View source for Vincent van Gogh

{{short description|Dutch painter (1853–1890)}}
{{redirect|Van Gogh|other uses|Van Gogh (disambiguation)|and|Vincent van Gogh (disambiguation)}}
{{Dutch name capitalization|Van Gogh}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Vincent van Gogh
| image            = Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project (454045).jpg
| alt              = A head and shoulders portrait of a thirty-something man, with a red beard, facing to the left
| caption          = ''[[Portraits of Vincent van Gogh#Paris 1887|Self-Portrait]]'', {{circa}}1887, [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
| birth_name       = Vincent Willem van Gogh
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1853|3|30|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Zundert]], Netherlands
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1890|7|29|1853|3|30}}
| death_place      = [[Auvers-sur-Oise]], France
| death_cause      = [[Death of Vincent van Gogh|Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest]]
| resting_place    = 
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| movement         = [[Post-Impressionism]]
| education        = {{ubl|[[Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)|Royal Academy of Fine Arts]]|{{lang|fr|[[Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts]]|italic=no}}}}
| years_active     = 1881–1890
| field            = 
| family           = [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo van Gogh]] (brother)<br/>[[Wil van Gogh]] (sister)
| notable_works    = {{ubl|''[[Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Sunflowers]]'' (1887)|''[[Bedroom in Arles]]'' (1888)|''[[The Starry Night]]'' (1889)|''[[Wheatfield with Crows]]'' (1890)|''[[At Eternity's Gate|Sorrowing Old Man]]'' (1890)}}
| signature        = Vincent van Gogh signature (Vincent).svg
}}

'''Vincent Willem van Gogh'''{{efn|group=note|{{family name explanation|Van Gogh|Gogh|lang=Dutch}}}} ({{IPA|nl|ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ vɑŋ ˈɣɔx|lang|Vincent_willem_van_gogh.ogg}};{{efn|group=note|The pronunciation of ''Van Gogh'' varies in both English and Dutch. Especially in British English it is {{IPAc-en|v|æ|n|_|ˈ|ɡ|ɒ|x}} {{respell|van|_|GOKH}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2010/01/how_to_say_van_gogh.shtml|title=BBC – Magazine Monitor: How to Say: Van Gogh|date=22 January 2010|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=10 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926092122/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2010/01/how_to_say_van_gogh.shtml|archive-date=26 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> or {{IPAc-en|v|æ|n|_|ˈ|ɡ|ɒ|f}} {{respell|van|_|GOF}}.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 7}} American dictionaries list {{IPAc-en|v|æ|n|_|ˈ|ɡ|oʊ|audio=Genamerivangogh.ogg|}} {{respell|van|_|GOH}}, with a silent ''gh'', as the most common pronunciation.{{sfnp|Davies|2007|page=83}} In the [[dialect of Holland]], it is {{IPA|nl|ˈfɪnsɛnt fɑŋ ˈxɔx||Nl-Vincent_van_Gogh.ogg}}, with a voiceless ''v'' and ''g''. He grew up in Brabant and used [[Brabant dialect]] in his writing; his pronunciation was thus likely {{IPA|nl|vɑɲ ˈʝɔç||generic=yes}}, with a voiced ''v'' and [[Ich-Laut|palatalised]] ''g'' and ''gh'' (see "[[Hard and soft G in Dutch]]").  In France, where much of his work was produced, it is {{IPA|fr|vɑ̃ ɡɔɡ(ə)|}}.{{refn|{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922202031/http://www.vggallery.com/misc/pronunciation.htm|archive-date=22 September 2015|title=Pronunciation of the Name 'Van Gogh'|first=Paul|last=Veltkamp|url=http://www.vggallery.com/misc/pronunciation.htm|publisher=vggallery.com}}}}}} 30 March 1853{{spaced ndash}}29 July 1890) was a Dutch [[Post-Impressionist]] painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks, including around 860 [[oil painting]]s, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes [[Trees and Undergrowth (Van Gogh series)|landscapes]], [[Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)|still lifes]], [[Portraits by Vincent van Gogh|portraits]], and [[Portraits of Vincent van Gogh|self-portraits]], most of which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic [[Paintwork|brushwork]] that contributed to the rise of [[expressionism]] in [[modern art]]. Van Gogh's work was only beginning to gain critical attention before his [[Death of Vincent van Gogh|death]] from suicide at age 37.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Paintings |first=Authors: Department of European |title=Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm |access-date=14 March 2024 |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |date=October 2004 |language=en}}</ref> During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings, ''[[The Red Vineyard]]'', was sold. 

Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs of [[mental instability]]. As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became [[Depression (mood)|depressed]] after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted into ill-health and solitude. He was keenly aware of [[modernist]] trends in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in 1881. His younger brother, [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo]], supported him financially, and the two of them maintained [[The Letters of Vincent van Gogh|a long correspondence]].

Van Gogh's early works consist of mostly [[Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands)|still lifes]] and depictions of [[Peasant Character Studies (Van Gogh series)|peasant labourers]]. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the artistic ''[[avant-garde]]'', including [[Émile Bernard]] and [[Paul Gauguin]], who were seeking new paths beyond [[Impressionism]]. Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, in February 1888 Van Gogh moved to [[Arles]] in [[southern France]] to establish an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, his paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local [[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|olive groves]], [[Wheat Fields|wheat fields]] and [[Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|sunflowers]]. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in late 1888.

