In
the 37 years of his anguished life, Vincent van Gogh expressed his turmoil and
encroaching madness in extraordinary paintings alive with color and wild strokes
(Irises). 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 (Four Seasons: The Sower). As he later wrote, he
desired to leave mankind "some memento in the form of drawings or paintings
- not made to please any particular movemeent, but to express a sincere human feeling."
Supported
emotionally and financially by his younger brother, Theo, Vincent spent seven
years developing as an artist, eventually moving to Paris, then to the south of
France where his style matured only in the last two years of his life. Influenced
by the Impressionists and an inspiration for later Fauvists and Expressionists,
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
and psychotic attacks. It was during a seizure and after an argument with his
colleague Paul Gauguin that Vincent cut off part of his ear (Self Portrait with
Bandaged 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. Visit
complete Van Gogh Gallery, click here | 
