Chapter 3 How Art Matters Video: Vincent van Gogh's Letters and Art

The Visual Elements of Art

This video tells the story of Vincent van Gogh's letters and art, discussing how both the letters and the visual elements of art lead to our understanding of the paintings.

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, photographed in Amsterdam, April 1889.
Vincent van Gogh. Self-Portrait. 1889. Oil on canvas, 2’ 1 ½” × 1’ 9 ¼”. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.  Art Resource.
Vincent van Gogh.  Postcard with Two Peasants Digging, 1885.  Pen and brown ink on a postcard, 3 9/16 x 5 7/16 in, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art.
Vincent van Gogh. The Potato Eaters. 1885. Oil on canvas, 2’ 8 ¼” × 3’ 9”. Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Vincent van Gogh. Five Persons at a Meal. 1885. Sketch in letter 399, 8 1/8” × 10 2/5”. Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Vincent van Gogh. Potato Eaters, 1885.  Lithograph, printed in dark brown, 10 3/8 x 12 7/16 in.  Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Anthon van Rappard, portrait by unknown photographer, c. 1880.

Video clips:

"Van Gogh's letters reveal his private thoughts."  Jun 28, 2006, AP Television News/Boclips.
Vincent van Gogh. The Night Café. 1888. Oil on canvas, 2’ 4 ½” × 3’ ¼”. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
Vincent van Gogh. Self Portrait, 1887, Art Institute of Chicago.
Vincent van Gogh. Self Portrait as a Painter, 1887-88.  Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Vincent van Gogh. Self Portrait with a Bandaged Ear, 1889.  Courtauld Gallery, London.
Isaac Israëls, Portrait of Johanna Van Gogh, 1925.  Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

. What two items allow us to understand the content of van Gogh's paintings?

. In The Night Café what did van Gogh do?

. What aspect of van Gogh's Self Portrait from 1889 have many people seen as a symbol of van Gogh's tormented mind?

Back to top