Van Gogh suffered from [[Psychosis|psychotic episodes]] and [[delusion]]s. He worried about his mental stability, and often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he mutilated his left ear. Van Gogh spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at [[Saint-Rémy-de-Provence|Saint-Rémy]]. After he discharged himself and moved to the [[Auberge Ravoux]] in [[Auvers-sur-Oise]] near Paris, he came under the care of the [[homeopathic]] doctor [[Paul Gachet]]. His depression persisted, and on 29 July 1890 Van Gogh died from his injuries after shooting himself in the chest with a [[revolver]].

Van Gogh's work began to attract critical artistic attention in the last year of his life. After his death, his art and life story captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-in-law [[Johanna van Gogh-Bonger]].<ref name="The New York Times 2021 u030">{{cite web |title=The Woman Who Made Vincent van Gogh |website=The New York Times |date=14 April 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/magazine/jo-van-gogh-bonger.html |access-date=12 September 2023}}</ref>{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 9}} His bold use of colour, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-garde artistic groups like the [[Fauvism|Fauves]] and [[Expressionism|German Expressionists]] in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the [[tortured artist]]. Today, Van Gogh's works are among the [[List of most expensive paintings|world's most expensive paintings ever sold]]. His legacy is celebrated by the [[Van Gogh Museum]] in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.

==Letters==
{{see also|The Letters of Vincent van Gogh}}
The most comprehensive primary source on Van Gogh is his correspondence with his younger brother, [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo]]. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts and theories of art, are recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from 1872 until 1890.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg "Van Gogh: The Letters"]}} Theo van Gogh was an [[art dealer]] and provided his brother with financial and emotional support as well as access to influential people on the contemporary art scene.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 19}}

Theo kept all of Vincent's letters to him,{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= xv}} but Vincent kept only a few of the letters he received. After both had died, Theo's widow [[Johanna van Gogh-Bonger|Jo Bonger-van Gogh]] arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913; the majority were published in 1914.{{sfnp|Rewald|1986|loc= 248}}{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc=ix, xv}} Vincent's letters are eloquent and expressive, have been described as having a "diary-like intimacy",{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 19}} and read in parts like autobiography.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 19}} Translator [[Arnold Pomerans]] wrote that their publication adds a "fresh dimension to the understanding of Van Gogh's artistic achievement, an understanding granted to us by virtually no other painter."{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= ix}}

{{Multiple image
 | align             = right
 | direction         = horizontal
 | header            = 
 | header_align      = 
 | header_background = 
 | footer            = Vincent van Gogh (left) in 1873, when he worked at the [[Goupil & Cie]] gallery in [[The Hague]];{{refn|{{harvp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 129}}; {{harvp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 39.}}}} his brother, [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo]] (pictured right, in 1878), was a lifelong supporter and friend.
 | footer_align      = 
 | footer_background = 
 | width             = 
 | image1            = Vincent van Gogh January 1873 (restored).jpg
 | width1            = 160
 | caption1          = 
 | alt1              = Head shot photo of the artist as a clean-shaven young man. He has thick, ill-kept, wavy hair, a high forehead, and deep-set eyes with a wary, watchful expression.
 | image2            = Theo van Gogh May 1878 (restored).jpg
 | width2            = 160
 | caption2          = 
 | alt2              = Headshot photo of a young man, similar in appearance to his brother, but neat, well-groomed and calm.
}}

There are more than 600 letters from Vincent to Theo and around 40 from Theo to Vincent. There are 22 to his sister [[Wil van Gogh|Wil]], 58 to the painter [[Anthon van Rappard]], 22 to [[Émile Bernard]] as well as individual letters to [[Paul Signac]], [[Paul Gauguin]], and the critic [[Albert Aurier]]. Some are illustrated with [[sketch (drawing)|sketches]].{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 19}} Many are undated, but art historians have been able to place most in chronological order. Problems in transcription and dating remain, mainly with those posted from Arles. While there, Vincent wrote around 200 letters in Dutch, French, and English.{{sfnp|Hughes|1990|loc=143}} There is a gap in the record when he lived in Paris as the brothers lived together and had no need to correspond.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= i–xxvi}}

