Comment 13

 Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. Moreover, although it sounds strange, Van Gogh only sold one of the hundreds of his paintings, which currently reach incredible prices at auctions. The recognition of his work only began one year after his death, as a result of an exhibition. Nowadays, Van Gogh is considered one of the great geniuses of painting. Furthermore, his works had a decisive influence on all the art of the 20th century.

On the one hand, talking about his life, Vincent van Gogh, who was the eldest of six children, received a good education at a private boarding school and at the age of sixteen he entered as an apprentice in an art trading society founded by his uncle. Later, he worked as a teacher, assistant to a Methodist pastor and worker in a bookshop, among other things. However, he felt very lonely, so his friend Paul Gauguin moved into the "yellow house" to be with him, but the relationship became more and more difficult because of their strong characters. In the course of an argument, Van Gogh even attacked Gauguin with a shaving blade; then, feeling sorry for his actions, he cut off his earlobe to give it to Gauguin, who considered him as a dangerous lunatic with whom he had no intention to keep on living with. After that, van Gogh spent a year in a psychiatric hospital. Finally, this artist killed himself with a gunshot.

On the other hand, talking about his works, there is no doubt that Van Gogh was a fantastic painter. His artistic period was short (about 10 years), but intense. Moreover, during that period of time the artist painted more than 800 pictures and we don't know how many more he could have painted or how his art would have advanced if he hadn't ended his career and his life. Besides, we can see how the different periods of his life are reflected in his paintings, so we can observe a dark period, a brighter period, an inspiring period... Some of the paintings of this important artist are Los comedores de patatas, La siesta and la Noche estrellada.

In short, Vincent van Gogh was a very important artist who created a before and after in the history of art. Unfortunately, he had a complicated life and died very young.