Brief Biography-Vincent Willem Van Gogh was an artist we intrinsically feel sorry for because of his mental illness and its tragic consequences. He was not the only great artist to suffer the same fate; Edvard Munch had a finger shot off by a lady friend after they split up. He had a severe nervous breakdown in 1908 and entered a clinic for a long spell, as did Vincent on more than one occasion. Coincidently Munch was much influenced by him. These were just two people with mental illness and genius merging.
Vincent’s father was a pastor in his home village of Groot Zundert, who would have influenced him to preach. Instead, he went on a mission where he mixed with and preached to coal miners in Borinage, Belgium. His brother Theo had previously engaged in picture dealing, but it did not agree with him. When discharged from his missionary task, he moved around Belgium aimlessly in extreme poverty, and during this period, he began to paint. His cousin Anton Mauve encouraged him to study at the Antwerp Academy. He also took lessons at the La Haye School and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels but did not gain much from those classes. In 1886, he went to Paris, where he was introduced to impressionism through his brother Theo and met many artists of the era, including Paul Gauguin. In 1888, he went to Arles intending to set up an artist’s group. Gauguin visited him there, but with the unfortunate event of Vincent cutting off his ear in a fit of madness, Gauguin had to leave. Vincent spent time in an asylum before going to Auvers-sur-Oise in 1889, where his brother Theo married. After a short period of anguish and frenzied painting, he sadly shot himself.
As in the Potato Eaters, Vincent’s early dark style changed during his encounter with the impressionists. He marvelled at the bright colours; however, he went on to create his style of a more unrestrained, loose brush we see in most of his paintings. Today his works are amongst the most expensive on the art market.