The highly paid contemporary artist [[Jules Breton]] was frequently mentioned in Vincent's letters. In 1875 letters to Theo, Vincent mentions he saw Breton, discusses the Breton paintings he saw at a [[Salon (Paris)|Salon]], and discusses sending one of Breton's books but only on condition that it be returned.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh: 9 December 1875|url=http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/3/047.htm|access-date=1 January 2021|website=www.webexhibits.org|archive-date=3 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303174832/http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/3/047.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=034 (034, 27): To Theo van Gogh. Paris, Monday, 31 May 1875. – Vincent van Gogh Letters|url=http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let034/letter.html|access-date=1 January 2021|website=www.vangoghletters.org|archive-date=2 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602230108/http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let034/letter.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In a March 1884 letter to Rappard he discusses one of Breton's poems that had inspired one of his paintings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Poem That Inspired a Van Gogh Painting, Written in His Hand|url=https://www.raabcollection.com/autograph/signed-poem-inspired-van-gogh-painting-written-his-hand|access-date=1 January 2021|website=The Raab Collection|language=en-US|archive-date=17 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417191452/http://www.raabcollection.com/autograph/signed-poem-inspired-van-gogh-painting-written-his-hand|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1885 he describes Breton's famous work ''The Song of the Lark'' as being "fine".<ref>{{Cite web|title=500 (503, 406): To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, Monday, 4 and Tuesday, 5 May 1885. – Vincent van Gogh Letters|url=http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let500/letter.html#translation|access-date=1 January 2021|website=www.vangoghletters.org|archive-date=16 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116090504/http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let500/letter.html#translation|url-status=live}}</ref> In March 1880, roughly midway between these letters, Van Gogh set out on an 80-kilometre trip on foot to meet Breton in the village of Courrières; he was intimidated by Breton's success and the high wall around his estate, and returned without making his presence known.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Route|first=Van Gogh|title=Vincent van Gogh in Borinage, Belgium|url=https://www.vangoghroute.com/belgium/borinage/|access-date=1 January 2021|website=Van Gogh Route|language=en|archive-date=27 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327211003/https://www.vangoghroute.com/belgium/borinage/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=hoakley|date=6 April 2017|title=Jules Breton's Eternal Harvest: 4 1877–1889|url=https://eclecticlight.co/2017/04/06/jules-bretons-eternal-harvest-4-1877-1889/|access-date=1 January 2021|website=The Eclectic Light Company|language=en|archive-date=15 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115200759/https://eclecticlight.co/2017/04/06/jules-bretons-eternal-harvest-4-1877-1889/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=AN ARTIST IS BORN|url=http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/AN-ARTIST-IS-BORN-Vincent-Van-Gogh|access-date=1 January 2021|website=AwesomeStories.com|language=en|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030013427/https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/AN-ARTIST-IS-BORN-Vincent-Van-Gogh|url-status=live}}</ref> It appears Breton was unaware of Van Gogh or his attempted visit. There are no known letters between the two artists and Van Gogh is not one of the contemporary artists discussed by Breton in his 1891 autobiography ''Life of an Artist.''

==Life==
{{See also|Vincent van Gogh chronology}}

===Early years===
{{See also|Van Gogh's family in his art}}
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in [[Zundert|Groot-Zundert]], in the predominantly Catholic province of [[North Brabant]] in the Netherlands.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= 1}} He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh (1822–1885), a minister of the [[Dutch Reformed Church]], and his wife, Anna Cornelia Carbentus (1819–1907). Van Gogh was given the name of his grandfather and of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth.{{efn|group=note|It has been suggested that being given the same name as his dead elder brother might have had a deep psychological impact on the young artist and that elements of his art, such as the portrayal of pairs of male figures, can be traced back to this.{{sfnp|Lubin|1972|loc=82–84}}}} His grandfather, Vincent (1789–1874), was a prominent art dealer and a theology graduate from the [[University of Leiden]] in 1811. This Vincent had six sons, three of whom became art dealers, and may have been named after his great-uncle, a sculptor (1729–1802).{{sfnp|Erickson|1998|loc= 9}}

Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in [[The Hague]].{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 14–16}} His father was the youngest son of a minister.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 59}} The two met when Anna's younger sister, Cornelia, married Theodorus's older brother Vincent (Cent). Van Gogh's parents married in May 1851 and moved to Zundert.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 18}} His brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857. There was another brother, [[Cor van Gogh|Cornelis]] (known as "Cor"), and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and [[Wil van Gogh|Wil]]. In later life, Van Gogh remained in touch only with Wil and Theo.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 16}} Theodorus's salary as a minister was modest, but the Church also supplied the family with a house, a maid, two cooks, a gardener, a carriage and horse; his mother Anna instilled in the children a duty to uphold the family's high social position.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 31–32}}

Van Gogh was a serious and thoughtful child.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 13}} He was taught at home by his mother and a governess, and in 1860, was sent to the village school. In 1864, he was placed in a boarding school at [[Zevenbergen]],{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 25–35}} where he felt abandoned, and he campaigned to come home. Instead, in 1866, his parents sent him to the middle school in [[Tilburg]], where he was also deeply unhappy.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc=45–49}} His interest in art began at a young age. He was encouraged to draw as a child by his mother,{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc=36–50}} and his early drawings are expressive,{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 25–35}} but do not approach the intensity of his later work.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=8–9}} [[Constant Cornelis Huijsmans]], who had been a successful artist in Paris, taught the students at Tilburg. His philosophy was to reject technique in favour of capturing the impressions of things, particularly nature or common objects. Van Gogh's profound unhappiness seems to have overshadowed the lessons, which had little effect.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 48}} In March 1868, he abruptly returned home. He later wrote that his youth was "austere and cold, and sterile."{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let403/letter.html Letter 403]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, Nieuw-Amsterdam, on or about Monday, 5 November 1883.}}

In July 1869, Van Gogh's uncle Cent obtained a position for him at the art dealers [[Goupil & Cie]] in The Hague.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc=20}} After completing his training in 1873, he was transferred to Goupil's London branch on [[Southampton Street, London|Southampton Street]], and took lodgings at [[87 Hackford Road (Van Gogh)|87 Hackford Road]], [[Stockwell]].{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let007/letter.html Letter 007]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, Monday, 5 May 1873.}} This was a happy time for Van Gogh; he was successful at work and, at 20, was earning more than his father. Theo's wife, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, later remarked that this was the best year of Vincent's life. He became infatuated with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, but she rejected him after he confessed his feelings; she was secretly engaged to a former lodger. He grew more isolated and religiously fervent. His father and uncle arranged a transfer to Paris in 1875, where he became resentful of issues such as the degree to which the art dealers commodified art, and he was dismissed a year later.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 35–47}}

