Why I Would Chose to Have Dinner With Vincent van Gogh by Jordan

Why I Would Chose to Have Dinner With Vincent van Gogh by Jordan - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter who lived during the nineteenth century. Today, van Gogh is renowned as being one of the greatest artists who ever lived, and many art historians credit him with being a major influence on artistic works even today. However, during his lifetime, he was extremely poor, essentially unknown as an artist, and had severe difficulties with mental illness. Yet, despite these problems in his life, he created some of the most famous paintings in the world and developed a unique style easy recognizable as distinctly van Gogh.

If I were to choose any historical figure to sit down and have dinner with, I would choose Vincent van Gogh. I have always been a great admirer of van Gogh’s works, especially his landscapes. In fact, you could say that such admiration was always present, as my parents always told me the story of how I actually touched his painting Irises at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles when I was a baby. As a kid, I was always drawing- while it mostly consisted of fantasy creatures, I also drew a fair amount of people and landscapes. As I got older and began to have my own bouts with mental illness, I stopped drawing.

When I began my first year at university, I was tasked with writing a report on a famous artist for one of my classes, and I chose to write about van Gogh. It was during this time that my admiration for his work turned into a devout respect. Instead of seeing a man who was only a great artist, I began to see him not only as a great artist, but as more relatable than ever before. He was of humble origins, struggled with mental illness, and loved his artistic work. Ever since that project, I have had a very sincere respect for Vincent van Gogh, as he did what I could not- he continued to create his artistic works.

During my first major round of mental illness in High School, I stopped drawing and never really picked up the hobby that I loved again. I suppose that I convinced myself that drawing was worthless and therefore it was ultimately pointless to continue in the endeavor. However, van Gogh did the exact opposite. As his struggle with his own mental illness increased, so did the amount of works he produced. In fact, he produced over two thousand works of art in his short lifetime, most of which would go on to be hung in some of the most prestigious museums in the world.

If I were to ever have dinner with Vincent van Gogh, I would love to discuss his inspiration to continue painting, his eventual success, his own struggles with mental illness, and how it influenced his work. I ultimately would love to have a conversation with such a remarkable man due to how much I seem to relate to him in every aspect of his life. It would truly be a humbling experience to listen to van Gogh’s life through his own words.