F:\E\ISLAMICUS\2020\NO. 3\THE INFLUENCE OF VINCENT VAN.pmd Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 97 THE INFLUENCE OF VINCENT VAN GOGH’S RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND ON HIS WORKS IN THE NUENEN PERIOD PROF. MONTHER SAMEH AL-ATOUM Department of Plastic Arts – Faculty of Fine Atrs Yarmouk University – Irbid/ Jordan e-Mail: monzeral@hotmail.com The current study aims to identify the impact of Vincent Van Gogh’s religious life on his works of art during his stay in Nuenen, and the mechanism of his employment in selecting the works of that period, using the analytical descriptive approach to interpret and analyze this stage. The study found that the background of the religious artist had a great impact on his works. Depicting the lives and sympathy of poor and oppressed peasants, working classes and hard working classes as a sacred function of solidarity with human conditions, it represents religious depth and creates a profound spiritual impression, often drawing many works of farming and agriculture that gives a symbolic meaning to the fact that farmers are linked to land despite their misery lives. Keywords: Vincent van Gogh, religious background, Nuenen period, potato eaters. Introduction The artist Vincent van Gogh is a post-impression artist whose works were neglected during his artistic career, only one of his paintings was sold in that time, and his art was recognized only after his death. His reputation goes back to his brother Theo’s widow, where after his death she sold some of his paintings. She published some of his speeches that he wrote for her husband, which helped in spreading the story of his life, so his fame began spreading in artistic and literary circles alike, through which he expressed his philosophy through art, and carries with it his concerns, problems, ambition, works, relationship with others and his outlook on life. This research will highlight an important station of his life in the Nuenen period, which is affected by his previous stages of life, especially 98 The Influence of Vincent Van... the part related to his religious belief, although he did not succeed in it. He did not succeed in being a priest or a cleric after suffering for that long periods, and various attempts during which he turned over various Christian and missionary sects, which eventually led to his refusal by the leaders of the religious community, which led to his increasing religious maturity and to a vision that differed from the clerics on one hand and his father on the other. To the conviction that the creation of the Creator’s will lies in the human spirit and the ability to influence and assist others, and that his role can be to serve society, especially the poor and the simple community, by portraying their difficult lives to achieve the highest gains. By studying his personal, historical, religious, emotional and psychological biography, he loved nature very much, and he felt the suffering of simple people who work hard and earn their strength from the sweat of their foreheads, live a difficult life, and have taken on his responsibility to portray their suffering. He produced great works with symbolic semantics and deeper heavenly messages that cannot be understood without analysis and depth of details. The research will identify the artist’s personal background and the suffering that has lasted 37 years since his birth and its most important stations, through which the reader can be guided by the nature of the artist’s religious life, the mechanism and the way of preaching that he adopted and his view toward simplicity, austerity, exemplary example and its reflections on his works. The artist produced a well-documented and eloquent message to his younger brother Theo, in addition to the messages he sent and exchanged with the senior literary figures, where he himself and his dreams, hallucinations and disease were dating. His philosophy was strong towards life, continuous rebellion, and his writings were full of nature beauty and others were about his works of art. Only his brother Theo, whose companion, was a close Brotherhood that ended only with his death, could enter his own world, as he recorded many works through his letters to give them numbers. He recorded his journey in life, his vision and his emotions and feelings, starting from madness and gloom to suicide. Problem of The Study Although the life biography of artist Vincent van Gogh in the Nuenen period is an essential stage in his artistic life and religious depth, there Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 99 is poverty in studying this important stage, which was founded for his later artistic life stages that gained international fame. Questions of The Study · Did Vincent van Gogh’s religious background affect his work in the Nuenen period 1883-1885? · How did Vincent van Gogh express his religious perceptions in his works that produced in the Nuenen period 1883-1885? Objectives of The Study The current study aims to identify the impact of Vincent van Gogh’s religious life on his works of art during his stay in Nuenen, and the mechanism for employing his religious view of the selection and symbolism of the works of that period. Importance of The Study The importance of the current study is to highlight an important stage of life for