[[File:Cuesmes JPG001.jpg|thumb|[[Maison Van Gogh|Van Gogh's home in Cuesmes]]; while there he decided to become an artist|alt=Photo of a two-storey brick house on the left partially obscured by trees with a front lawn and with a row of trees on the right]]

In April 1876, he returned to England to take unpaid work as a [[supply teacher]] in a small [[boarding school]] in [[Ramsgate]]. When the proprietor moved to [[Isleworth]] in Middlesex, Van Gogh went with him.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= xxvii}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let088/letter.html Letter 088]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Isleworth, Friday, 18 August 1876.}} The arrangement was not successful; he left to become a [[Methodist]] minister's assistant.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc=47–56}} His parents had meanwhile moved to [[Etten-Leur|Etten]];{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 113}} in 1876 he returned home at Christmas for six months and took work at a bookshop in [[Dordrecht]]. He was unhappy in the position, and spent his time doodling or translating passages from the Bible into English, French, and German.{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=54}} He immersed himself in Christianity and became increasingly pious and monastic.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 146–147}} According to his flatmate of the time, Paulus van Görlitz, Van Gogh ate frugally, avoiding meat.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 175}}

To support his religious conviction and his desire to become a pastor, in 1877, the family sent him to live with his uncle [[Johannes Stricker]], a respected theologian, in Amsterdam.{{refn|{{harvp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 26}}; {{harvp|Erickson|1998|loc= 23.}}}} Van Gogh prepared for the [[University of Amsterdam]] [[theology]] entrance examination;{{sfnp|Grant|2014|p= 9}} he failed the exam and left his uncle's house in July 1878. He undertook, but also failed, a three-month course at a [[Protestant]] missionary school in [[Laken]], near Brussels.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=60–62, 73}}

In January 1879, he took up a post as a missionary at [[Petit Wasmes|Petit-Wasmes]]{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 101}} in the working class, coal-mining district of [[Borinage]] in Belgium. To show support for his impoverished congregation, he gave up his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to a [[homeless]] person and moved to a small hut, where he slept on straw.{{sfnp|Fell|2015|loc=17}} His humble living conditions did not endear him to church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood." He then walked the {{convert|75|km|mi}} to Brussels,{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=72}} returned briefly to [[Cuesmes]] in the Borinage, but he gave in to pressure from his parents to return home to Etten. He stayed there until around March 1880,{{efn|group=note|Hulsker suggests that van Gogh returned to the Borinage and then back to Etten in this period.{{sfnp|Geskó|2006|loc=48}}}} which caused concern and frustration for his parents. His father was especially frustrated and advised that his son be committed to the lunatic asylum in [[Geel]].{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 209–210, 488–489}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let186/letter.html Letter 186]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Etten, Friday, 18 November 1881.}}{{efn|group=note|See Jan Hulsker's speech ''The Borinage Episode and the Misrepresentation of Vincent van Gogh,'' Van Gogh Symposium, 10–11 May 1990.{{sfnp|Erickson|1998|loc= 67–68}}}}

Van Gogh returned to Cuesmes in August 1880, where he lodged with a miner until October.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let156/letter.html Letter 156]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Cuesmes, Friday, 20 August 1880.}} He became interested in the people and scenes around him, and he recorded them in drawings after Theo's suggestion that he take up art in earnest. He travelled to Brussels later in the year, to follow Theo's recommendation that he study with the Dutch artist [[Willem Roelofs]], who persuaded him – in spite of his dislike of formal schools of art – to attend the {{lang|fr|[[Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts]]|italic=no}}. He registered at the Académie in November 1880, where he studied anatomy and the standard rules of [[Shading|modelling]] and [[Perspective (graphical)|perspective]].{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 67–71}}
{{clear}}

===Etten, Drenthe and The Hague===
{{See also|Early works of Vincent van Gogh}}
[[File:Kee Vos met zoon Jan-cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Kee Vos-Stricker with her son Jan {{circa|lk=no|1879–80}}|alt=A young woman facing left sits with a child to her right]]

Van Gogh returned to Etten in April 1881 for an extended stay with his parents.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= 83}} He continued to draw, often using his neighbours as subjects. In August 1881, his recently widowed cousin, Cornelia "Kee" Vos-Stricker, daughter of his mother's older sister Wil and [[Johannes Stricker]], arrived for a visit. He was thrilled and took long walks with her. Kee was seven years older than he was and had an eight-year-old son. Van Gogh surprised everyone by declaring his love to her and proposing marriage.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 145}} She refused with the words "No, nay, never" ("''nooit, neen, nimmer''").{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let179/letter.html Letter 179]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Etten, Thursday, 3 November 1881.}} After Kee returned to Amsterdam, Van Gogh went to The Hague to try to sell paintings and to meet with his second cousin, [[Anton Mauve]]. Mauve was the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 239–240}} Mauve invited him to return in a few months and suggested he spend the intervening time working in [[charcoal (art)|charcoal]] and [[pastel]]s; Van Gogh returned to Etten and followed this advice.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 239–240}} 

Van Gogh wrote sixteen letters to his brother [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo]] in which he discusses [[Charles Bargue]]’s ''Cours de dessin'' (''Drawing Course''), even attributing his newfound ability to draw what he previously could not to this course.

