Vincent Willem van Gogh, a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who died on July 29, 1890, was one of the most well-known and significant individuals in Western art history after his death. His Dutch name is vnsnt lm vx. He produced around 2,100 pieces of art in a ten-year period, including about 860 oil paintings, the majority of which were produced in the final two years of his life. These works, which range from landscapes to still lifes to portraits and self-portraits, are distinguished by their use of vibrant colours and dramatic, spontaneous, and expressive brushstrokes, which helped lay the groundwork for modern art. He did not have commercial success in his career and suffered from acute despair and poverty, which ultimately caused him to commit suicide at the age of 37.
Van Gogh was an artist who sketched as a youngster and was quiet, serious, and thoughtful. He was born into an upper middle class household. When he was younger, he travelled frequently for his job as an art dealer but fell into depression when he was sent to London. He became religious and served as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium, which was primarily a Roman Catholic region. He lingered in poor health and seclusion until beginning to paint in 1881 after returning to live with his parents. He received financial support from his younger brother Theo, with whom he maintained a close letter-writing relationship. His early works, which mostly consisted of still lifes and representations of peasant labourers, lacked the vibrant colour that would eventually come to define his style. He relocated to Paris in 1886, where he came into contact with avant-garde artists like Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin who were rebelling against the Impressionist aesthetic. As his body of work matured, he acquired a fresh perspective on still lifes and local landscapes. As he established a style that was fully realised while he was living in Arles in the South of France in 1888, his paintings got brighter. He expanded his subject matter during this time to include a number of olive trees, wheat fields, and sunflowers.
Although Van Gogh was concerned about his mental stability and experienced psychotic episodes and delusions, he frequently ignored his physical health, did not eat well, and drank excessively. After a confrontation with a razor in which he, in a fit of passion, severed a portion of his own left ear, his friendship with Gauguin came to an end. He spent time at mental health facilities, including time at Saint-Rémy. He moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise, close to Paris, and emptied himself before being treated by the homoeopath Paul Gachet. Van Gogh’s despair lingered, and on July 27, 1890, he allegedly shot himself in the chest with a handgun. He succumbed to his wounds two days later.
Van Gogh was viewed as a failure and a maniac because he was a business failure throughout his lifetime. He only gained fame after committing himself, therefore in the eyes of the general people, he was a genius who was misunderstood. As the Fauves and German Expressionists adopted aspects of his style in the early 20th century, his fame soared. Over the succeeding decades, he earned broad acclaim and financial success. He is remembered as a significant but tragic painter whose disturbed personality epitomises the romantic ideal of the persecuted artist. A museum bearing his name, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which houses the largest collection of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings, honours his legacy and some of the most valuable artworks ever sold.
