Vincent Van Gogh Quotes


I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things go differently from the expected, it is necessary to take heart again and new courage. For the great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.


Citations

Van Gogh, Vincent. Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Edited by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten, and Nienke Bakker, Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING, 2009.

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Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh
  • Born: March 30, 1853
  • Died: July 29, 1890
  • Nationality: Dutch
  • Profession: Artist

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.