An artist for our times

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) is one of our best known and most loved artists. His iconic paintings such as Sunflowers (1889) are famous the world over, while his life story, punctuated by periods of both mental strength and vulnerability, his love of nature and his determination to stay true to himself make him more relevant today than ever.

Although he worked as an artist for a relatively short time, from 1880 until his death 10 years later, Vincent van Gogh produced a body of work that would go on to shape the direction of modern art. Many of his early works, such as The Potato Eaters (1885), used dark tones, but after moving to Paris and becoming influenced by the Impressionist movement, his colour palette and his brushwork altered, becoming brighter and more expressive.

In the late 1880s he relocated to Arles in the south of France and there – inspired by the vivid colours of the landscape – he painted some of his most famous works, including The Yellow House (1888) and The Harvest (1888).

Vincent wrote regularly to his younger brother Theo, an art dealer, and his letters give an incredible insight into his thought processes and emotional state. “I want to touch people with my art,” he wrote in July 1882. “I want them to say, ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.’”

Theo provided both emotional and financial support and in return, Vincent sent him his paintings; together the brothers amassed a large collection of Vincent’s own works, as well as pieces by his contemporaries and Japanese woodblock prints.

Sadly, Vincent was prone to depressive episodes over the course of his lifetime, and he died in hospital of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 29 July 1890. Theo himself passed away just six months later, and it was left to his widow Jo – and later, the couple’s son Vincent Willem – to secure Vincent’s legacy, eventually securing a permanent home for the family collection of Vincent’s works: the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.