Goering, Hermann See Hermann Goring
Goes Vgus\, Hugo van der (b. c. 1440—d. 1482, Roode Kloster, near Brussels) Flemish painter. Nothing is known of his life before 1467, when he became a master in the painters’ guild in Ghent. He received numer¬ ous commissions from the town of Ghent (processional banners, heraldic shields, etc.) through 1475. He was elected dean of the guild in 1474. The next year, at the height of his career, he entered a monastery near Brus¬ sels as a lay brother, though he continued to paint and travel. A mental breakdown in 1481 led to a suicide attempt, and he died the following year. His masterpiece and only documented work is a large triptych known as the Portinari Altarpiece (c. 1473-78); an outstanding early example of northern realism, it shows psychological insight and an emotional inten¬ sity unprecedented in Flemish art. A poignant and disturbing Death of the Virgin is also attributed to him.
Goethals Vgo-tholzV George Washington (b. June 29, 1858, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 21,1928, New York, N.Y.) U.S. army officer and engineer. After graduating from West Point, he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he gained experience in the construction of canals and harbours; he also taught engineering at West Point. Appointed by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt to direct the building of the Panama Canal, he successfully confronted complex problems of both engineering and logis¬ tics. He was appointed the Canal Zone’s first governor (1914-17). In World War I, he directed procurement for and the movement of U.S. troops at home and abroad. After retiring in 1919, he served as a consultant to many organizations, including the Port of New York Authority.
Goethe Ygce-te,\ English Vg9(r)-t3\, Johann Wolfgang von (b. Aug. 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main—d. March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe- Weimar) German poet, novelist, playwright, and natural philosopher. In 1773 Goethe provided the Sturm und Drang movement with its first major drama, Gotz von Berlichingen, and in 1774 with its first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, an extraordinarily popular work in its time, in which he created the prototype of the Romantic hero. In 1775 he accepted an appointment at the ducal court at Weimar, where he would remain the rest of his life; his presence would establish Weimar as a literary and intellec¬ tual centre. His poetry includes lyrics in praise of natural beauty and ballads such as “The Elf King” (1782) that echo folk themes. Many early works were inspired by a series of passionate loves. Contact with classical Greek and Romantic culture during an Italian sojourn helped shape his plays, including Iphigenie aufTauris (1787), Egmont (1788), and Torquato Tasso (1790), and the poems in Roman Elegies (1795). From 1794, Friedrich Schiller became his most important and influential friend. Wilhelm Meis- ter’s Apprenticeship (1795-96) is often called the first bildungsroman; it was followed many years later by Wilhelm Meister’s Travels (1821-29). His chief masterpiece, the philosophical drama Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832), concerns the struggle of the soul for knowledge, power, happiness, and salvation. Goethe also wrote extensively, if idiosyncratically, on botany, optics, and other scientific topics. In his late years he was cel¬ ebrated as a sage and visited by world luminaries. The greatest figure of German Romanticism, he is regarded as a giant of world literature.
goethite Vgor-.tlt, 'g6-,thlt\ Widespread iron hydroxide mineral, a-FeO(OH), the most common ingredient of iron rust. In terms of rela¬ tive abundance, it is second only to hematite (a-Fe 2 0 3 ) among iron
oxides. Goethite varies in colour from yellow-brown to red and is the source for the pigment known as yellow ocher; it is also the primary min¬ eral in some important iron ores, such as those in the Alsace-Lorraine basin in France. Other important deposits are found in the southern Appa¬ lachian Mountains of the U.S., and in Brazil, South Africa, Russia, and Australia.
Goff man, Erving (b. June 11, 1922, Manville, Alta., Can.—d. Nov. 19, 1982, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) Canadian-U.S. sociologist. Goffman taught principally at the Universities of California and Pennsylvania. He studied primarily face-to-face communication and related rituals of social interaction; his The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) laid out the dramaturgical perspective he used in subsequent studies, such as Asy¬ lums (1961) and Stigma (1964). In Frame Analysis (1979) and Forms of Talk (1981), he focused on the ways people “frame” or define social real¬ ity in the communicative process. See also interactionism.
Gogh \van-'kok,\ English Vgo\, Vincent (Willem) van (b. March 30, 1853, Zundert, Neth.—d. July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, France) Dutch painter. At 16 he was apprenticed to art dealers in The Hague, and he worked in their London and Paris branches (1873-76). After brief attempts at missionary work and theology, he studied draw¬ ing at the Brussels Academy; late in 1881 he settled at The Hague to work with a Dutch landscape painter, Anton Mauve. During his early years he painted three types of subjects—still life, landscape, and figure—all inter¬ related by their reference to the daily life of peasants (e.g.. The Potato Eaters, 1885). After briefly studying at the Antwerp Academy, in 1886 he left to join his brother Theo, an art dealer, in Paris. There he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and others involved in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. By the summer of 1887 he was painting in pure colours and using broken brushwork that was at times pointillistic, and by the beginning of 1888 his Post-Impressionist style had crystallized. He left Paris in February 1888 for Arles, in southeastern France. The pictures he created over the following 12 months—depicting blossoming fruit trees, views of the town and surroundings, self-portraits, portraits of Roulin the postman and other friends, interiors and exteriors of the house, sunflow¬ ers, and landscapes—marked his first great period. Gauguin arrived in October 1888, and for two months he and van Gogh worked together; but, while each influenced the other to some extent, their relations rap¬ idly deteriorated. On Christmas Eve 1888, physically and emotionally exhausted, van Gogh snapped under the strain; after arguing with Gauguin, he cut off the lower half of his own left ear. At the end of April 1889, van Gogh entered an asylum but continued to paint; during his 12-month stay he completed 150 paintings and drawings. A move to Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890 was followed by another burst of activity, but he soon suffered a relapse and died that July of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His 10-year artistic career produced more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings, of which he sold only one in his lifetime. His work had a powerful influence on the development of modern painting, and he is considered the greatest Dutch painter since Rembrandt.
Gogol Vgo-.goH, Nikolay (Vasilyevich) (b. March 19, 1809, Sorochintsy, near Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire—d. Feb. 21, 1852, Moscow, Russia) Russian writer. Gogol tried acting and worked at minor government jobs in St. Petersburg before achieving literary success with Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831-32). His pessimism emerged in such stories as “Taras Bulba” (1835) and “Diary of a Madman” (1835). His farcical drama The Government Inspector (1836) lampooned a cor¬ rupt government bureaucracy. From 1836 to 1846 he lived in Italy. Dur¬ ing this time he laid the foundations of 19th-century Russian realism with his masterpiece, the novel Dead Souls (1842), a satire about serfdom and bureaucratic inequities in which he hoped to castigate abuses and guide his countrymen through laughter, and his story “The Overcoat” (1842). His collected stories (1842) received great acclaim. Soon afterward he came under the influence of a fanatical priest who prompted him to burn the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls. He died a few days later at age 42, perhaps of intentional starvation, on the verge of madness.