In the 37 years of his anguished life, Vincent Van Gogh expressed his turmoil & encroaching madness in extraordinary paintings alive with colours & wild strokes.
Born in Holland, the eldest son of an evangelical pastor, Vincent's early life was full of rejection. Short failed stints in an art gallery, as an assistant teacher and as a clergyman resulted in a long period of soul-searching, where Vincent determined to become an artist. As he later wrote he desired to leave mankind " some momentos in the form of drawings & paintings- not made to please any particular movement, but to express a sincere human feeling."
Supported emotionally & financially by his younger brother, Theo, Vincent spent 7 years developing as an artist, eventually moving to Paris, then to South of France where his style matured only in the last two years of his life. Infuenced by Impressionists and an inspiration for later Fauvists & Expressonists, Vincent's style is considered Post-impressionist but is uniquely his own.
In 1888, Vincent began to suffer from a type of epilepsy that took the form of delusions & psychotic attacks. It was during the seizures & after n argument with his colleague Paul Gauguin that Vincent cut off part of his ear. He spent much of his last years in mental institutions and finally, after a burst of creativity where he completed 70 paintings in as many days, he shot himself in the stomach and died two days later.
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