Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853 in the south of Holland. His father was a church preacher and his mother was a housewife. Vincent was the eldest of six children. Self-Portrait, 1889

When he was just sixteen years old, Vincent started working in an art gallery. His job was to sell other people’s paintings.

Irises, 1890

He then decided to become a preacher like his father, but when he was 27 he decided to become an artist. He didn’t go to art college but taught himself to paint. Shoes, 1888

One of his first really good paintings was called The Potato Eaters. Do You like it? What do you think of the colours he used? Describe the people in the painting. The Potato Eaters, 1885

However, Vincent found it hard to sell any of his paintings. His brother, Theo, said this was because the colours he was using were too dark. He said that bright colours were more popular. Skull with Cigarette, 1886 Copyright www.seomraranga.com Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent moved to Paris and learned a lot about painting. He liked to paint people but couldn’t afford to pay for models so he bought a mirror and started to paint pictures of himself. Between 1886 and 1889 he painted 12 self portraits. Self Portrait without Beard, 1889

He moved to the French countryside and while he was there he painted one of his most famous paintings called Sunflowers.

Sunflowers, 1889

Vincent had an illness called epilepsy. He took a medicine for his epilepsy which comes from the foxglove plant. This medicine can make you see a lot of the colour yellow. Some people think this is why there is so much yellow in his paintings. Harvest in Provence, 1888

Vincent became very moody and angry. At one stage he cut off a piece of his own left ear. Afterwards, he painted a very famous painting of himself with his bandaged ear. Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889 Copyright www.seomraranga.com Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent became afraid for his own safety and the safety of those around him so he decided to go into a hospital. Whilst there, he painted one of his most famous paintings, A Starry Night. A Starry Night, 1889

A year later, in 1890, he was dead. He had taken his own life. He was only thirty seven years old.

The Bedroom, 1888

Vincent Van Gogh only painted for ten years. Although he painted over eight hundred paintings, he only sold one in his lifetime. It was called The Red Vineyard and was sold for 400 Francs, a lot of The Red Vineyard, 1888 money at the time.