Houses at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh

Houses at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1890, is a landscape painting of homes and thatched cottages with chimneys in the French countryside, surrounded by sheds and gardens, against a background of trees and grey sky with white clouds. In the foreground a stone garden wall spans the picture plane, with receding elements of the elements overlapping in swirls of thickly applied, impasto oil paint. Van Gogh contrasts muted though colourful tones of grey with heightened, expressive brushstrokes of blue and green, capturing the movement and inner life of the landscape elements. Painted in the final year of the life of the artist, the painting demonstrates the expressive power of Van Gogh’s mature, Post-Impressionist style, which at times verged on a type of expressionism, and the raw, emotional power that the artist imbibed from nature. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and intense, heightened colours. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh’s early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in sombre earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to colour and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.