is the bed with a red blanket and two pillows. The furniture are very simple, in fact the real subject are the colours. Livia Gaglio 3H                                                                                                                                           

Prisoners Round

The "Prisoners Round" was painted in 1890, when Van Gogh was in the Saint-Rémy asylium. This is a copy of the Gustav Durè's painting, maybe he has to copy this painting because in the asylium he coludn't go out, but he used his style. 

The scene take place in a yard, where the light comes from the above ground, maybe he wanted to speak about his mental situation,as his spirit was in a cage.

The painting is very repetitive, because the prisoners are simualr each other. There are 33 prisoners that walk inside the place where the prisoners spend their freetime, they look  sad and hopeless. All the prisoner wear a hat,but we can recognized one of them. He is in the front gound, he has blond hair and he doesn't wear a hat. A theory says that this prisoner is the self-portait of Van Gogh, maybe beacause he was feeling like a prisoners.

The walls are an important element in the painting, because the latter prevent us to see outside, so for the prisoners is impossible to get the freedom. 

I chose this painting because with it Van Gogh want to speak about his situation in the asylium, personifying himself in a prisoner. Michela D'Amato

"Skull of a Skeleton whit Cigarette" is an early work by Van Gogh. The small and undated oil-on-canvas painting featuring a skeleton and cigarette is a part of the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Commentary on conservative academic (before painting live human models, the academic routine would have included studies of skeleton, to develop an understanding of human anatomy) an assumption based on the fact that Van Gogh was in Antwerp at the time, attending classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (classes he would later say were boring and taught him nothing). 

The painting measures 32 by 24.5 centimetres. It is considered a vanitas or memento mori, at a time when Van Gogh was in poor health. The painting often is interpreted as a criticism of smoking bus Van Gogh was a smoker and he continued to smoke until his death in 1890. The painting was held by Van Gogh's brother Theo Van Gogh until his death in 1891. It was inherited by his window Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger until her death in 1925. After it was acquired by the Van Gogh foundation. It was on loan to the Stedelijk Museum from 1962 to 1973, and has been on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam since 1973. This painting has given me a strong sense of sadness but at the same time is very realistic. It's very beautiful!  Sara Lepre 3H

SELF PORTRAIT

Self portrait is an 1889 oil on canvas painting by the post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. Considered Van Gogh’s most handsome self-portrait, it was painted during his stay at the asylum of Saint Rémy, after two months of insanity. He would paint himself because he didn’t have the money to pay for models, Van Gogh said he was quite in this paint with the light blue swirling background, in fact he sent this picture to his younger brother and he wrote:"In this painting the attention is focused on the face, his features are hard, his green eyes seem intransigent and anxious. The dominant colour is a mix of green and light blue, but there is the fiery orange of the hair and the beard; the immobility of Van Gogh contrasts with the undulating hair and beard. Of this painting I like the look of Van Gogh because at the beginning transmits confidence and calm but if you look carefully you feel that Van Gogh hides a wounded soul, in fact the following year he would commit suicide. Laura Cordone 3H

Vincent Wilhem Van Gogh was born on 30th March 1853 in Holland and died on 29th July 1890 in France. He was a post impressionist painter that completed 2100 works. During 1887 he was with his brother Theo in Paris, where he painted one of his famous self portraits.                  

This painting is an oil on cardboard and is 41 cm high and 33 cm long. It's now at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In this painting we can see Van Gogh with red-golden hair, a bright orange beard and light green eyes. He used a light pink , almost white, paint to recreate the colour of his skin. We can also see that the painter used a darker shade of pink to create the shadows. The brushes of this colour are near his beard and hair and especially on his right ear. He also used another shade of pink under his eyebrows that puts in evidence the light colour of his eyes . Van Gogh painted himself with a violet jacket that was painted with brushes of different colours like red, black, green, blue and ,of course, purple. He also wears a white shirt with a light blue tie.

The painting has discoulored so we can't see the dark red paint that was on the background ,left crude with only brushes of dark blue. For Van Gogh self portraits were a way to know and represent himself so he painted a lot of them during his life . He used to realize self portraits even because he desired to leave an imagine of himself and his soul that would last beyond his life.   Vittoria Ribbeni 3H

Autumn landscape with four trees by Van Gogh.

