VINCENT VAN GOGH Born March 30 th 1853

VINCENT VAN GOGH

• Born March 30 th 1853. • Father: Theodorus Van Gogh • Mother: Anna Cornelia Carbentus

• Van Gogh had two younger brothers called Theo and Cor • and three younger sisters Anna , Elizabeth and Willemein

• At 15 years of age he had to leave school and work at his uncles art dealership

• Moved to London in June 1873 to work at the Groupil gallery. • He fell in love with Eugenia Loyer but she would not marry him. • He had a breakdown and turned to God. • He started acting strange and got fired.

• He then went to teach at a Methodist boy’s school and here he decided to devote his life to the church. • He wanted to be a minister in Amsterdam but wouldn’t take the Latin exams so was not allowed to go to the school of Theology. • So he went to Belgium and worked in a church there. • Whilst there he drew pictures of the miners this made the church angry and would not have him anymore.

• In 1880 he moved to Brussels and became an artist with the financial help of his brother Theo. • In 1885 he began work on the potato eaters - his first masterpiece.

• 1886 van Gogh moved to Paris showing up uninvited at his brothers house. • Here he discovered impressionist art.

• He completed more than 2100 pieces of work 860 were oil paintings and more than 1300 were water paintings drawings and sketches.

• He painted the starry night when he was living in an asylum in France in 1889 this was a year before his death.

• He painted two series of sunflowers. Four between August and September 1888 and one in January 1889

• He also created more than 43 self portraits during the course of 10 years.

• December 1888 he was living off of coffee, bread and absinthe. And began to feel sick and strange, it seemed his mental health was failing. His brother Theo asked Paul Gauguin to watch over Vincent but during an argument Van Gogh took a razor and cut off his ear.

• On July 27, 1890 shot himself in the chest. But this did not kill him he was taken to hospital and his brother Theo arrived to watch over him, together they sat and talked and smoked pipes. On the 29 th of July 1980 Vincent van Gogh died at the age of 37 in the arms of his brother Theo