Painter Vincent van Gogh is among the prominent personalities featured in this year’s William B. Crawley Great Lives lecture series.

The William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues this evening, over Vimeo, Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m. with Professor of Art History Marjorie Och providing illuminating insight into the life of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The Barlow & Thomas, P.C. Lecture. The link for Thursday, January 27, 2022, for the talk on Vincent van Gogh is: https://vimeo.com/event/1713863

Vincent van Gogh lived only 37 years (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890), yet his work has had an indisputable influence on artists in the 20th and 21st centuries, perhaps to a greater extent than any previous painter in the West. And his life, while not the origin of the “suffering artist living in a garret” story, codified that fiction into a powerful narrative that haunts any parent whose child says: “I want to go to art school.”

Van Gogh was born into a family of Dutch Reformed ministers, theological students, art dealers, and artists. This family background makes Vincent like so many young men in Europe from antiquity up to that time. As the oldest surviving child of his parents — and a son who bore a family name, Vincent — it was expected that he would continue in the family’s business. Van Gogh tried his hand at each of these professions.

It wasn’t until 1881 that he turned his attention to “artist,” creating nearly 900 paintings and thousands of drawings in his remaining nine years, the most famous of which he produced from 1888 and later, including The Yellow House (1888), Bedroom in Arles (1888), The Night Cafe (1888), The Starry Night (1889), and Wheatfield with Crows (1890). These late paintings have all the trademarks of a “Van Gogh” — brilliant primary colors and evident brushstrokes in repeating patterns that seem to vibrate on the canvas. While color was paramount in his painting, a linear texture was his focus in his drawing in which he creates new techniques for suggesting different qualities of light and the variety of dark in shadows.

Vincent van Gogh, however, was not all about invention. His background, education, and opinions — many of which we can read in his voluminous correspondence — points to an artist embedded in traditions he understood, relished, and resisted. In so many ways, van Gogh offers a vision for us today of forging something new out of the old.

Upcoming lectures include: Jimmy Carter on Feb. 1, Mother Theresa on Feb. 3, Pioneer Female Aviators on Feb. 8 and Homer on Feb. 10. See the full list here.

Due to ongoing concerns regarding the COVID pandemic, the series will continue to use a virtual live-streaming platform for all lectures through at least February 3. Links to the live-stream broadcast may be found on this website. Please consult the website for updates on subsequent lectures.

PLEASE NOTE: After delivery, lectures will be posted on the website as soon as possible after they have been edited (including addition of captions), a process that may take a week or more to complete. Once lectures are uploaded, this will be indicated by an icon in the “Media” column in the lecture listings below.

This article originally appeared in The Free Lance-Star Weekender.

Painter Vincent van Gogh is among the prominent personalities featured in this year’s William B. Crawley Great Lives lecture series, which returns on Jan. 18.

The William B. Crawley Great Lives series returns to UMW this year with a lineup of personalities who loom larger than life—and who are timely subjects for 2022. The lives of Dolly Parton, Vincent van Gogh, Ida B. Wells, Jimmy Carter and more will be revealed during the three-month series, which marks its 19th season this year.

C-SPAN will air the Great Lives lecture on 19th century youth novelist Horatio Alger, which Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales gave on Feb. 16. The lecture will be aired on C-SPAN 3 on the following days:

Saturday, April 17 at 7:10 p.m. EDT
Sunday, April 18 at 5:10 a.m. EDT
Tuesday, April 20 at 12:12 a.m. and 5:14 a.m. EDT
Sunday, April 25 at 11:10 a.m. EDT

The lecture can be viewed online here:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?510557-1/novelist-horatio-alger-jr

Other Great Lives lectures from this spring and past years will be aired back-to-back on Monday, April 19 starting at 8 p.m. EDT on C-SPAN 3. https://www.c-span.org/blog/?4438/american-history-prime-time-schedule-april-1923-2021.

The schedule is:

8 p.m., Douglas MacArthur, by UMW Professor of History and American Studies Porter Blakemore

8:51 p.m., History of Hawaii, The Life of Queen Lili’uokalani, biographer James L. Haley

10:01 p.m., The Presidency, Theodore Roosevelt’s Life & Legacy, UMW Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus William B. Crawley, Great Lives founder and director

10:52 p.m., Johnny Carson and Political Humor, UMW Professor of Political Science and Center for Leadership and Media Director Stephen Farnsworth

11:36 p.m., Humorist Art Buchwald & Political Satire, biographer Michael Hill

12:12 a.m., Novelist Horatio Alger, UMW Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales

The William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues on Thursday, Feb. 25 with German poet and author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, presented by UMW Professor Emeritus of German Sammy Merrill. The Davenport & Company Lecture.

Because of restrictions on public gatherings on campus, the entire series of 18 lectures will be pre-recorded and delivered electronically, through Zoom Webinars, with closed captioning available. Although the presentations will be taped in advance, there will still be a live Q&A session following the online debut of each lecture, in which the speaker will be available to answer questions submitted by audience members.

Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, a German poet and author.

The German author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is known to most of the English-speaking world as the author of Faust, the story of a scholar, who, disillusioned with the course of his life, and seeking new directions to the truth, turns in frustration to the Devil and enters a compact with him. It is one of numerous plays that he wrote, along with hundreds of poems, and four major path-breaking novels.

His first major dramatic work was Goetz von Berlichingen, which immediately catapulted him into the forefront of the movement known as “Storm and Stress.” Similarly, his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was such a sensation that for much of Goethe’s life he was known as the author of Werther. He was also known outside the world of belles lettres for his writings on scientific topics as diverse as color theory, plant and animal morphology, and geology.

Duke Karl August appointed him chief minister of state, the highest official after the duke himself in the duchy of Weimar. During his lifetime Goethe enjoyed close personal and intellectual relationships with many women who were important for his development as an artist and a man. The body of work of this universal genius fills more than 133 volumes in the Weimar edition of his collected works.

Other upcoming lectures include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, presented by Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Jason Davidson; Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston and southern novelist Eudora Welty, presented by Professor of English and English Department Chair Gary Richards; and St. Augustine, presented by Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry. To learn more about Great Lives and view past and upcoming lectures, please visit https://www.umw.edu/greatlives/.