Vincent Van Gogh

Dutch artist, a legend for his brilliant work, lived his brief life in misery and poverty. Disappointed in love and religion, he was intense, difficult and unhappy. He seemed to lack a psychological shield to protect him from the pain of everything, every moment. Washed out as a preacher to impoverished coal miners, van Gogh turned to full time art when he was 27. In 1886 he went to Paris to immerse himself in the vanguard styles of the day. He began using the impressionist's choppy brush strokes of pastel color. Within two years, he was disillusioned by what he saw in the Parisian scene, and living with his brother Theodorus, upon whom he was financially dependent. proved to be a strain for both of them. He fled south to Arles. Intoxicated by the countryside, he painted with thicker impasto in blazing yellows, piercing reds and icy greens. His work still did not make him happy; in fact, he was frequently in despair. When his friend, Paul Gauquin, arrived in Arles on 20 October 1888, Van Gogh welcomed him. However, they began to quarrel, drink absinthe, a potent alcohol, and partake in debauchery. When Gauquin left Arles on the morning of 25 December 1888, Vincent followed him with a razor, and then locked himself in his room and cut off the lobe of his left ear. On 14 October 1889, Vincent went quite mad to where he was considered dangerous. He was put in an asylum near Paris on 25 January 1890. His doctor encouraged him to keep painting, and flying into a creative frenzy, van Gogh completed 70 canvases in 70 days. Six months later, on July 27, while painting in a wheat field, he became suddenly, intolerably despondent and shot himself in the chest. He died two days later on the 29th at 1:30 a.m. in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. At the time of his death he was a failure, a misfit who had sold only two paintings in his lifetime, an artist who was later known as one of the most famous painters of all time. Two years after his death, a Dutch museum gave him a retrospective. His tragic story first became the basis for a novel in 1907. Irving Stone's "Lust For Life" came out in 1934 and was made into a movie in 1956. In 1987, a collector paid close to $54 million for his "Irises," now in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Link to Wikipedia biography