Vincent van Gogh

The Starry Night (1889). Oil on canvas landscape by Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a leading Post-Impressionist painter from Zundert in the Netherlands. His art displays intense emotional involvement. Among his most famous paintings are The Starry Night and his many Sunflowers.

Van Gogh began painting in the 1880s after initial tuition by Anton Mauve, to whom he was distantly related. The two soon fell out and van Gogh moved to Paris, where he met Paul Gauguin. In 1888, Van Gogh settled in Arles, where Gauguin joined him for a time. They quarreled and van Gogh famously cut off part of his own ear; he then entered an asylum and, in 1890, committed suicide.