Vincent Van Gogh Art

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is generally considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, though he had little success during his lifetime. Van Gogh produced all of his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during a period of only 10 years before he succumbed to mental illness (possibly bipolar disorder) and committed suicide. Impressed and influenced by Jean-Francois Millet, van Gogh focussed on painting peasants and rural scenes. He often used bright colors, and he made some painting in Japanese style. Also some of the portraits he painted are set against a background which shows Japanese art. In spring 1886 Vincent van Gogh went to Paris, where he moved in with his brother Theo; they shared a house on Montmartre. Here he met the painters Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. He later moved to the Dutch province Drenthe, later to Nuenen, North Brabant, also in The Netherlands. In 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris he committed suicide. His fame grew rapidly after his death, especially following a showing of 71 of van Gogh's paintings in Paris on March 17, 1901 (11 years after his death). Van Gogh's influence on expressionism, fauvism and early abstraction was enormous, and can be seen in many other aspects of 20th-century art. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries.