Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a French Impressionist painter known for landscapes and repeated studies of changing light, color, and atmosphere across the seasons.
Painter
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter known for expressive color, energetic brushwork, and a highly visible paint surface.
Vincent van Gogh quick facts
Van Gogh’s oil paintings and works on paper show his expressive color and brushwork across distinct supports, from canvas to board and cardboard.
| Full name | Vincent Willem van Gogh |
|---|---|
| Born | March 30, 1853 · Zundert, Netherlands |
| Died | July 29, 1890 · Auvers-sur-Oise, France |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Movements | Post-Impressionism |
| Paint types | Oil paint · Watercolor |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper · Painting board · Cardboard |
| Painting methods | Directional oil brushstrokes, color contrasts, and mixed-media paper studies with ink or chalk underdrawing |
| Common subjects | Landscapes, portraits, self-portraits, and still lifes |
| Notable works | The Starry Night, Sunflowers, The Bedroom, and Irises |
Sources: Van Gogh Museum, The National Gallery, Rijksmuseum: Van Gogh's self-portraits in Paris, The Met: A Passageway at the Asylum, and The Museum of Modern Art, The Met: Road in Etten, watercolor and drawing media, and The Met: oil on paper in Corridor in the Asylum.
Paint types used by Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh used oil for major paintings and watercolor in drawings on paper, adapting his marks to each medium and support across separate bodies of work.
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Oil paint
Van Gogh painted Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (1887) in oil on canvas, using conspicuous, directional brushstrokes and a vivid palette of contrasting colors. He later made The Starry Night (June 1889), also oil on canvas, with sweeping rhythmic strokes.
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Watercolor paint
Van Gogh's Road in Etten (1881) combines watercolor with chalk, pencil, pastel, and ink underdrawing in a scene of everyday rural work. The Zouave (June 1888) includes watercolor over graphite alongside reed-pen ink and wax crayon. These are documented mixed-media drawings, not watercolors used to paint his better-known oil canvases.
Sources: The Met: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, MoMA: The Starry Night, The Met: oils on paper in Corridor in the Asylum, The Met: watercolor in Road in Etten, and The Met: The Zouave.
Painting surfaces used by Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh used canvas for many major oil paintings, while paper, board, and cardboard supported drawings, studies, and compact painted self-portraits.
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Canvas
Canvas supports many of Van Gogh’s best-known oil paintings. The Met records Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat as oil on canvas, and MoMA lists The Starry Night on canvas. These examples anchor his finished-painting practice, while works on paper and cardboard show that he also used less conventional supports.
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Paper
Paper served both his drawing practice and some works made with paint. The Met identifies Road in Etten as a watercolor drawing with additional media, and Corridor in the Asylum as oil color over black chalk on pink laid paper. The examples show paper could carry distinct studies as well as an oil painting.
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Painting board
A Paris-period Self-Portrait (1887) is documented as oil on board in the Courtauld Gallery’s exhibition record. That compact portrait is direct evidence of Van Gogh painting on a rigid board support, distinct from the cardboard used for other self-portraits and the canvases used for larger paintings.
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Cardboard
Van Gogh used cardboard for Paris self-portraits; the Rijksmuseum catalogues an 1887 work as oil on cardboard. The museum notes he painted such portraits when he could not afford models, using himself instead. The record gives cardboard a specific role in his practice.
Sources: The Met: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, MoMA: The Starry Night, The Met: Road in Etten, The Met: Corridor in the Asylum, Courtauld Gallery: Van Gogh’s 1887 Self-Portrait, and Rijksmuseum: Van Gogh’s self-portraits in Paris.
Painters similar to Vincent van Gogh
Explore painters similar to Vincent van Gogh through expressive color, visible brushwork, landscape painting, and atmospheric approaches to light.
J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner was a British Romantic artist known for landscapes and marine subjects, using expressive light and color to convey weather and atmosphere.