Isabella Flores
Vincent van Gogh is known for his bold, swirling brushstrokes and use of colour. Van Gogh worked with oil paint, using both natural and synthetic pigments. He was particularly fond of yellow and often used bright colours to convey emotion. Van Gogh's work is characterised by his use of impasto, a technique that creates textured surfaces by applying thick layers of paint to the canvas. He also used a range of tools, including brushes and palette knives, to apply paint to his chosen support, which could be artist boards or canvas. Van Gogh's unique style and experimental techniques have made him one of the most renowned artists of his time, with over 800 paintings and 1,000 drawings to his name.
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What You'll Learn
Van Gogh's use of oil paint and pigment
Vincent van Gogh is known for his bold, swirling brushstrokes and unique sense of movement and vibration in his paintings. He was a prolific painter who produced over 2,000 artworks, including oil paintings, watercolours, and drawings. Van Gogh worked with oil paints and used both natural pigments and new synthetic colourings.
During the 19th century, there was a growing range of ready-to-use tubed synthetic paints on the market, and these intense colours were popular with the Parisian avant-garde, to which Van Gogh belonged. He was fascinated by colour and spent a lot of time experimenting with different pigments to create his artwork. Van Gogh's use of colour and pigments was revolutionary in the art world, and his bold and expressive use of colour helped pave the way for the development of modern art.
Van Gogh used a variety of pigments, including ultramarine blue, a natural pigment made from ground lapis lazuli, and Prussian blue, a synthetic pigment, to create the deep, rich blues in his paintings. He also used vermilion, a bright red synthetic pigment first developed in ancient Rome, and lead white, which was common in oil paints at the time but toxic and harmful if ingested or inhaled as powdered pigment.
In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh mentioned the colours he had bought and included a sketch of his palette. He listed the following colours: ochre (red, yellow, brown), cobalt and Prussian blue, Naples yellow, terra sienna, black and white, carmine, sepia, vermilion, ultramarine, and gamboge. Van Gogh also mentioned his fondness for yellow, and many of his paintings are a tribute to its brilliance.
To achieve his desired matte effect, Van Gogh would lay his paint out on towels to absorb some of the oils. He did not use a medium in his paints as it would decrease the impasto qualities.
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His bold, swirling brushwork
Vincent van Gogh's bold, swirling brushwork is one of the most recognisable features of his paintings. He is said to be a pioneer of the use of impasto, a technique that involves applying thick layers of paint to the canvas to create textured surfaces and add emotion and movement to the piece. Van Gogh's paintings often feature bold, directional brushwork that takes the viewer on a journey around the painting as the strokes twist, turn, and swirl around the subject. This gives his work a unique sense of movement and vibration, and the directional strokes also emphasise the subject's form and contours.
Van Gogh's brushwork was influenced by his study of impressionism and pointillism, which he used to create vibrant and broken colours of similar values in his paintings. He was also known for his use of organic pigments, such as geranium lake, which provided brighter and richer colours but were more prone to fading. He experimented with new inorganic pigments as well, such as chrome yellow, which had stability issues under light exposure. Despite being aware of these issues, Van Gogh prioritised the brightness and intensity of the colours he used.
Van Gogh's bold brushwork was also influenced by his use of oil paint, which he applied with both natural and synthetic pigments. In his time, there was a revolutionary scientific advancement in the development of synthetic colourings for the textile industry, and Van Gogh was part of the Parisian avant-garde that embraced these intense colours. He also prepared his own canvases, choosing them based on their weave and applying a ground layer to protect the canvas from the paint. This innovative approach to materials and techniques allowed him to create textured and vibrant surfaces in his paintings.
The process of building up paint and brushwork was essential to Van Gogh's style. He often used multiple brushes for different values and colours to keep them cleaner and create distinct shapes and patterns. He avoided using mediums in his paints as they could decrease the impasto qualities, and he preferred a "matte" quality to his work. Van Gogh's individual strokes may seem fairly straight, but they create movement and pattern as they build up the form and structure of the subject. This unique approach to brushwork and the use of bold, swirling strokes have become signature elements of Van Gogh's artistic style.
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Van Gogh's use of colour
Vincent van Gogh is known for his bold, swirling brushwork, but his use of colour is equally dynamic and unique. Van Gogh's interest in colour theory and his experimentation with pigments set him apart from his contemporaries. He was particularly drawn to the work of Eugène Delacroix, who used contrasting colours to enhance the drama of his paintings and evoke specific emotions. This concept appealed to Van Gogh, who sought to convey emotions and moods through his use of colour.
Van Gogh's early paintings were characterised by dark colours such as olive green, raw sienna and raw umber. However, after moving to Paris, he began to incorporate lighter colours, reflecting his transformation into a modern artist. He used vibrant, vivid colours to convey that these were the colours of a modern artist. For example, in his Self-Portrait as a Painter (1887-1888), he proudly signed the painting in orange-red. In a letter to his sister, he wrote: "That there are colours that make each other shine, that make a couple, complete each other like man and wife".
Van Gogh was fascinated by the interplay of colours and how they could reinforce each other when placed together. He understood that complementary colours—such as red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange—intensified each other. He applied this knowledge to his paintings, often using contrasting colours to create a vibrant effect. For example, in his painting of Paul Gauguin's chair, he used predominantly red and green tones to capture a nocturnal atmosphere, while its counterpart, a simple peasant chair, was painted in bright yellow and blue to symbolise the contrasting characters of the two artists.