Vincent van Gogh to supply the world’s libraries with this type of study, given the scarcity of analytical and critical technical courses covering this period, which may help researchers, draw their attention, and highlight this important stage of Gogh’s life. Methodology of The Study The researcher used the analytical descriptive methodology in this study to interpret and analyze an important stage of artist Vincent van Gogh’s life. First: Personal and Artistic Background. Artist Vincent Van Gogh was exposed to permanent shocks in his life that started since his birth on March 30, 1853, a year after the death of his brother who was born dead, so he was named after him, which negatively affected his psyche and caused a psychological shock to him because he saw himself as the alternative child. When he went to the church, he passed on a tomb called him, and since his early childhood he had always waned in the fields, creating a love for the Dutch nature, 100 The Influence of Vincent Van... which was imprinted in his mind and his heart was full of beauty. (biography.com Editors, 2020). At the age of 11, his parents had been enrolled him in an internal school about 30 kilometers from his home, under the pretext of removing him from nature and the children of the peasants, he left school two years later, and when he reached 16, he had the first to deal with art works as a seller. He went to the Hague in southern Netherlands to work at “Goupil & Cie” in 1869, the international company for selling paintings, where his uncle was a partner, and then moved to the company’s headquarters in London in 1873 (Hulsker, 1990). After that Vincent moved to Paris 1875, where he worked as a craft dealer or an art dealer for paintings, he moved from Belgium to Paris, and these are important stations for Van Gogh’s life, an important factor for his taste, art, and the growth of his esthetic sense and artistic experience. Although his three brothers were working in the same profession, he left the company in 1876 after getting bored. He returned to England, where he worked as a language teacher assistant in a London school, started preaching among the poor, and in 1877 he returned to the Netherlands and joined a religious doctrine in Amsterdam but didn’t complete his study. In 1878, he was sent to the province of Borinage in Belgium, to work on a mission of missionary coal miners, and later his services were dispensed with. (Meyers, 20a). In 1880 he decided to go to art to alleviate his self, encouraged by his brother Theo, began to take drawing lessons in Brussels. He moved to the Hague in 1882 to practice photography at his relative’s photographer, Anton Mauve, a Corot follower, and joined the Arts Academy in Antwerp for a year. He returned to his village and home of Nuenen in 1883, where his artistic career began taking a new ordeal, and the peasants were an important source of his work (Trabaut, 1969). In 1886, a year after his father’s death, he moved to Paris, where he was close to the artist Francois Millet, influenced by his style and his works, and learned from important artists such as Paul Gauguin, who had a great influence on him, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Digas and others. This stage is considered an important stage in his artistic life, changing his style and changing his gray and brown colors into bright and clear colors, and changing his themes. (Meyers, 2020 B) He left Paris to Arles in southern France in February 1888, where warmth and sun were found. He went out to the fields and drew them with great enthusiasm using strong, inflame colors especially using yellow Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 101 colors. And he called Paul Gauguin to stay with him in Arles, recording the most famous situation when he cut his ear. The artist Martin Billy confirms that the reason for cutting off part of his ear is due to his brother Theo’s decision to marry, which confused him with the loss of his family and his only friend, after which he was placed in the Arles Hospital until he left her to the sanatorium of Saint-Remy-de-Provence in 1889, he was affected by Japanese prints and publications during his stay there. In 1890, he moved to Dr. Gachet, a friend of artists in Overy. In 1990, in a wheat field, he received a bullet beneath his heart thought to be a suicide- bombing incident, which he died in two days before he died, writing, “I wanted my life to be like that” (Smith, 2012). There are several studies by psychiatrists to determine Vincent’s psychological disorders, but they were unable to determine exactly what the exact suffering, and many agreed that he had suffered from several psychiatric disorders, such as: Depression, epilepsy, hallucinations, schizophrenia and syphilis, in addition to the autism confirmed by his sister Elizabeth, as she have called him isolated and grandly and avoid looking into the eyes of others. (Voskuil, 2005): (Kalyan, & Saurabh, 2015) Second: His Religious Life and Beliefs. He grew up in a religious environment, his grandfather, his uncles, and his father, Theodorus, were religious men, which created a solid religious ground that had given him an interest in the Bible and his teachings, and he was influenced by his father’s long-term personality, where his father was a good role model in this aspect and