Van Gogh & Philips (Eindhoven)

This is the regionwhere young Vincent lived. Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch painter, classified as a Post-impressionist, and is generally considered one of the greatest painters in the history of European art. His work shows the objects, people and places in his life with bold, usually distorted, draughtsmanship and visible dotted or dashed brushmarks, which are intensely yet subtly coloured. He is popularly known as much for his embodiment of the myth of the tortured romantic artist as for his work, which is seen as the visual expression of his life. He produced all of his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during the ten year period before he committed suicide. Most of his best known work was produced in the final two years of his life. In the two months before his death he painted 90 pictures. A similar productive development can be seen in the local industry. The industrial revolution of the Nineteenth Century provided a major growth impulse. Canals, roads and railroads were constructed. Industrial activities initially centred around tobacco and textile and boomed with the rise of lighting and electronics giant Philips, which was founded as a light bulb manufacturing company in Eindhoven in 1891. The explosive growth of industry in the region and the subsequent housing needs of workers called for radical changes in administration, as the City of Eindhoven was still confined to its medieval moat city limits. In 1920, the five neighbouring municipalities of Woensel , Tongelre , Stratum , Gestel en Blaarthem and Strijp , which already bore the brunt of the housing needs and related problems, were incorporated into the new Greater Eindhoven municipality. The prefix was later dropped. The early twentieth Century saw additions in technical industry with the advent of car and truck manufacturing company Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (DAF) and the subsequent shift towards electronics and engineering, with the traditional tobacco and textile industries waning and finally disappearing in the Seventies. Large-scale air raids in World War II (Eindhoven was a target in Operation Market Garden because of its industrial importance) destroyed large parts of the city. The reconstruction that followed left very little historical remains and the post-war reconstruction period saw drastic renovation plans in highrise style, some of which were implemented. The Seventies, Eighties and Nineties saw large-scale housing developments making Eindhoven the fifth-largest city in the Netherlands.

Blip | April 18, 2006

Tags:. .suicide. .objects. .canals. .boomed. .romantic