Van Gogh's World

Starry nights and sunflowers, self-portraits and café settings—all painted in bold, intense colors. Today, people around the world immediately recognize these as the work of Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch painter. Probably no other artist, at any time in any culture, has achieved such popularity. But who was this man and why, even today, do his art and life have such an ability to move us?

An Artist Is Born

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, a small village in southern Holland. As a child, he was serious and sensitive. He loved to draw, and his work showed talent, but no one encouraged him to become an artist. Instead, his father thought he should take a "sensible" job—something like a salesclerk or carpenter. As a young adult, he wandered from job to job with little success and very little money, becoming more depressed with each failure. In March 1880, however, just before his 27th birthday, something changed inside van Gogh. He realized that he was meant to be a painter, and he began to study art in Brussels, receiving financial help from his brother Theo.

Discovering Color

In 1886, van Gogh moved to Paris, hoping to learn more about the color techniques being used by Impressionist artists there. Instead of grays and browns, his work began to emphasize blue and red, and then yellow and orange. Soon he began to see life differently: Go slow. Stop thinking. Look around. You'll see something beautiful if you open yourself. These were the principles that guided his art. With his innovative color combinations, van Gogh wanted to show others how to better appreciate a flower, the night sky, or a person's face.

Descent into Madness

Few who lived in van Gogh's time appreciated his work, however. Many laughed when they saw his paintings, which hurt the sensitive artist terribly. In February 1888, he moved away from Paris to Arles, a town in southern France. Often he could not eat or sleep, and stayed up into the early morning hours painting. Days passed, and he spoke to no one.

Following an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, van Gogh took a razor and cut off his own earlobe.1 He never explained why he injured himself, but by now, many were convinced that van Gogh was crazy, and, indeed, his mental health started to decline. He began to have attacks during which he would hear strange sounds and think people were trying to hurt him. In the spring of 1889, he was sent to a mental hospital in Saint-Rémy, a town near Arles. What exactly was van Gogh suffering from? No one knows for certain, but some now think it may have been a form of manic depression.2 Whatever his condition, van Gogh's illness both inhibited and inspired his creativity. When his attacks came, he could not paint. But during his periods of calm, he was able to complete more than a hundred masterpieces, including the classic The Starry Night.

"Working on my pictures," he wrote, "is almost a necessity for my recovery." Following his release from the hospital in May 1890, van Gogh took a room in Auvers-sur-Oise, a town just north of Paris. For the 70 days that he lived there, he produced, on average, a painting a day. Until his death, however, he was unable to sell a single one; today, those paintings would be worth more than a billion U.S. dollars. It was at this time that van Gogh either borrowed or stole a gun. On the afternoon of July 27, 1890, he went out to the country and shot himself in the stomach. Two days later, Vincent van Gogh died at age 37. What caused him to take his own life—his lack of financial success, mental illness, loneliness?

Van Gogh's Legacy