Vincent Van Gogh

1853-1890

Van Gogh is today one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated during his lifetime. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces. His works are characterized by expressive and emotive use of brilliant color and energetic application of impastoed paint.

Van Gogh was born in the Hague (Holland), the son of a pastor. He became an apprentice at an art dealership, but was fired in 1876. Over the next decade he was employed in various ways, including as a preacher.

By 1883 he started painting. Approximately 900 paintings and 1100 drawings, were produced during the last ten years of his life.  In 1885 to 1886 he attended the academy in Antwerp. On his return to Paris in 1886 he met artists such as "Degas", "Gauguin" and "Seurat".

In 1888 Van Gogh settled in Arles in Provence, where he was visited by Gauguin and painted his now famous series of "Sunflowers". In the following year a nervous breakdown brought him to a sanatorium at St Remy; it was during this period that he painted "A Wheatfield, with Cypresses". Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life

In 1890, suffering from a new bout of depression, he shot himself in the chest and died two days later. Following his death, his fame grew slowly, helped by the devoted promotion of his art by his widowed sister-in-law. ( Source: Wikipedia )