Van Gogh << van GOH or van GAWKH >>, Vincent (1853-1890), was a Dutch painter. He is one of the most famous painters in modern art. But during his lifetime, he received little recognition and sold only one painting.
Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands. When he was 16, he went to The Hague to work for his uncle, an art dealer. Vincent’s brother Theo, to whom he was devoted, stayed in the family art business and eventually became his dealer. In 1876, Vincent tried to become a minister but failed his theology exams. Although he was not ordained, in 1878 he became a preacher in a poor coal-mining district in what is now southwestern Belgium.
In 1880, van Gogh turned to painting as a profession. His early works were still lifes and scenes of peasant life done in dark colors.
In 1886, van Gogh went to Paris. He became part of the intellectual excitement of the Paris art scene through contact with such French painters as Camille Pissarro, Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat. He experimented with Impressionism and other modern art styles and painted scenes of suburban and city life. He also started to collect Japanese prints, which profoundly influenced his work.
In 1888, van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France. There, the influence of the sunlight and landscape inspired him to use even more vivid colors. His commitment to God and to showing the beauty of God’s natural world became a strong theme in his painting. In his works, nature vibrates with energy, motivated by the presence of God that van Gogh perceived in all living things. The self-portrait of van Gogh that is reproduced in this article shows a man of intensity and vision. In his painting The Night Cafe (1888), van Gogh used a steep perspective, strong colors, and gaslights with rings of light around them to express what he called “the terrible passions of humanity.” Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night is an example of his Arles period. 
In 1888, Gauguin visited van Gogh in Arles. The visit ended when van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor and cut off his own ear. Van Gogh spent the last 19 months of his life fighting a mental illness that has never been firmly diagnosed. During this time, periods of deep depression alternated with periods of staggering productivity. Realizing that his agonizing mental condition would not improve, van Gogh killed himself on July 29, 1890.
