Vincent van Gogh grew up in the southern Netherlands, where his father was a minister. After seven years at a commercial art firm, Van Gogh’s desire to help humanity led him to become a teacher, preacher, and missionary—yet without success. Working as a missionary among coal miners in Belgium, he had begun to draw in earnest; finally, dismissed by church authorities in 1880, he found his vocation in art.
Although stimulated by the city’s artistic environment, Van Gogh found life in Paris physically exhausting and moved in early 1888 to Arles. He hoped Provence’s warm climate would relax him and that the brilliant colors and strong light of the south would provide inspiration for his art. Working feverishly, Van Gogh pushed his style to greater expression with intense, energetic brushwork and saturated, complementary colors. Yet his densely painted canvases remained connected to nature—their colors and rhythmic surfaces communicate the spiritual power he believed inhabited and shaped nature's forms. His activity was not undisciplined; quite the opposite, he worked diligently to perfect his craft.
Vincent Van Gogh, or as I like to call him, the Picasso of wavy brush strokes and mad genius, was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who quite literally cut off his own ear for art. Talk about commitment! Known for his vibrant and expressive use of color, this creative wild child managed to capture emotions in a way that would make even the most stoic of critics shed a tear. With paintings like "Starry Night" and "Sunflowers," Van Gogh not only left an indelible mark on the art world but also cemented himself as the poster child for misunderstood artists everywhere. And let's not forget his fabulous fashion sense - that iconic straw hat he wore while traipsing through sunflower fields is still giving me major style inspo today. Unappreciated during his lifetime, Vincent Van Gogh's work now fetches millions at auctions, proving once again that it takes society a hot minute to catch up to true brilliance.