Van Gogh also had a particular fondness for yellow, which he described in vivid detail in his letters. In his painting Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun (1889), the use of yellow makes the canvas glow like sunlight itself. He often used yellow ochre to create warm, golden tones in his landscapes, conveying a sense of tranquility and peacefulness.
In addition to his use of complementary colours, Van Gogh also paid attention to the tonal variations within a single colour. In his still life paintings, he explored the variations of deep blue-green hues, using lighter tones to emphasise the areas touched by light. He also studied impressionism and pointillism, learning to break up the sky into colours of similar values, adding to the vibrancy of his work.
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The artist's use of impasto
Vincent van Gogh is said to be a pioneer in using the impasto technique. Impasto is a painting style that uses thickly textured, undiluted paint that appears almost three-dimensional on the canvas. Van Gogh's use of impasto added a lot of emotion and movement to his paintings. In a letter to his brother, Theo, in September 1882, Van Gogh wrote, "Sometimes the subject calls for less paint, sometimes the material, the nature of the subjects themselves demands impasto."
Van Gogh's paintings feature bold, directional brushwork that twists, turns, and swirls around the subject, creating a unique sense of movement and vibration. The directional strokes also emphasise the subject's form and contours. Van Gogh's use of impasto can be seen in his paintings such as "The Flowering Orchard", "The Potato Eaters", "Cypresses with Two Figures", and "The Langlois Bridge".
To achieve the impasto effect, Van Gogh applied undiluted colour to the canvas, sometimes using a palette knife, and mixed colours directly on the canvas. He did not use a medium in his paints as it would decrease the impasto qualities. Instead, he laid the paint out on towels to absorb some of the oils, giving his paintings a "matte" quality.
The appearance of Van Gogh's impasto paintings was also influenced by lighting conditions. Due to the raised surface of the paint, light reflected off the canvas, creating shadows and highlights on the individual strokes. This added to the expressive qualities of his work.
Van Gogh's use of impasto was inspired by Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886), whom he mentioned in several letters. In one letter to his brother Theo, he wrote, "I follow no system of brushwork at all; I hit the canvas with irregular strokes which I leave as they are, impastos, uncovered spots of canvas — corners here and there left inevitably unfinished — reworkings, roughnesses."
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Van Gogh's painting surfaces
Vincent van Gogh's painting career lasted only a decade, from 1880 to 1890, but his work is nonetheless considered a powerful influence on the development of modern painting. Van Gogh's paintings are known for their bold, swirling brushstrokes, use of colour, and contoured forms.
Van Gogh worked with oil paints, using both natural pigments and new synthetic colourings. He did not use a medium in his paints as it would decrease the impasto qualities, and he preferred a "matte" quality to his work. To achieve this, he would lay his paint out on towels to absorb some of the oil. Van Gogh's individual strokes seem fairly straight, but as they create form and pattern, they also create movement. His bold directional brushwork takes the viewer on a journey around the painting, with each stroke leaving tiny cast shadows and highlights that add a dynamic three-dimensional quality.
Van Gogh's paintings often featured a single colour with broken colours of similar values, a technique he learned from studying impressionism and pointillism. This can be seen in his painting 'Interior of a Restaurant', where he used pointillism for the walls and floor and more refined brushwork and flat colour shapes for the rest of the scene. In his 'Lilac Bush' painting, he combined pointillism with dark outlining and flat colour shapes. He also varied his brushwork to match the different parts of the subject—using more horizontal strokes for the sky, punchy vertical strokes for the grass, and more variance and contrast for the feature plants.
Van Gogh's use of colour was also notable, as he pushed colours as far as they could go without appearing garish or overdone. He often used warmer and brighter colours for sunsets, richer blues for midday skies, and more brilliant greens for plants and foliage. He was particularly fond of yellow, with many of his paintings paying tribute to its brilliance.
Van Gogh's painting process was one of building up paint and brushwork, often covering up his original drawing and emphasising it with dark outlines. He would also leave some of the original toned canvas showing through between his strokes, which added to the sense of movement in his work.
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Frequently asked questions
Van Gogh was largely self-taught and developed his own unique style through experimentation with different techniques and materials. He was influenced by impressionism and pointillism, which he studied and adapted to create his own distinctive approach to painting.
Van Gogh primarily worked with oil paints, taking advantage of the new synthetic colourings being developed for the textile industry at the time. He also used organic pigments such as geranium lake, which is a bright red pigment, and chrome yellow, which is prone to fading over time.
No, Van Gogh did not use any mediums in his paint as they would decrease the impasto qualities he sought. Instead, he would lay his paint out on towels to absorb some of the oils and create a "matte" quality.
Van Gogh is known for his bold, directional brushwork that creates a sense of movement and vibration in his paintings. He often used rounded brushes to create arcs and semi-circles, and he would sometimes use a palette knife to create dashed and dotted lines.
To paint like Van Gogh, it's important to focus on colour and brushwork. Van Gogh often used vivid colours and bold, deliberate brushstrokes to create emotion and movement in his work. He would also re-state his drawings with dark outlines and allow some of the original canvas to show through his paint.
