About the Artist
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 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 colors and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health. Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide at age 37, and exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist "where discourses on madness and creativity converge". He is remembered as an important but tragic painter, whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist.