a life-giving. His father’s job helped others and those in need, going long distances to visit a sick person who was dying or suffering, and sending hope and reassurance, Vincent loved being a cleric to follow his father’s religious approach and help others. After Goupil finished his work in 1875, Vincent returned to England in 1876 to work as a unpaid teacher at a port-view school in Ramsgate. Also, he joined the Assistant Secretary’s office, and worked there as interim Secretary for priest Jones in Isleworth, who worked for the Methodist Church for nearly a year, where the boys taught the history of the Bible. He was given the opportunity to present an exhorted sermon at the Methodist Eusseatic Church in Richmond in October, shortly after which he became a secular (outside of the priesthood) in the Presbyterian 102 The Influence of Vincent Van... Church of Norham Green. After which he was arranged by his uncle as a writer and media writer at a library in Dordrecht, where His religious fanaticism began to emerge and spin out of control, and his writings and ideas became drenched with an unbridled desire to become a preacher, and he moved from one church service to another exploring a great diversity among Christian denominations. (Bakker, N. & Jansen, L. Luijten, H., 2009) He later expressed his desire to act as a cleric and preacher in the suburbs of London,” (LT 69, 1876) as Van Gogh’s writing to Theo: “You know I am going to the Methodist Church here on Monday night” (LT 75, 1876), in the Christmas period that year he returned home and found work in the Dordrecht Library. He stayed with his uncle Jean van Gogh, deputy maritime admiral, and his other uncle, Johannes Stricker, the first to publish “Jesus’ life” in the Netherlands to prepare for the acceptance exam, but Van Gogh did not show any improvement in the classic Greek and Latin study, he failed the exam, and left his uncle Jean’s house in July 1878. Then he took a three-month course at the Vlaamsche Opleidings School, a well-known Protestant missionary school in the Netherlands in the district of Laeken, close to Brussels (Yongnam, 2017). In January 1879, he took up a temporary position as a missionary in the village Petit-Wasmes in the coal mining area of Borinage in Belgium, applying the principles of a priest. There he lived a difficult lifestyle and abandoned his possessions to live with the poor, sleeping in a straw hut in the back of the house of the Baker, his place of residence. He was so seriously affected by their situation that he was giving them food and clothing, becoming a favorite and a “life donor” among miners, and he was known as the “Mine Christian”. This station is one of the most important stations in his life where he has practically experienced the life of poverty and misery, but the church authorities he contracted with have not like his deeds and actions, harassed him in this way, and dismissed him under the excuse or justification of “undermining the dignity of the priesthood” at the end of 1879 (Meyers, 2020B). Vincent left Prokal and returned to the village of Cuesmes viborinage where he succumbed to pressure and stress, he asked the family to return to Latins, he stayed there for about a year until March, returning in October to Cuesmes and stayed with a mine worker called Charles Decrucq Charles. In this period, he began increasingly to care about drawing people and nature, in water colors, while his brother Theo suggested painting in oil colors and taking art seriously, and then he traveled to Brussels in the fall to start studying art with the famous Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 103 Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, attending classes at the Royale des Beaux- Arts academic in Brussels, He was registered on November 15, 1880 at the Academy, where he studied anatomy and standard rules of modeling and perspective (Trabaaut, 1969), but for him the idea of academic study was a blunder, because his ambition was to become an artist in the service of God. Gogh was unable to support himself, and found himself unable to continue the issue of religion, finally he decided to put an end to the idea of being a priest or a preacher forever, and his love and interest towards miners and peasants became an existential issue in his artistic production, as the idea of suffering these classes became well established. This is what was mentioned in his speech to his brother Theo (LT 194, 1881) confirms. Although Vincent was influenced by his father, his vision was different from his father’s, as he believed that faith did not stem from teachings but from a feeling of humanity toward others, especially the working and the old working classes of workers and peasants. In his letter, to his brother Theo on 26 November 1882, he wrote “this feeling is completely out of theology, the fact is that the poorest of the squatters or peasants have moments of passion and inspiration that give a sense of eternal residence ... Sometimes there is something undescribed in these aspects, nature all seem to speak, and for me I do not understand why everyone don’t see it and why they don’t feel it, nature or God speaks to everyone who has eyes, ears, and heart to understand (Metzger 1996) Van Gogh’s father died in 1885 at the age of sixty-third, and he produced one of