This is a short, kidfriendly art history lesson on Vincent Van Gogh. This is a great video lesson on the art history of Van Gogh and appropriate to show to your elementary art class, middle school art or high school art class. In this video, I go over his childhood, his failed careers and his art. I also cover his mental illness, without too many details on his ear injury or his death (to keep the video safe to show to your young art students....Van Gogh for kids can be tricky). I use this video as part of an elementary art lesson....Show the video then do some Van Goghinspired artwork with your art class. This video can also be used for flipped lesson plans.

I hope that you find this Van Gogh bio video informative as well as entertaining. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe to help me grow my channel. If you have a Van Gogh fact or story that you would like to share, please drop it in the comments below. Thank you!

Vincent Van Gogh was actually the 2nd Vincent born to his parents...the first one died a year before the Vincent we know was born. On this second attempt at having a child, the parents also named their son Vincent. I believe that this also happened to Salvador Dali and both men grew up to be a bit eccentric. Coincidence?

Van Gogh was a PostImpressionist painter that was active during the late 1800's. Van Gogh grew up in the Netherlands. He didn't show any incredible artistic ability as a child, but he did have an interest in drawing. Van Gogh was born to a minister father and grew up in a religious household. He was sent away to boarding schools as a child and the time away from his family was very trying for Vincent Van Gogh. As a teen, he dropped out of school and eventually found his way to The Hague where he worked as an apprentice for an art dealer. However, Vincent was fired and found it hard to find his true calling. He went through several careers which included being a teacher, a preacher and a missionary. He was shunned from one of his religious positions because his contemporaries felt that he was taking parts of the Scripture too literally by giving away all of his possessions and living like a pauper. After repeated failures, it was his brother Theo that encouraged Van Gogh to start taking his art more seriously.

Theo turned out to be Van Gogh's biggest, most loyal supporter. We know a lot about their relationship because they wrote letters to one another that illustrates the successes and failures Van Gogh faced in life. During his career, Van Gogh painted over 30 selfportraits of himself (cheaper than paying a model), landscapes and portraits of other people. Unfortunately, Van Gogh battled mental illness for a large part of his adulthood. Van Gogh spent a year shortly before his death in an asylum. There is speculation about what the exact mental illness was (bipolar, manic depression, anxiety, blackouts, etc) to this day. No matter the diagnosis, Van Gogh's life and career were cut short as a result.

During his time in the mental hospital, Van Gogh was allowed to paint to help calm him. It was during this time that Van Gogh painted his most famous piece: The Starry Night. After his death, Van Gogh's sisterinlaw worked to get Van Gogh's art into museums and was behind publishing the letters the Van Gogh brothers sent to one another. As a result, we remember Van Gogh as one of the most famous PostImpressionist painters in the world. I strongly encourage anyone interested in Van Gogh's art to study deeper about his early life and personality.

#vangogh
#postimpressionism
#postimpressionist
#vangoghforkids

Resources:
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/...
https://pushkinmuseum.art/data/fonds/...
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/v...
https://www.history.com/news/7things...
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/van...
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainmen...