Biography
Who was Van Gogh?
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch painter whose bold use of color, expressive brushwork, and emotionally charged subject matter helped shape the course of modern art. In a career spanning just over a decade, he produced around 2,100 works, including approximately 860 oil paintings, covering landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits. Despite his immense talent, van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, and his work was largely unrecognized while he was alive. After his death, however, his vivid and emotionally powerful paintings became some of the most famous and influential in Western art, inspiring generations of artists and contributing significantly to the development of Expressionism and other modern art movements. Beyond his artistic achievements, van Gogh’s life—marked by passion, struggle, and tragedy—has become emblematic of the “tortured artist,” whose inner turmoil fueled a lasting legacy of beauty and innovation.