''“The careful study, the constant and repeated drawing of Bargue’s Exercices au fusain has given me more insight into figure drawing. I’ve learned to measure and to see and to attempt the broad outlines, etc. So that what used to seem to me desperately impossible is now gradually becoming possible, thank God.”'' — Van Gogh, Letter to Theo 172, September 1881.<ref>{{Cite web |title=172 (171, 150): To Theo van Gogh. Etten, mid-September 1881. - Vincent van Gogh Letters |url=https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let172/letter.html |access-date=2025-10-27 |website=vangoghletters.org}}</ref>

Late in November 1881, Van Gogh wrote a letter to Johannes Stricker, one which he described to Theo as an attack.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let189/letter.html Letter 189]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Etten, Wednesday, 23 November 1881.}} Within days he left for Amsterdam.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let193/letter.html Letter 193]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, Etten, on or about Friday, 23 December 1881, describing the visit in more detail.}} Kee would not meet him, and her parents wrote that his "persistence is ''disgusting.''"{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let228/letter.html Letter 228]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, on or about Tuesday, 16 May 1882.}} In despair, he held his left hand in the flame of a lamp, with the words: "Let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame."{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let228/letter.html Letter 228]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, on or about Tuesday, 16 May 1882.}}{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 147}} He did not recall the event well, but later assumed that his uncle had blown out the flame. Kee's father made it clear that her refusal should be heeded and that the two would not marry, largely because of Van Gogh's inability to support himself.{{sfnp|Gayford|2006|loc=125}}

Mauve took Van Gogh on as a student and introduced him to watercolour, which he worked on for the next month before returning home for Christmas.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 250–252}} He quarrelled with his father, refusing to attend church, and left for The Hague.{{efn|group=note|"At Christmas I had a rather violent argument with Pa, and feelings ran so high that Pa said it would be better if I left home. Well, it was said so decidedly that I actually left the same day."}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let194/letter.html Letter 194]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, Thursday 29 December 1881}} In January 1882, Mauve introduced him to [[oil painting|painting in oil]] and lent him money to set up a studio.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let196/letter.html Letter 196]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Tuesday, 3 January 1882.}}{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 64}} Within a month Van Gogh and Mauve fell out, possibly over the viability of drawing from [[plaster cast]]s.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let219/letter.html Letter 219]}} Van Gogh could only afford to hire people from the street as models, a practice of which Mauve seems to have disapproved.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 258}} In June, Van Gogh suffered a bout of [[gonorrhea|gonorrhoea]] and spent three weeks in hospital.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let237/letter.html Letter 237]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Thursday, 8 June 1882.}} Soon after, he first painted in oils,{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 110}} bought with money borrowed from Theo. He liked the medium, and he spread the paint liberally, scraping from the canvas and working back with the brush. He wrote that he was surprised at how good the results were.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 306}}

[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 016.jpg|thumb|''Rooftops, View from the Atelier The Hague,'' 1882, private collection|alt=A view from a window of pale red rooftops. A bird flies in the blue sky; in the near distance there are fields and to the right, the town and other buildings can be seen. On the distant horizon are chimneys.]]

By March 1882, Mauve appeared to have gone cold towards Van Gogh, and stopped replying to his letters.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 96–103}} He had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, [[Sien (Van Gogh series)|Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik]] (1850–1904), and her young daughter.{{refn|{{harvp|Callow|1990|loc=116}}; cites the work of Hulsker; {{harvp|Callow|1990|loc= 123–124}}; {{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let224/letter.html Letter 224] |ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 7 May 1882 }}}} Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant. She had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this.{{refn|{{harvp|Callow|1990|loc=116–117}}. citing the research of [[Jan Hulsker]]; the two dead children were born in 1874 and 1879.}} On 2 July, she gave birth to a baby boy, Willem.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 107}} When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children. Vincent at first defied him,{{refn|{{harvp|Callow |1990|loc= 132}}; {{harvp|Tralbaut|1981|loc=102–104, 112}}}} and considered moving the family out of the city, but in late 1883, he left Sien and the children.{{sfnp|Arnold|1992|loc=38}}

Poverty may have pushed Sien back into prostitution; the home became less happy and Van Gogh may have felt family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. Sien gave her daughter to her mother and baby Willem to her brother.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc=113}} Willem remembered visiting [[Rotterdam]] when he was about 12, when an uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry to legitimise the child.{{sfnp|Wilkie|2004|loc=185}} He believed Van Gogh was his father, but the timing of his birth makes this unlikely.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 101–107}} Sien drowned herself in the [[Scheldt|River Scheldt]] in 1904.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 111–122}}

In September 1883, Van Gogh moved to [[Drenthe]] in the northern Netherlands. In December, driven by loneliness, he went to live with his parents, then in [[Nuenen]], North Brabant.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 111–122}}

===Emerging artist===
====Nuenen and Antwerp (1883–1886)====
{{see also|Peasant Character Studies (Van Gogh series)|Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands)|List of drawings by Vincent van Gogh}}

