Vincent van Gogh, (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890), was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, known for its bold color and raw beauty, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art.
“The eldest son of a Dutch minister and a bookseller’s daughter, pursued various vocations, including that of an art dealer and clergyman, before deciding to become an artist at the age of twenty-seven. Over the course of his decade-long career (1880–90), he produced nearly 900 paintings and more than 1,100 works on paper.”–Metropolitan Museum of Art
According to van Gogh’s life and letters, there were bipolar aspects to his history and he suffered from two distinct episodes of reactive depression from major losses. Both episodes of depression were followed by sustained periods of high energy and enthusiasm, first as an evangelist in a mining town in Belgium and then as a prolific artist in Paris.
(PsychiatryOnline)
His brother Theo, who was an art dealer in Paris and a great support in his life, described Vincent in a letter to their younger sister as follows: “It seems as if he were two persons: one, marvelously gifted, tender and refined, the other, egotistic and hard hearted. They present themselves in turns, so that one hears him talk first in one way, then in the other, and always with arguments on both sides. It is a pity that he is his own enemy, for he makes life hard not only for others but also for himself”.
An analysis of van Gogh’s emotional illness must not obscure the fact that the great artist also had extraordinary strengths and talents. Apart from his episodes of madness (most infamous is the cutting off of his earlobe) he maintained a remarkable degree of lucidity during his stormy life, as documented in the large collection of his letters and detail in his work.
After years of painful anxiety, abuse of absinthe (a popular alcoholic beverage at that time among artists in Paris that may have brought on his seizures) and time spent in the asylum, van Gogh shot himself in the chest in a field outside Auvers. He died two days later with his brother Theo by his side, he was 37 years old.
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