Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853, the son of a Protestant minister. He worked as a missionary in Belgium before moving to Paris in 1886 to study painting.

Supported by his brother Theo, he pursued his singular vision with a radical painting technique. For van Gogh, color became a means of emotional expression. Yellow was his favorite, and it burns forth like the sun from many of his paintings. His thick application of paint matches the intensity of his color schemes. Writing about his painting, Night Cafe, he explains, "I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green."

His own "terrible passions caused him great emotional distress and led him to insane asylums from 1886 to 1890, when he finally took his own life. As he wrestled with madness during these last years, he also managed to produce many of his most powerful works, among them the spectacular Starry Night.

Although he died in poverty and obscurity, Vincent van Gogh has since been recognized as one of the great geniuses of modern art. With dazzling colors and bold compositions, his paintings proclaim the human need for personal expression and understanding.

(c) Graphique de France