Before he was a famous artist - or indeed an artist at all - Vincent Van Gogh was a disgruntled art salesman, a failed suitor, and a would-be teacher. In this lecture we glimpse Vincent's life through his letters which illuminate his inner thoughts, passions and preoccupations. Focusing on a few short months from late 1875 to the middle of 1876 we find Vincent's life at a crossroads, having lost his job at the Paris branch of respected international art dealership Goupil & Cie. The main focus of the talk is how he found himself working in a small school in Ramsgate on the Kent coast.
About the Speaker:
Jacqui Ansell
Jacqui read History of Art and Theory at the University of Essex, then gained an MA in History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute. Formerly an Education Officer at the National Gallery, London, and a tutor and writer for the Open University, she lectures regularly on the public programmes of the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and Wallace Collection. She is an expert on Court Dress, Grand Tour portraiture and Welsh Costume as well as dating and decoding dress in portraits, and has contributed specialist essays on these topics for the Wallace Collection, and Philip Mould. Jacqui has contributed to numerous National Gallery podcasts and appears on their YouTube channel lecturing on 'Love' (amongst other things). As Senior Lecturer at Christie's Education, London, she has prepared future specialists in fine and decorative arts for the auction world, and has written and presented online courses on history of art, history of design and women artists. She is currently writing books on Fashion in National Gallery paintings, and on Vincent Van Gogh's time spent in England in 1876.
Image: Vincent van Gogh, Self Portrait as a Painter, 1887-8. © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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