“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.”
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life.
His bold, dramatic brush strokes, which squeezed rich, vibrant hues from his palette, expressed emotion and added a sense of movement to his works. Never commercially successful during his lifetime, Van Gogh struggled with severe depression and poverty, eventually leading to his death at the age of 37.
From a small Dutch village to eternal artistic immortality
Vincent Willem van Gogh is born in the small village of Groot-Zundert in the southern Netherlands, the eldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh, a Protestant minister, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus.
Theodorus (Theo) van Gogh is born. He would become Vincent's closest confidant, lifelong supporter, and prolific correspondent. Their exchange of over 600 letters is one of the most important documents in art history.
At 16, Vincent begins working as an apprentice at the Hague branch of the art dealers Goupil & Cie, arranged by his uncle. He discovers great works of art and begins developing his aesthetic sensibility.
After being dismissed from Goupil's, Vincent turns to religion. He works as a teacher in England, then studies theology briefly in Amsterdam. He eventually becomes a missionary in the coal-mining district of Borinage, Belgium, where he lives among the poorest workers.
At 27, Vincent decides to become an artist. With financial support from Theo, he begins studying drawing seriously. He sketches the miners and peasants around him, drawn to depicting the harsh realities of working-class life.
Vincent completes his first major work, 'The Potato Eaters,' a dark, earthy depiction of peasant life in Nuenen. Though it receives harsh criticism, it reveals his deep empathy for the working class and his commitment to painting 'real life.'
Vincent moves to Paris to live with Theo. He encounters Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, meets Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Émile Bernard, and Signac. His palette transforms dramatically — dark earth tones give way to vibrant blues, yellows, and greens.
Seeking the brilliant light of the south, Vincent moves to Arles in Provence. He rents the famous Yellow House, dreaming of establishing an artists' colony — a 'Studio of the South.' Here he enters his most prolific and iconic period, painting sunflowers, cafés, and starlit skies.
After a violent argument with Paul Gauguin, who had been staying at the Yellow House, Vincent suffers a mental breakdown and severs part of his own left ear. He wraps it and delivers it to a woman at a local brothel. Gauguin leaves Arles the next day, and Vincent is hospitalized.
Vincent voluntarily enters the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Despite continued mental episodes, he produces some of his most celebrated works during this period, including 'The Starry Night,' painted from his asylum window in June 1889 — a swirling, luminous masterpiece that would become one of the most recognized images in world culture.
Vincent leaves the asylum and moves to Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, under the care of Dr. Paul Gachet, a homeopathic doctor and amateur artist. In his final 70 days, he paints an astounding 70+ works — nearly one per day — including the hauntingly prophetic 'Wheatfield with Crows.'
On a Sunday evening, Vincent walks into the wheat fields and shoots himself in the chest with a revolver. Wounded, he manages to stagger back to the Ravoux Inn where he is staying. Dr. Gachet and another doctor attend to him, but the bullet cannot be removed.
Vincent dies in the arms of his brother Theo at 1:30 in the morning. He is 37 years old. According to Theo, Vincent's last words were: 'La tristesse durera toujours' — 'The sadness will last forever.' He is buried the next day in the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. Theo, devastated by the loss, dies just six months later on January 25, 1891.
A selection of Vincent's most iconic paintings
1889 · Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
MoMA, New York1888 · Arles
National Gallery, London1888 · Arles
Kröller-Müller Museum1885 · Nuenen
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam1889 · Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Getty Center, Los Angeles1890 · Auvers-sur-Oise
Van Gogh Museum, AmsterdamI would rather die of passion than of boredom.— Vincent van Gogh
Opened in Amsterdam in 1973, it houses the world's largest collection of his works — over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and 700 letters.
His 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet' sold for $82.5 million in 1990 (equivalent to ~$185 million today), making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold.
Van Gogh's expressive style profoundly influenced Fauvism, Expressionism, and early abstraction. His emotional honesty changed how art communicates feeling.
His 903 surviving letters, mostly to Theo, provide an unparalleled window into the mind of a genius — revealing his thoughts on art, life, nature, and the human condition.