In Nuenen, Van Gogh focused on painting and drawing. Working outside and very quickly, he completed sketches and [[Peasant Character Studies (Van Gogh series)#The weaver|paintings of weavers]] and [[Cottages (Van Gogh series)|their cottages]]. Van Gogh also completed ''[[The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen]]'', which was stolen from the [[Singer Laren]] in March 2020.<ref name="artnet News 2020">{{cite news | title=Opportunistic Thieves Just Stole a Prized Van Gogh Landscape From a Locked-Down Dutch Museum Under Cover of Night | website=artnet News | date=30 March 2020 | url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/thieves-stolen-van-gogh-masterpiece-dutch-museum-1819743 | access-date=30 March 2020 | archive-date=31 March 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331160056/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/thieves-stolen-van-gogh-masterpiece-dutch-museum-1819743 | url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 174}} From August 1884, Margot Begemann, a neighbour's daughter ten years his senior, joined him on his forays; she fell in love and he reciprocated, though less enthusiastically. They wanted to marry, but neither side of their families approved. Margot was distraught and took an overdose of [[strychnine]], but survived after Van Gogh rushed her to a nearby hospital.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 107}} On 26 March 1885, his father died of a heart attack.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 154}}

Van Gogh painted several groups of [[Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands)|still lifes]] in 1885.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=196–205}} During his two-year stay in Nuenen, he completed numerous drawings and watercolours and nearly 200 oil paintings. His palette consisted mainly of sombre earth tones, particularly dark brown, and showed no sign of the vivid colours that distinguished his later work.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 123–160}}

There was interest from a dealer in Paris early in 1885.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 436}} Theo asked Vincent if he had paintings ready to exhibit.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=29}} In May, Van Gogh responded with his first major work, ''[[The Potato Eaters]]'', and a series of "[[Peasant Character Studies (Van Gogh series)|peasant character studies]]" which were the culmination of several years of work.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 127}} When he complained that Theo was not making enough effort to sell his paintings in Paris, his brother responded that they were too dark and not in keeping with the bright style of Impressionism.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 123–160}} In August his work was publicly exhibited for the first time, in the shop windows of the dealer Leurs in The Hague. One of his [[Peasant Character Studies (Van Gogh series)#Woman|young peasant sitters]] became pregnant in September 1885; Van Gogh was accused of forcing himself upon her, and the village priest forbade parishioners to model for him.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 709}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Stilleven met bijbel - s0008V1962 - Van Gogh Museum.jpg|alt=An image of a large opened bible on a table top|''[[Van Gogh's family in his art|Still Life with Open Bible, Extinguished Candle and Novel]]'', also ''Still Life with Bible'', {{circa}} 1885. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vincent van Gogh - Head of a skeleton with a burning cigarette - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A skull smoking a cigarette|''[[Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette]]'', {{circa}} 1885–86. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vincent van Gogh - Peasant woman digging.jpg|alt=A woman facing away working with a spade|''[[Peasant Woman Digging]]'', or ''Woman with a Spade, Seen from Behind'', {{circa}} 1885. [[Art Gallery of Ontario]], Toronto
File:Vincent van Gogh - Tête de paysanne à la coiffe blanche (1884).jpg|''[[Head of an Old Farmer's Wife in a White Hat|Tête de paysanne à la coiffe blanche]]'', {{circa}} 1884. Private collection.
</gallery>

He moved to Antwerp that November and rented a room above a paint dealer's shop in the rue des Images (''Lange Beeldekensstraat'').{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=181}} He lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend the money Theo sent on painting materials and models. Bread, coffee and [[tobacco smoking|tobacco]] became his staple diet. In February 1886, he wrote to Theo that he could only remember eating six hot meals since the previous May. His teeth became loose and painful.{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=184}} In Antwerp he applied himself to the study of [[colour theory]] and spent time in museums{{mdash}}particularly studying the work of [[Peter Paul Rubens]]{{mdash}}and broadened his palette to include [[carmine]], [[cobalt blue]] and [[Paris green|emerald green]]. Van Gogh bought Japanese [[ukiyo-e]] woodcuts in the docklands, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings.{{sfnp|Hammacher|1985|loc=84}} He was drinking heavily again,{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=253}} and was hospitalised between February and March 1886,{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 477}} when he was possibly also treated for [[syphilis]].{{sfnp|Arnold|1992|loc= 77}}{{efn| group= note |The only evidence for this is from interviews with the grandson of the doctor.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 177–178}} For an overall review see Naifeh and Smith.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc=477 n. 199}}}}

{{multiple image
 | direction = vertical
 | width = 220
 | image1 = Vincent van Gogh - Farm with stacks of peat - Google Art Project.jpg
 | caption1 = ''Farm with Stacks of Peat'', {{circa}}1883
 | image2 = Van-willem-vincent-gogh-die-kartoffelesser-03850.jpg
 | alt2 = A group of five sit around a small wooden table with a large platter of food, while one person pours drinks from a kettle in a dark room with an overhead lantern.
 | caption2 = ''[[The Potato Eaters]]'', {{circa}}1885. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
}}

