Brett Kebold is a data analyst who enjoys finding representations of life all amongst us, and decided to utilize his skill at data analytics for a dive into art.
Specifically, Kebold took a look at 900+ paintings of Vincent van Gogh and plotted the dominant color that appears in each painting (using more technological skill than I can ever figure out) and placed them in line over a ten year period. What we get is this:
The Dutch master clearly skewed toward darker hues earlier in his work, with a dominant blue stripe appearing around 1883 that springs into a transition of lighter shades. A look at his life doesn't suggest any particular rhyme or reason if we go with the simplistic route of automatically assuming colors equate mood. (Looking at you, Picasso.) His first major work, The Potato Eaters, which is bleak and dark, doesn't appear until 1885. Likewise, Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette, equally grim (or grimly comedic), only arrives after 1885 as well, both during van Gogh's transition away from brighter colors once again. (1885 is also when van Gogh's father unexpectedly died of a heart attack. Correlation or coincidence? No one can tell.)
Van Gogh's most famous work, The Starry Night, the one you recognize from museum shops, countless dorm rooms, and endless doctor offices, wasn't completed until 1889, around van Gogh's last darkest painting--and personal--period.
Contrary to the habitual belief that colors equate mood in art, we learn that van Gogh never veered wildly into any one dominant color, unlike many artists. He utilized all throughout his painfully brief time as a painter, suggesting his skill wasn't bound by colors or process or design, but simply by circumstance, by beliefs, and by his life.
Plot points and more can be found at Brettrics.com, as well as his Tableu Public page.
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