Vincent Willem Van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləm vɑn ˈɣɔx] 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Artist. Born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, in 1869 he began working for art dealers, but in 1877 he studied religion and from 1878 to 1880 he was an evangelist in Belgium. Later he decided to become an artist. He admired the work of Millet and Daumier and his early subjects were peasants. He lived in Brussels and in Netherlands and in February 1886 he moved to Paris where he lived together with his brother, Theo, and encountered Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. In Fernand Cormons atelier, he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He also met Emile Bernard, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Signac at that time. Brighter palette, flowers, portraits, and scenes of Montmartre, replaced his earlier subject matter and tonalities. In February 1887 he moved to Arles, where he painted in isolation. His first mental breakdown was in December 1888. Nevertheless, he continued to paint. In 1890, he was invited to show with Les Vingt in Brussels, where he sold his first painting. That same year, he was represented at the "Salon des Independants" in Paris. He shot himself on July 27, 1890, and died on July 29 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.