After his recovery, despite his antipathy towards academic teaching, he took the higher-level admission exams at the [[Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)|Academy of Fine Arts]] in Antwerp and, in January 1886, matriculated in painting and drawing. He became ill and run down by overwork, poor diet and excessive smoking.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 173}} He started to attend drawing classes after plaster models at the Antwerp Academy on 18 January 1886. He quickly got into trouble with [[Charles Verlat]], the director of the academy and teacher of a painting class, because of his unconventional painting style. Van Gogh had also clashed with the instructor of the drawing class [[Franz Vinck]]. Van Gogh finally started to attend the drawing classes after antique plaster models given by [[Eugène Siberdt]]. Soon Siberdt and Van Gogh came into conflict when the latter did not comply with Siberdt's requirement that drawings express the contour and concentrate on the line. When Van Gogh was required to draw the ''[[Venus de Milo]]'' during a drawing class, he produced the limbless, naked torso of a Flemish peasant woman. Siberdt regarded this as defiance against his artistic guidance and made corrections to Van Gogh's drawing with his crayon so vigorously that he tore the paper. Van Gogh then flew into a violent rage and shouted at Siberdt: 'You clearly do not know what a young woman is like, ''God damn it!'' A woman must have hips, buttocks, a pelvis in which she can carry a baby!' According to some accounts, this was the last time Van Gogh attended classes at the academy and he left later for Paris.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 448–489}} On 31 March 1886, which was about a month after the confrontation with Siberdt, the teachers of the academy decided that 17 students, including Van Gogh, had to repeat a year. The story that Van Gogh was expelled from the academy by Siberdt is therefore unfounded.<ref name=lam>{{Cite web|url=https://janlampo.com/category/romantiek/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206170104/https://janlampo.com/category/romantiek/|url-status=dead|title=romantiek|archive-date=6 February 2017|website=Jan Lampo}}</ref>

====Paris (1886–1888)====
{{See also|Japonaiserie (Van Gogh)|Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)}}
<!-- {{multiple image
 | direction = vertical
 | width = 200
 | image1 = Toulouse-Lautrec de Henri Vincent van Gogh Sun.jpg
 | alt1 = Blue-hued pastel drawing of a man facing right, seated at a table with his hands and a glass on it. He is wearing a coat. There are windows in the background.
 | caption1 = [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]], ''[[Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887)|Portrait of Vincent van Gogh]]'', 1887, pastel drawing, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
 | image2 = John Peter Russell Van Gogh drawings.jpg
 | caption2 = [[John Russell (Australian painter)|John Russell]] drew these five studies of van Gogh a year or so after painting [[Vincent van Gogh (Russell painting)|his 1886 portrait]] (studies, [[Art Gallery of New South Wales]], Sydney).<ref>[https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/346.2003/ Five studies of Vincent van Gogh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805231406/https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/346.2003/ |date=5 August 2020 }}, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 15 August 2018.</ref>
}} -->
Van Gogh moved to Paris in March 1886 where he shared Theo's rue Laval apartment in [[Montmartre]] and studied at [[Fernand Cormon]]'s studio. In June the brothers took a larger flat at 54 [[rue Lepic]].{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 187–192}} In Paris, Vincent painted [[Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin|portraits of friends and acquaintances]], [[Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)|still life paintings]], views of [[Le Moulin de la Galette (Van Gogh series)|Le Moulin de la Galette]], [[Montmartre (Van Gogh series)|scenes in Montmartre]], [[Asnières (Van Gogh series)|Asnières]] and along the [[Seine (Van Gogh series)|Seine]]. In 1885 in Antwerp he had become interested in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints and had used them to decorate the walls of his studio; while in Paris he collected hundreds of them. He tried his hand at [[Japonaiserie (Van Gogh)|Japonaiserie]], tracing a figure from a reproduction on the cover of the magazine ''Paris Illustre,'' ''[[Copies by Vincent van Gogh#Copy after Keisai Eisen|The Courtesan or Oiran]]'' (1887), after [[Keisai Eisen]], which he then graphically enlarged in a painting.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 38–39}}

After seeing the portrait of [[Adolphe Monticelli]] at the Galerie Delareybarette, Van Gogh adopted a brighter palette and a bolder attack, particularly in paintings such as his ''[[Saintes-Maries (Van Gogh series)|Seascape at Saintes-Maries]]'' (1888).{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 135}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let853/letter.html Letter 853]|ps= . Vincent to Albert Aurier. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Sunday, 9 or Monday, 10 February 1890.}} Two years later, Vincent and Theo paid for the publication of a book on Monticelli paintings, and Vincent bought some of Monticelli's works to add to his collection.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 520–522}}

Van Gogh learned about [[Fernand Cormon]]'s [[atelier]] from Theo.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 702}} He worked at the studio in April and May 1886,{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 710}} where he frequented the circle of the Australian artist [[John Russell (Australian painter)|John Russell]], who painted [[Vincent van Gogh (Russell painting)|his portrait]] in 1886.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc=62–63}} Van Gogh also met fellow students [[Émile Bernard]], [[Louis Anquetin]] and [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]]&nbsp;– who painted [[Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887)|a portrait of him]] in pastel. They met at [[Julien Tanguy (art dealer)|Julien "Père" Tanguy]]'s paint shop,{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 710}} (which was, at that time, the only place where [[Paul Cézanne]]'s paintings were displayed). In 1886, two large exhibitions were staged there, showing [[Pointillism]] and [[Neo-impressionism]] for the first time and bringing attention to [[Georges Seurat]] and Paul Signac. Theo kept a stock of Impressionist paintings in his gallery on boulevard Montmartre, but Van Gogh was slow to acknowledge the new developments in art.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 212–213}}

