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In 1874, a group of young artists whose work had been rejected by the stuffy Salon survey that the Paris art would mounted every year decided to go it on their own. From April 15 to May 15, 1874, they held their own exhibition at the studio of the photographer Nadar, which had become a well-known hangout for bohemian celebrities. The artists in this first official Impressionist exhibition were Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Arman Guillaumin, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissaro, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. They name themselves the Societe Anonyme, but the satirical journalist Louis Leroy, writing in the April 25 issue of the magazine Le Charivari, mockingly called the artists “impressionists,” after Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise (1872).

When the Impressionists came along, the Paris art scene was dominated on the one hand by pictures of phony Neoclassic nobility and on the other by corny Romantic melodrama. It was all soap opera as subject matter, and the Impressionists were having none of it. They tossed out literary subjects, mythology, and the grand themes of history. They abandoned contour, modeling, and precise detailing. They even gave that celebrated mainstay of art, imagination, the old heave-ho, or so they said, concentrating instead on the close observation of nature. They didn’t just look at stuff. They were scientists examining visual phenomena.

And instead of faking it in the studio with models and sketches, the Impressionists took their easels out and painted in the open air (called plein air in French). They painted in the forests of Fontainebleau, at the Seine, and on the Channel beaches. In this they were following the example of the earlier Barbizon School landscapists, a group of painters who rejected the by-then tired classical stylistic formulas in favor of the direct study of nature.

While the Barbizon school landscapes expressed the solitude and quiet of nature in misty shades of gray, green, and earth tones, the Impressionists favored highly colored, light-filled scenes, often popular with picnickers, boaters, and a range of everyday people, frequently seen relaxing on their day off. The painters Renoir and Monet, in their attempt to capture the visual effects of sparkling sunlight in the open air, discovered the technical secret of Impressionism: marks of pure color placed side-by-side to achieve brilliance and luminosity. The Impressionists all but banished brown and gray from their palettes and went so far as to use color to create shadows. What’s more, they didn’t smooth over the marks of their brushes but emphasized bold and forceful brush-strokes to give their pictures the dynamism of nature.

The Impressionists exhibited together eight time from 1874 to 1886. But long before the group broke up, its individual members had matured and begun to travel their own particular artistic paths.

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When I saw Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers“, I was attracted by its bright colors and the flowers full of vitality. Van Gogh had painted several sizes of “Sunflowers”, and the 15 flowers are the most famous paintings. He threw his own deep feelings into his painting heart and soul.

Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch painter. He was born in 1853 and departed in 1890. He is a representative of the Post Impressionism. Most casual art lovers see Van Gogh as a troubled, but successful artist. This is far from the actual truth of his turbulent life.

Van Gogh was born in a small town of Netherlands in 1853. His mother lost a son in 1852 and was deeply grieved. Van Gogh’s birth couldn’t appease the grief in her mother’s mind. However, mother passed on the love of the land to Van Gogh. She taught the children sketches and watercolors, she was Van Gogh’s first art teacher. Van Gogh’s childhood memories were filled with deep sorrow and depression. However, his 4-years-younger brother, Theo Van Gogh, was the only warmth and hope in Van Gogh’s life, and even death could not block the link between them.

Because of poverty, 16-year-old Vincent became a probationary staff of a gallery and then he worked as the gallery shop assistant in London and other places. It is because there were a large number of famous works of art that trained Gogh painting techniques and artistic accomplishment. At the age of 25 he was working as a missionary in Belgium mine, but later, he was forced to leave because of his sympathizing with the poor workers. From 16 years old to 26 years old, Gogh experienced emotional and mental setbacks. These impelled him to develop a sensitive, strong and twisted character.

In 1880, it was at his 27′ s after church, he determined to start painting. He would use his paintbrush to propagandize the natural beauty and dignity of workers brilliant continually. His dear brother Theo supported him in financial assistance and encouraged him in spirit.

In March 1886, Van Gogh Settled in Paris , he painted with impressionistic painters. Van Gogh was a warm person. In destitute circumstances, he welcomed the arrival of Paul Gauguin by painting “Sunflowers” and strongly hoped that Gauguin would set up a studio, where they could explore the arts. Vincent was very sensitive, when an argument on art concept broke out between Gauguin and him, he almost killed Gauguin. The most admiring friends left, Van Gogh cut off his ear in pain and painted the sad state of himself ( Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe and Self Portrait with Badaged Ear )

During his 1887 to 1888’s, he painted a lot of self-portraits. Because he always suffered double torture in physical and mental, and lonely life made him have more time to examine himself. His self-portrait was a recording, either in happiness or pain. You can see the efforts to strengthen his faith in his blue eyes.

On 8 May 1889, Van Gogh received treatment in the mental hospital of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole , a little less than 20 miles ( 32 km ) from Arles . The hospital was a mile and a half out of the town and was in an area of cornfields, vineyards, and olive trees. During his stay there, the clinic and its garden became his main subject. At this time some of his work was characterized by swirls, as in one of his best-known paintings, The Starry Night. He took some short supervised walks, which gave rise to images of cypresses and olive trees. In September 1889 he painted two new versions of the Bedroom in Arles (Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles 2 and Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles 3 ) .

One of his last paintings which he completed in late July 1890 titled “Wheat Field With Crows” reflects an ambivalence of optimism and hopelessness with the dark clouds of depression slowly lifting up from the skyline. A few days after he finished this painting, Vincent Van Gogh, on July 27, 1890, killed himself with a gunshot to the chest. His brother Theo died of lung disease 6 months after the death of Vincent.

Although he only sold one painting during his life-time (The Red Vineyard), he is considered the most powerful Expressionist, and his paintings each sell for millions of dollars. Ironically, Vincent Van Gogh is deemed by society to be one of our greatest and most successful artists.