Starry Night
Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat
Van Gogh's paintings are so popular that one of them recently sold for over 80 million dollars. However, during his lifetime he sold only one painting and was very poor. Van Gogh was a very kind and caring person. He even gave away his own food to people poorer than himself.
"Love many things," wrote van Gogh in one of his 700 letters to his brother Theo. Although van Gogh suffered from mental illness and was sad most of his life, he was lucky that his brother gave him moral support and helped him financially.
Van Gogh decided to become an artist when he was 27 years old. He loved the beautiful Japanese prints of Hiroshige, and they influenced his work. He moved to Paris when he was 33 years old and met other Impressionist painters such as Gauguin and Seurat. He created over 800 paintings and 2,000 drawings in the span of only ten years.
Van Gogh left Paris and spent the last two years of his life in southern France, where he painted some of his most famous landscapes.
