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Vincent van Gogh (1853 -1890)

Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, remains one of the greatest masters of modern art. His broad, swirling brush-strokes, captured in such well-known works as The Starry Night, Starlight Over the Rhone and The Olive Trees, reveal the artist's inner turbulence transformed into expressionistic style.

Van Gogh's early works followed northern European Realism, with somber tones and colors. But in time he claimed the sunflower as his floral muse and yellow his favorite color. This color theme is depicted in some of Van Gogh's most famous works: his many adaptations of Sunflowers, paintings of flaxen-colored fields like View of Arles with Irises, and the outpouring of golden light in Café Terrace at Night.

Van Gogh was born March 30th, 1853 in the Netherlands. Abandoning his studies at the age of sixteen, Van Gogh worked for an art dealer, first in The Hague and then London. This afforded him the opportunity to visit galleries and broaden his knowledge of art.

Between 1885 and 1886, Van Gogh lived in Belgium and studied the work of Rubens and Meunier, the master of Belgian Realism. It was in Antwerp that Van Gogh studied Japanese art, which not only influenced his technique, but also his sense of spirituality and nature in art.

In 1886 Van Gogh went to Paris to live with his brother, Theo, an art dealer. It was here that he was introduced to the new art movements, including Impressionism, and began experimenting with new techniques. Influenced by the intense hues of French artists Seurat and Pissarro, Van Gogh began working with vibrant colors, depicted in The Church at Auvers, which was imbued with his newfound passion for rich blues, yellows and greens. Experimenting with oils, Van Gogh began painting landscapes (like Yellow Wheat and Cypresses, Oat Fields With Mountains in the Back and Mulberry Tree) and using figures, two of the three dominant themes in his works, the third being florals, like his well-known Les Irises and Sunflowers.

During his time in Arles Van Gogh met and painted with Paul Gauguin. But their relationship was tempestuous, and after an altercation one night, Van Gogh cut off part of his own ear in remorse. Although he continued to paint prolifically and intensely, Van Gogh's mental state was fragile and he found himself in and out of asylums. His last painting may have been a portent of things to come: the intense Wheatfield with Crows was painted just before his suicide on July 27th 1890, at age 37.

Van Gogh's young age and tortuous mental state did not preclude his prolific legacy: about 800 paintings and 1600 drawings survive him. They made him one of the most celebrated artists in the history of modern art. His short life was one of inconsistencies: in his lifetime he sold only one painting, yet on May 5th 1990, his work The Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold at Christie's for $82.5 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting.

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