his important works in that period named “a silent life with the open Bible”, work No. 1/ No. F117, by drawing the Bible open with a flying candle. Gogh produced this work to reconcile him after the death of his father and confirm what they both have more than the blood association, as his father wanted him to be a priest, and tried to support him in several stations. His father didn’t want him to be a painter, neither did he sympathize with Gogh nor did he want to understand him when he became a painter. They were in several quarrel while they were in the house because of their opposing positions. In his view, Gogh sees deeper things in the Bible comparing him with his father, that is what we can see in his litters to his brother Theo (154,1881). Although he disagreed with his father, he continues to try to understand him. He sought to find a link with his father all the time also he wanted to obtain the father’s consent to be a famous painter. 104 The Influence of Vincent Van... Fig 1: Still Life with Bible, Oil on canvas, 65.7 x 78.5 cm., Nuenen: October, 1885, Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum Third: Examples of his Work in Nuenen In this part of the study, the important period of the artist’s life will be recognized. Vincent Van Gogh in his village Nuenen, which was the result of experiences and skills acquired over the past thirty years between psychological trauma since his birth and his failure to form a family, and his failure in the field of religion, and obtain a job to work in art trade, and to establish a stable relationship with his father, all of these events that preceded the time of Nuenen formed the personality of Van Gogh, and helped him crystallized his ideas to arrive at a sublime idea of linking art to beliefs. After returning to Huge, he went back to his village of Nuenen, where his parents lived there. During this period, he appeared as a truly great artist who founded his later stages of artistic life, starting with drawing the lives of peasants and field workers, a subject that he was fond of, and affected by the style of Francois Millete had drawings. The technology that Rambrandt implemented, it was clearly seen as a development in technology in this period and proved to be an applied learning experience that clearly crystallized his ideas, drew his artistic line, and determined his style and artistic way (National Gallery of Art, 1998). During his time in Nuenen/Antwerp between December 1883 and November 1885, Van Gogh produced more than 188 works affected by his religious beliefs, most of which were studies of his favorite work, “potato eaters “ (Grant, 2014), and he also studied nature, houses and huts, animals, fields, and water mills. He drew herders, wood collectors, Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 105 field workers in agriculture and harvesting, and the daily work of houses: Washing, sainting and sewing, as well as pictures of deer and animals, workplaces from abroad and inside, as many studies of personal porteries have done, people and faces have been drawn in different situations, and he have become interested in and felt a strong relation toward them. He used art as a mean of communication with poor people to achieve his message as a preacher and a human, and most of his works were serious studies of workers lives, “ the potato eaters”. The artist Van Gogh in Nuenen’s time was challenging himself and very careful to master the techniques of the classical drawing, even though but the lack of academic study was an obstacle in his way. This period of the artist’s life caused many failures because he could not photograph people on the surface of the canons. These technical difficulties were represented by drawing people, especially the works that produced at the beginning of this period, as in the work of number (2)/ number (F129A), which was a rigid, semi-fixed and restricted image of its movement, and sometimes the forms of the people became a piece of nature around it and merged with the surrounding land. This is what we find in the inertia and work of the peasants, where they are portrayed as rocks by the artist, which amazes the viewer when he sees them with their strength and strong bonds with the soil on which they stand on. This is refined through the horizon line that was drew with a high skill, from here we find that the artist wanted to find a strong link between the farmer and the land. Without the land, the farmer does not exist because it is the one who supplies him with the food of his day, as the artist depicted through him the hard and tired work of the farmers. Fig 2: Peasant Man and Woman Planting Potatoes. April 1885.33.0 x 41.0 cm. Oil on canvas. Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. 