Lilac Bush (Lilacs) by Vincent Van Gogh Photo Print

Lilac Bush (Lilacs) by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1889, is a landscape painting depicting a large, vigourous, wild lilac bush under powerful sunlight against a deep, darkened blue sky. Innumerable short and small strokes of similar and contrasting colours construct the vibrant flower plant and its surroundings, with strokes of mauve, purple, blue, green, white and other colours capturing the character and inner life of the scrubby lilac bush. Painted while Van Gogh was defining his mature, Post-Impressionist style in the south of France, Lilac Bush reveals his previous lessons in Impressionism turned towards a new, more personally expressive direction in art. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and intense, heightened colours. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh’s early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in sombre earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to colour and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.