Vincent had great respect for Pissarro's judgement. On one occasion dressed in his characteristic blue workman's smock he stopped his mentor in a busy street and insisted on showing him his latest canvas in full view of mocking passers by. Pissarro said later that Vincent would either go mad or leave the impressionists far behind, not realizing that both of these predictions would be entirely fulfilled. He was inspired by the impressionists and there followers who had abandoned traditional art so the impressionists method suited Vincent, like them he liked to work fast, painting up to sixteen hours a day. In around1880 impressionism had passed its peak as a dynamic movement, the leaders had argued with each other and went there separate ways. They had already met other more stimulating painters at Pere Tanguy's art supplies shop in the back streets of Montmartre. The generous Tanguy who still displayed impressionists works in his shop one day introduced Vincent to Cezanne who also had a reputation for being furiously emotional. Like the impressionists before them these post impressionists spent long hours in cafes arguing over glasses of absinthe particularly Vincent. See paintings by Van Gogh >>

 

Everyday through the blazing heat Vincent would go out with his easel and in the autumn he tried unsuccessfully to defy the fierce Sothern winds by pinning his canvas to the ground with large boulders. He would paint all night if necessary to give himself enough light to paint. He stuck candles around his broad brimmed hat and along the top of his easel and as onlookers looked on he began to paint. Vincent always painted with thick layers of bright colour and resorted to squeezing paint straight from the tube onto the canvas then modelling it a little with the brush.
 

Though he subsequently learned to texture his surfaces with great sensitivity this
thickly applied paint known as impasto remained a hallmark of Van Gogh's art. Vincent lived in a two up and two down bright yellow house and was a private house next to a food shop and later converted into a barn and this was significant in how he painted because he loved bright colours. He used paint heavily especially purples and blues serving to accentuate the power of yellow. Van Gogh painted this bedroom in his yellow house at Arles in the Autumn of 1888, he painted the room as simply as possible with pure, harmonious colour and strongly outlined shapes. The room is shown empty of people but with an air of expectancy, everything is painted in pairs. The two pairs of pictures, two pillows, two chairs may well reflect Vincent's excitement that his solitude was about to end.

Vincent's last home was this cafe at Auvers northwest of Paris where he lived for six weeks from 20th May until 27th July 1890. That Sunday he walked off into the fields and shot himself in the chest, then staggered home to die in his small upstairs room.

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