Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: 30 March 1853 – 29 July
1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among
the most famous and influential figures in the history of
Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately
2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of
them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes
landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of
which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic
brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in
modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical
attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age
37.[5] During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings,
The Red Vineyard, was sold.
Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a
child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs
of mental instability. As a young man, he worked as an art
dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was
transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as
a missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted into ill-
health and solitude. He was keenly aware of modernist trends
in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in
1881. His younger brother, Theo, supported him financially,
and the two of them maintained a long correspondence.
Van Gogh's early works consist of mostly still lifes and
depictions of peasant labourers. In 1886, he moved to Paris,
where he met members of the artistic avant-garde, including
Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new
paths beyond Impressionism. Frustrated in Paris and inspired
by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, in
February 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France
to establish an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, his
paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the
natural world, depicting local olive groves, wheat fields and
sunflowers. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and
eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in late 1888.
Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions. He
worried about his mental stability, and often neglected his
physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His
friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a
razor when, in a rage, he severed his left ear. Van Gogh spent
time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-
Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge
Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care
of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression
persisted, and on 29 July 1890 Van Gogh died from his
injuries after shooting himself in the chest with a revolver.
Van Gogh's work began to attract critical artistic attention in
the last year of his life. After his death, his art and life story
captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood
genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-
in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.[6][7] His bold use of colour,
expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-
garde artistic groups like the Fauves and German
Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work
gained widespread critical and commercial success in the
following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the
romantic ideal of the tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh's works
are among the world's most expensive paintings ever sold.
His legacy is celebrated by the Van Gogh Museum in
Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his
paintings and drawings.
His signature
One of his paintings:
“Almond Blossoms “
Rahaf Abdelgadir Modawi
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