Vincent van Gogh: A Ten-Year Career That Changed Modern Art
He tried art dealing, teaching and preaching before he picked up a brush. In the ten years that followed he made more than 850 paintings and sold only a handful.
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous artists in history, yet his whole career as a painter lasted about a decade. This is what the sources tell us about that decade, and where they disagree.
Before painting
Vincent van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Zundert, a village in Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands.1 At 16 he became a trainee at an art dealership in The Hague and later worked in its London and Paris offices until he was dismissed in 1876. He then worked briefly as a teacher in England and in a bookshop, and in 1878 as a lay preacher in the Borinage mining district of Belgium.2
A decade of work
His career as an artist lasted from 1880 to 1890. In Nuenen he painted The Potato Eaters in 1885; from 1886 to 1888 he lived in Paris with his brother Theo, an art dealer who supported him.3
In February 1888 he moved to Arles in the south of France, and in October Paul Gauguin joined him there.3
Arles and the ear
In December 1888, after an argument with Gauguin, Van Gogh reportedly cut off part of his left ear.2
Saint-Rémy and Auvers
In 1889 he entered the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where he painted The Starry Night. In May 1890 he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, near the doctor Paul Gachet, and died there on 29 July 1890.3
After his death
Van Gogh made more than 850 paintings and nearly 1,300 works on paper, and sold only a handful in his lifetime. Theo died six months after him; Theo's widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, inherited the works and in 1914 published Vincent's letters.2
Our documentary, in English, follows Van Gogh's life.
Sources
- 1Young Vincent (Vincent's life, 1853–1890). Van Gogh Museum
- 27 Things You May Not Know About Vincent van Gogh. HISTORY
- 3Vincent van Gogh: The productive decade. Encyclopaedia Britannica
