VINCENT VAN GOGH WAS A LATE BLOOMER. HE WAS IN HIS late 20s when he began painting seriously and it took more than a little help from his friends to develop his skills. Despite his fame (“Sunflowers” recently sold for $82 million) only one of his paintings was purchased during his lifetime.
Sunflowers
You would have to be from Mars not to have heard of the ear thing and his tragic suicide. But if you want the whole story, just visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam where more than 200 of his paintings and letters that he wrote to his brother Theo detail Vincent’s sometimes beautiful, sometimes tormented life.
The Potato Eaters
The building itself seems out of place in Amsterdam but this is the best curated exhibit I have ever seen. The paintings are displayed chronologically to show his development as a painter from his beginnings in the Netherlands to France where he was influenced by and became a member of the Impressionist movement. “Starry Night” was conspicuous by its absence but there were numerous self-portraits — he couldn’t afford models — and a Gauguin showing Vincent as an artist.
Van Gogh, the Artist by Paul Gaughin
Van Gogh felt he was the sunflower guy but I prefer his irises. And as his mental health grew more precarious, his work IMHO approached divine. Some of my favorites were copied from works by Jean-Francoise Millet, he of the Barbizon School, when Van Gogh had committed himself to an insane asylum.
My favs "Vase of Irises" "Pieta" (after Millet)