106 The Influence of Vincent Van... The long and dark shadows also emphasize the link between land and peasants in this work, that the idea of bending at work may not symbolize their position in society but may be respectful of the owner. This work has been created in a spirit of realism with some rebellion, which is not lost in its value and deep meaning. The work is therefore related to the extent that the peasant is connected to the earth that gives him strength and the color system used is very harmonious. The artist has chosen the horizon in a way that pressurizes the degree of curvature of the peasants on the ground, as well as the long shadows that they are fixating on the ground and firmly linking them to it. This image that the artist intended to convey to the scene shows his appreciation and respect for this class as important and great figures in society, and the artist has inspired this work as a lot of work by the artist Jean-François Millete, who dealt with the issues of the great class. We find him influenced by his creations and adore him as a peasant’s advocate and reproducing many of his works (Description picture, 2019). His attempts to form a family or friends were unsuccessful, his tormented soul was eager for love and did not find anyone to care about it, where he wrote in 1877 a letter to his sister Willy, “I always got out of love stories with shame, and he tended to love and cause trouble”. He said that love needs to be made more effort to be achieved, and love is so much wanted, but he was unable to grant that he was obsessed with art in addition to his redness by women, as his emotional adventures ended with failure. Starting from the relation with his cousin’s daughter, Sen, the prostitute he met during his stay in the Netherlands, where he described their relationship as a hapless couple, in addition to his subsequent relationship with Agostina Segatori, the owner of one of a famous restaurants at the time in Paris, was born with the conviction that love was unworthy, that this work might represent his emotional inadequacy. In his work “a woman farmer near the stove”, it is considered part of a preparatory studies for the “potato eaters” panel, where Vincent wrote to his brother Theo during that period about the numbers of the peasants and peasant women drawn, plate No. F158. In these dark paintings, Van Gogh captured the effects of lighting by placing his model on light near fire or flame to create a contrast between shadow and light, and by correspondence to his brother Theo in March 1885, he wrote: “I can’t show one painting now. But I do a lot of studies ... Where it is difficult to determine where to study and when to start and end”. Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 107 Fig 3: Peasant Woman near the Hearth. 1885.29.5 x 40.0 cm. Oil on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France. Fig 4: Study for ‘The Potato Eaters’, Oil on canvas, 33.5 x 44.4 cm., Nuenen: Early April, 1885, Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum Fig 5: The Potato Eaters, Oil on canvas on panel, 72.0 x 93.0 cm., Nuenen: April, 1885, Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum 108 The Influence of Vincent Van... This work of Vincent van Gogh, which was drawn in the village of Nuenen, has a great meaning, as he portrays a farmer woman farmer in her humble kitchen sitting in front of an open fire and the potato peel surrounded by darkness, as well as her face expressions, where the dark colors around her nose and two wings appear to be the factors of sadness and misery. The distribution of formal and color spaces in the work gives it an atmosphere of chaos and misery, which is represented by the method of cooking peasants on firewood, where the artist shows the difficult nature of life experienced by farmers and the industrious class during that period through expressing the place, its nature and conditions. This creation gave the work an unconventional value and create a mysterious feeling. Looking at the works of Van Gogh in Nuenen, the most important and largest accomplishment he had was the work of “ The Potato Eaters”, where the artist worked for more than two years to reach this satisfactory result, and was an effort and continuous and continuous working of serious and preparatory studies of this work, where there is a copy of it A preparatory is available in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Picture No. (4), and another study of it is available in the Kroller Muller Museum. Image No. (5) takes No. (78). The Lithograph version of the “stone print”, which is located at the Rijks museum in Amsterdam, is a number (6) and takes the number (F 1661), of which there is a sketch on one of his letters to his brother Theo, located at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, photo number (7). Fig 6: Lithograph (April 1885),26.5 x 32.0 cm. reversed, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 109 Fig 7: Vincent van Gogh, Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh with sketch of The Potato Eaters, Nuenen, 9 April 1885, pen and ink on paper, 20.7 x 26.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) Letter 492 The completed version is located at Rijks museum Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam, where it takes number 8 (f 82), and Vincent van Gogh is considered the first and best of his paintings. Fig 8: The Potato-Eaters. April 1885. Oil on canvas. 82.0 x 114.0 cm. Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The general style used in this painting is the classic style, where the lines flow and agree in the work parts without stopping, the artist drew this painting to be one of his most important artistic projects, and to prove his artistic presence through which he expressed his professionalism. He described the harsh life of the peasant class, which was the foundation of physical communities and food security during that period. The artist depicts a three-generation rural family eating dinner with a light hanging lamp, on the surface of the work, but in its details the 110 The Influence of Vincent Van... work carries symbolic, social, religious and human dimensions, as well as the visual dimension and artistic vocabulary of this genius work, intertwined to form a system of values. The artist wanted to depict the simple life of the public, and chose to depict the harsh and bitter reality of rural life, Van Gogh meant to portray the peasants in this harsh form to be more natural, and to express the reality, Van Gogh wrote his brother Theo in his letter LT 497,1885), saying, “as you see it, I wanted to make that moment very special, the moment of these people eating potatoes in light of their small lamp with their rough hands, by which they grow, assuring that they got their food honestly, that this plate is creating a totally different lifestyle from the civilized one. So, I don’t want anyone to like the painting without knowing why I made it.” This work has its effect on everyone sees it, given its important theme of depicting the harsh nature of life in society’s bereaved-class families, it has been dramatically illustrated by the impact of all the dimensions, composition, and color involved. Despite the dark colors of work, it remains bright despite the darkness that spreads throughout the work and suggests gloom and silence, as the artist has been awe in spreading light all over the panel. He brushed on some fine details to find light that comes out of the middle of the job to illuminate people’s faces from a lamp hanging above them that radiates the light for the session, people seem to come from another time between ghosts or angels. Although he used various shades of dark brown, green is the dominant color and yellow is reddish. The use of dark, dark and rusty colors was deliberately used, the artist wanted to convey the sense and misery of these poor to all who see them. Their faces are pale, gloomy, and rude, representing a bitter reality and an unknown future that may be even more unjust and harsh. We find in this work a family of five, who reached a high degree of poverty and obsession, peasants with rough and frayed hands and rough hard faces that gather around a square-shaped table, stowing over a plate of large-scale hot potatoes, which are heated from which steam rises, hands extend with fingers that look bony for their weakness and shaking. In a room that reflects poverty and need. He wanted to show that this hands which are around the plate are the same that work in the earth, and they earn their food from the sweat of their foreheads with honor and integrity. As he lived this life and knew it well, as he didn’t live an easy life. The four faces in the drawing that are all similar in their features, their parts, their suffering and their grief. This is can be evident from the appearance of the beads, the noses, the suffering eyes, and dry Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 111 and flat-looking faces, the raised bones and thick lips. As well as the burning skin color of the sun, wearing thick clothing and hats, and the rising steam of potatoes and the luster which shows the cooling atmosphere. The girl who sits at the front of the board is the youngest, and the artist has blinded her features, leaving her to reflect on the imagination and think about what her face might look like, as she may not has as much as the concern and gloom that other people have the board because of her young age. She may be more happy and less painful than the adults, and she has plenty of time to absorb that pain and feel the same fear and anxiety that has been smiled on the faces of others, as she has given the girl a touch of hope. But fear is dominating the general atmosphere of acting with a built-in fear over time that is clear to suggest that they are gathering their food first and foremost, and if there is no work tomorrow there will not have potato. A concern that extends to the features of the small and worn house that demonstrates the difficult nature of their living, very old and very random whether it is built or in its interior design or by distributing spaces and furniture to the top left of the panel. The pillar that supports the ceiling feels that it no longer bears the ceiling, while the windows feel that they have not been opened long ago, they are found in the room, built randomly, not geometric, the ceiling built on tree log layers topped by cane and a layer of cement or clay that does not seem safe due to its foot and its wobbly. Over time, it may not hold out long, and in the upper left of the job there is a hanging clock, which may be at a standstill, though it doesn’t matter to them, it is forgotten as time forgot them with no return. The family is meeting around the table in a scene that draws its idea from the mainstream and sacred social order, which is the meeting of all family members to dine together. The choice of an artist for this important moment is an achievement in itself, but he managed to deepen the sanctity of the desperate family meeting that is being planted or reaped all day, and then they get the morsels. This is a philosophical view of a reality that is repeated in the quantity of what these produces and