Arty Farty Friday ~ VINCENT

Vincent van Gogh was born this day, 30 March, in 1853.

When I look at paintings by van Gogh the first thing I feel is energy, both from the colours he used and from his style of brush stroke. This is not one of your namby-pamby, delicate painters. He doesn't always paint in purely representative fashion, yet we know exactly what it is he is portraying, we don't need to interpret. The style of his later paintings (The Starry Night, as below, for example) came to be known as Expressionism: using exaggeration and distortion for emotional effect. What we get also, from van Gogh, is an almost throbbing energy.

"Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty."

Astrotheme and Astrodatabank both give his time of birth
as 11 AM (Astrodatabank gives the time an AA rating, so it must be reliable).



The energetic thrust of his chart comes from Aries, Taurus and Sagittarius. All dynamic signs, Aries with a touch of aggression, Taurus adding a stubborn, if artistic side. Moon and Jupiter in Sagittarius shed a feeling of exaggeration overall. Here is the pulsing energy which can be felt from his paintings. There's significant input, too, from sensitive, emotional and intuitive Pisces and Cancer, endowing this artist with two distinct faces. A difficult combination to harness I would imagine! The quote above mentions his lack of self confidence, giving weight to the 11 AM time of birth - a sensitive Cancer ascendant can link to lack of confidence - I know this from bitter experience.

Van Gogh had no planets in Air signs to help lighten the hard-to-handle combinations in his nativity and nature.

A well-known biographical movie on van Gogh, Lust for Life, had Kirk Douglas in the leading role. Douglas's natal chart contains a couple of strange coincidences
Douglas - natal Mercury at 25 Sagittarius
Van Gogh - natal Jupiter 24 Sagittarius.

Douglas - natal Jupiter 25 Aries
Van Gogh - natal Mercury 25 Aries.

Mercury and Jupiter in trine, in similar degrees of Fire signs in both cases. Jupiter and Sagittarius connect very well to the exaggeration of Expressionist painting !

Casting the lead role of Van Gogh was easy. Kirk Douglas, who by then has become Minnelli's favorite Hollywood actor, was ideal to play Van Gogh in both physique and temperament. As Minnelli recalls, "Once we got the green light to proceed with the picture, there was no question if Kirk would play Van Gogh. No other actor was even considered for the part." (SEE HERE)

The Starry Night



The Sower



Country Road in Provence by Night



Evening Landscape



Café Terrace at Night



Irises



And 2 of Van Gogh's many lovely sketches: