In an unfinished letter of 1890 written to his brother, the iconic Post-Impressionist Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh made a final effort to explain himself. ‘I risk my life for my own work,’ he wrote, ‘and my reason has foundered in it.’ Some time later Van Gogh wandered into a field of wheat near the home of Dr. Paul Gachet (whom he had immortalised in Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890) and shot himself. He would die two days later.
By then, the myth of Van Gogh’s genius had already begun to spread. A few months earlier, the celebrated French critic Albert Aurier had described him in the Mercure de France as ‘this robust and true artist… with the soul of a mystic.’ Having famously sold only a single painting in his lifetime (The Red Vineyard, 1888), within 15 years of his suicide Van Gogh would be widely recognised as one of the most important artists of his generation.
Van Gogh’s artistic career spanned only a decade. He was born the eldest of six children to a Protestant minister in 1853. The young Vincent worked for international art dealers, Goupil & Co, and as a lay preacher before he decided to paint. Van Gogh would always struggle with the fervency of his faith. By 1880, having been dismissed from both Goupil and his preaching position, he turned to painting as a conduit for his spiritual struggles.
His early works were inspired by the rural realism of Jean-Francois Millet, a period culminating with The Potato Eaters (1885). On the advice of his art-dealer brother and benefactor Theo van Gogh, he lightened his palette. It was a turning point, producing deeply personal works. ‘I have tried to express with red and green,’ he wrote of his work Night Café (1888), ‘all the terrible passions of human nature.’
Following his infamous 1888 season in Arles with Gauguin — the effects of which were captured in his Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) — the last two years of his life saw Van Gogh produce some of his most famous works. They included Starry Night (1889), painted during his self-imposed retreat to an asylum in Provence.
Van Gogh paintings and drawings rarely come to auction, and when they do, achieve historic prices. Memorably, a Sunflowers still life sold for £23 million at Christie’s London in 1987, three times more than any artwork had fetched at auction previously. In 1990, Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet also set a world record price at Christie’s New York, selling for $83 million.
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Kop van een vrouw met witte muts ( Head of a Woman with White Cap )
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Verger avec cyprès
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Laboureur dans un champ
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Champs pr ès des Alpilles
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Jeune homme au bleuet
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Arbres dans le jardin de l'asile
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Vue de l’asile et de la Chapelle Saint-Paul de Mausole (Saint-Rémy)
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Meules de blé
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Coin de jardin avec papillons
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Les canots amarrés
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Vue de l'asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Rémy
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
La Mousmé
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Knotberken
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Kop van een vrouw (Gordina de Groot) (Head of a Woman [Gordina de Groot])
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Wever naar rechts gekeerd (Weaver Facing Right)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
La maison de Vincent à Arles (La maison jaune) ( recto ); page of a letter from Vincent to his brother Theo ( verso )
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Boerin met een kind op haar schoot (Peasant Woman with Child on her Lap)
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Parc à Arles avec un coin de la Maison Jaune
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague (The Windmill)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Statuette de plâtre: Torse de femme, vue de face
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Planteuse de betteraves
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Naaiende vrouw (Woman Sewing)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Une liseuse de romans
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Landschap met Lopende Vrouw
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Wever naar rechts gekeerd (Weaver Facing Right)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Sorrow
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Pollard Willow
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Oude Toren bij Zonsondergang
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Boerin bij de wastobbe, in een tuin (Woman by the Wash Tub, in a Garden)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
In the Dunes (In de Duinen)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Paysanne au bassin dans un jardin
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Six pines near the enclosure wall
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Aardappelrooier
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Le semeur
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Uitzicht over Den Haag met de Nieuwe Kerk (View of The Hague with Nieuwe Kerk)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Boerderij
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Vrouw Zittend voor een Geopende Deur, Aardappels Schillend (Woman Seated Before an Open Door, Peeling Potatoes)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Orphan Man with a Top Hat Drinking a Cup of Coffee
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Weilanden bij Rijswijk en de Schenkweg
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Weaver
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
The Iron Mill in The Hague
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Head of a Peasant Woman: Left Profile
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Hoofd van een visser, driekwart naar rechts gekeerd
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Oude Man en Vrouw
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Groupe de pins
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Etende weesman met hoge hoed
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Femme debout ou de profil
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Weesman met een hoge hoed in zijn linkerhand