It was done in October 1885 in Nuenen. In this city the works themselves clearly show a growing in artistic techniques. It represents a natural environment of Nuenen and today it is in Kroller-Muller museum. Van Gogh spent three days on it and he was very satisfied of his work. He was very good to use different tone of grey and yellow colours. There is a human figure in the background as an hide figure. This figure maybe was a woman. In the foreground he painted four trees, three oak full of leaf and last one without leaf. The tree without leaf represent the loss of someone or something. The painting manifests sweetness. At first this painting passed me down sadness for the yellow and orange leaves, but then it passed me downserenity because you can look at the sky and the green pasture.

Daniele Carella III H

I met Van Gogh at the museum exhibition

THE LANGLOIS BRIDGE AT ARLES

The artist that made this painting was Van Gogh during his stay in Arlés in 1888. In this period of his life he was influenced by oriental art and we can see this in the colors used to make the painting.

In the background there are just the sky, the hill and two trees but if we look closer we can see the rive and the drawbridge that was built in the first half of 19th century to expaand the network of canals, on it there is a carriage driven by an horse. the painting seems divided by the drawbridge because it's collocated in the middle. On right there's a little part of a green hill, on the opposite side we can see a brown hill with some women. In the middle, between the two hills, there's the rive. The women are washing clothes in the share of the rive and near them there's an abandoned boat, in fact there's some water in it. We can think that when Van Gogh painted the Langlois bridge at Arlés he was behind a bush, because respecting the perspective the first thing that he could see was the bush, in fact there are some branches and leaves.

Goodbye, I hope that you can enjoy the holidays, see you soon.

Silvia Canalella III H

In Langlois’s bridge a village is represented divided by a river with a stone bridge. On the bridge there is a woman dressed in black with an umbrella and a cart. On the right side of the picture there is a meadow (river bank) and a white house with a red roof and a red porch and we can also see a part of a path. The grass has two different colors namely green near the river and yellow near the path. On the left side there are two trees , a small path a fisherman who is wearing a red and white jacket a meadow (river bank) and in the background there is a white building and a cloud above it. The river like the sky is very calm and also we can see the reflection of the trees and the bridge in the water. The bridge i salso casting a shadow on the water. I choose this painting becouse it is more calm quiet than most of Van Gogh paintings. For example the sky here is clear and peaceful while in the other paintings the sky is wild. Jacopo Alfano

I met Van Gogh at the museum exhibition

A Wheatfield with Cypresses

“A Wheatfield with Cypresses” (also known as “A Cornfield with Cypresses”) is an oil painting by Vincent Van Gogh . It takes part of his wheat field series of the 1889. All were painted in the mental asylum in  France where Van Gogh was voluntary a patient from 1889 to 1890. The works were inspired by the view from the window at the asylum toward.

The F717 painting portraits golden fields of wheat, white clouds moving in an azure sky above, two cypresses on the right and olive trees in the middle distance, with hills and mountains behind. There are also some red flowers  near the fields of wheat.

In my opinion, this picture instills a melancholic feeling but it’s also a symbol of simplicity and minimalism of the life. In fact, when Van Gogh was at the Saint-Rémy mental asylum, he was calm.

The first version (F717) was painted  during a period of fanatic painting. Probably it was made “en plein air” near the subject. After he copied the composition twice in his studio: one almost the same size (F615) of the original and a smaller version(F743).

Vincent sent the smaller version to his mother and his sister as a gift. Then, he sent the original to his brother Theo.

Now the F717 version is in the National Gallery in London, the F615 is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY and the F743 takes part of a private collection.

Costanza Parlapiano III H

Commonly, but erroneously, it is believed that this was the last painting painted by Van Gogh before he died. Art historians are in fact uncertain about what Van Gogh's last painting, since there are no documented sources on the subject. A storm, almost like a presentiment of mourning, is about to break down on a wheat field from which he rises, dark and gloomy, a flock of black crows in a low untidy flight, almost as if they were vultures on a corpse. It is well known that the artist had a profound respect for the forces of nature, and this explains why he painted shaky skies in many of his works: he believed that the subject was endowed with an incalculable artistic potential if reproduced on canvas. The wheat field, shattered mercilessly by the wind, has been realized through real whippings of yellow, while the sky, initially terse, is now a harbinger of storm, to the point of being overshadowed by the intense black colour of the clouds that, inexorably, they fall hostile and threatening. He also painted areas with light colours that probably represent the beautiful moments of life that he never managed to achieve as indicated by the three roads that seem to have no end. G.Guerriero 3H