the amount of what they receive in return. The meditation of Vincent van Gogh’s work during his stay in Nuenen reflected and highlighted the poor, living-fighting classes, he reflected his experience as a cleric and proselytizer for miners, who experienced the difficulty of that life and felt the injustice of this social class by the rich. 112 The Influence of Vincent Van... In addition to the reflections of religious dismay that were refined during his previous periods. Discussion the results of the study In the past, we conclude that the artist Vincent Van Gogh’s background in religion influenced his works in the Nuenen period, where he truly saw himself as a sacred and sympathetic to humanity. His religious role is to clarify the lives of peasants in order to achieve a higher goal of equality with other classes by highlighting their suffering and feeling, as can be seen from his works which is deep in religion and leaves a profound spiritual impression on its contemporaneous. The artist wanted to link art and religion in a different way, so that they cannot be separated, as Van Gogh has taken on it to express the suffering of the poor class, as a sacred function of solidarity with human cases and social oppressed through many of his works he drew in this period. He wanted to relieve them by deepening the pain to this level, and during this period he learned solidarity with the poor and their oppressed and their consolation, as he drew in many of his works in this period the couples, who wanted and sought it, and saw it from a religious and sacred point of view. Van Gogh expressed his religious perceptions in the Nuenen period by addressing the topics of the social classes that fight for life, as the peasants’ pictures are working on the ground and get the morsels from their food from their own foreheads sweat with patience, sacrifice and hard work. He has more than drawn the works of drilling, agriculture and harvesting, and the life cycle that may represent more than death and life. He has also drawn subjects related to potato cultivation and harvesting, which indicates the symbolism of potatoes and their relationship to the food security of agricultural societies at the time. The color of potatoes in many works much like the colors and veneer of living in the hardness of life, he has also portrayed that his drawing of many farming works gives a symbolic meaning to farmers’ attachment to land despite their misery of living. Notes and References 1. Bakker, N. & Jansen, L. &Luijten, H. (2009) Vincent van Gogh: The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition (Vol. 1-6) Hardcover – Illustrated, Van Gogh Museum. Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLIII, No. 3 113 2. Biography.com Editors. (2020). Vincent van Gogh Biography(1853–1890). Publisher, A&E Television Networks. Retrieved date 16 April,2020 From; https:/ /www.biography.com/artist/vincent-van-gogh 3. Description picture. (2019). Description of the painting by Vincent van Gogh “The peasant and the peasant woman planting potatoes” Retrieved date 25 March,2020 From: https://en.opisanie-kartin.com/description-of-the-painting-by- vincent-van-gogh-the-peasant-and-the-peasant-woman-planting-potatoes/ 4. Grant, P. (2014). The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh: A Critical Study. Published by AU Press, Athabasca University.Retrieved date 05March,2020 From: https:/ /books.google.jobooks?id=c2L7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=Artist+Vin cent+Van+Gogh+(903)+produced+a+letter&source=bl&ots=Xgsr4p0a8P&sig=ACfU3U3 TM65rZrITbKSG3oz1IIjWD_hAyw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiP46nlrrPqAhVDM- wKHeqoALcQ6AEwFHoECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q=Artist%20Vincent%20Van %20Gogh%20(903)%20produced%20a%20letter&f=false 5. Hulsker, J.( 1990). Vincent and Theo van Gogh: A Dual Biography. Ann Arbor Michigan: Fuller Technical. 6. Kalyan B.& Saurabh R. (2015). The neuropsychiatric ailment of Vincent Van Gogh, Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology, 18 (1), 6–9. 7. Metzger, R. (1996). Van Gogh. Hong Kong: Taschen. 8. Meyers, B.( 2020 a).Vincent Van Gogh. Starr King School for the Ministry. Retrieved date 16 March, 2020 From: https://www.sksm.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2014/03/holyeyes.pdf 9. Meyers, B.( 2020 b).Seeing with Holy Eyes: The Life and Art of Vincent Van Gogh. Retrieved date 18 May,2020 From: https://www.sksm.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2014/03/holyeyes.pdf 10. Naifeh, S. & Smith GW. (2012). Van Gogh: The Life. Random House Trade Paperbacks. 11. National Gallery of Art. (1998). Vincent van Gogh. Washington. 12. Tralbaut, M. E.. (1969).Vincent Van Gogh. New York: The Viking Press. 13. Yongnam, P. (2017). Vincent van Gogh’s Christian Faith and How it influenced his Life and Art. Master Thesis of Philosophy, School of Human Development Dublin City University. Retrieved date 25 April, 2020 From: http:/ /doras.dcu.ie/21992/1/Final_thesis_2017_dcu-30th-June-Yongnam_Park-final_.pdf 14. Vincent. www.vggallery. Com. Paintings: A- Z listings:Retrieved date 06 March, 2020 From: http://www.vggallery.com/painting/by_period/nuenen.htm 15. Voskuil, P. (2005). The Illness of Vincent van Gogh. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 14 (2), 169-75.