Conflicts arose between the brothers. At the end of 1886 Theo found living with Vincent to be "almost unbearable."{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 710}} By early 1887, they were again at peace, and Vincent had moved to [[Asnières-sur-Seine|Asnières]], a northwestern suburb of Paris, where he got to know Signac. He adopted elements of Pointillism, a technique in which a multitude of small coloured dots are applied to the canvas so that when seen from a distance they create an optical blend of hues. The style stresses the ability of [[complementary colour]]s – including blue and orange – to form vibrant contrasts.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=29}}{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 710}}

<gallery widths="135px" heights="165px" class=center>
File:Vincent van Gogh - Windmills on Montmartre - Google Art Project.jpg|''Le Moulin de Blute-Fin'' ({{circa}} 1886) from the ''[[Le Moulin de la Galette (Van Gogh series)|Le Moulin de la Galette]]'' and ''[[Montmartre (Van Gogh series)|Montmartre]]'' series. [[Bridgestone Museum of Art]], Tokyo (F273)
File:Van Gogh - la courtisane.jpg|alt=A Japanese woman looks to the left in a Ukiyo-e style painting|''Courtesan'' (after [[Keisai Eisen|Eisen]]), {{circa}} 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Van Gogh - Portrait of Pere Tanguy 1887-8.JPG|alt=A bearded old man sits gazing directly at the viewer|''[[Portrait of Père Tanguy]],'' {{circa}} 1887. [[Musée Rodin]], Paris
</gallery>

While in Asnières Van Gogh painted [[Asnières (Van Gogh series)#Parks|parks]], [[Asnières (Van Gogh series)#Restaurants|restaurants]] and the [[Seine (Van Gogh series)|Seine]], including ''[[Seine (Van Gogh series)#Bridges across the Seine at Asnières|Bridges across the Seine at Asnières]].'' In November 1887, Theo and Vincent befriended Paul Gauguin who had just arrived in Paris.{{refn|{{harvp|Druick|Zegers|2001|loc= 81}}; {{harvp|Gayford|2006|loc= 50.}}}} Towards the end of the year, Vincent arranged an exhibition alongside Bernard, Anquetin, and probably Toulouse-Lautrec, at the Grand-Bouillon Restaurant du Chalet, 43 avenue de Clichy, Montmartre. In a contemporary account, Bernard wrote that the exhibition was ahead of anything else in Paris.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 256}} There, Bernard and Anquetin sold their first paintings, and Van Gogh exchanged work with Gauguin. Discussions on art, artists, and their social situations started during this exhibition, continued and expanded to include visitors to the show, like [[Camille Pissarro]] and his son [[Lucien Pissarro|Lucien]], Signac and Seurat. In February 1888, feeling worn out from life in Paris, Van Gogh left, having painted more than 200 paintings during his two years there. Hours before his departure, accompanied by Theo, he paid his only visit to Seurat in his studio.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let640/letter.html Letter 640]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, Arles, Sunday, 15 July 1888. Letter 695. Vincent to Paul Gauguin, Arles, Wednesday, 3 October 1888.}}

===Artistic breakthrough===

====Arles (1888–89)====
{{See also|Décoration for the Yellow House|Langlois Bridge at Arles|Saintes-Maries (Van Gogh series)}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - The yellow house ('The street').jpg|thumb|''[[The Yellow House]]'', {{circa}}1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam|alt=A large house under a blue sky]]

Ill from drink and suffering from smoker's cough, in February 1888, Van Gogh sought refuge in [[Arles]].{{sfnp|Hughes|1990|loc=143}} He seemed to have moved with thoughts of founding an [[art colony]]. The Danish artist [[Christian Mourier-Petersen]] was his companion for two months and at first, Arles appeared exotic to Van Gogh. In a letter, he described it as a foreign country: "The [[Zouave]]s, the brothels, the adorable little Arlésienne going to her First Communion, the priest in his surplice, who looks like a dangerous rhinoceros, the people drinking [[absinthe]], all seem to me creatures from another world."{{sfnp|Hughes|1990|loc=144}}

The time in Arles was one of Van Gogh's more prolific periods: he completed 200 paintings and more than 100 drawings and watercolours.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 11}} He was energised by the local countryside and light; his works from this period are rich in yellow, [[ultramarine]] and [[mauve]]. They include harvests, wheat fields and general rural landmarks from the area, including ''The Old Mill'' (1888), one of seven canvases sent to [[Pont-Aven]] on 4 October 1888 in an exchange of works with Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, [[Charles Laval]] and others.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 177}} 

In March 1888, Van Gogh created landscapes using a gridded "perspective frame" and three of those works were shown at the annual exhibition of the [[Société des Artistes Indépendants]]. In April, he was visited by the American artist [[Dodge MacKnight]], who was living nearby at [[Fontvieille, Bouches-du-Rhône|Fontvieille]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 129}}{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= 348}} 

On 1 May 1888, Van Gogh signed a lease for four rooms at 2 Place Lamartine, Arles, which he later painted in ''[[The Yellow House]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vincent van Gogh - The Yellow House (The Street) |url=https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0032v1962 |access-date=15 March 2024 |website=Van Gogh Museum |language=en}}</ref>  The rooms cost 15 [[French franc|francs]] per month, unfurnished; they had been uninhabited for months.{{sfnp|Nemeczek|1999|loc=59–61}} Because the Yellow House had to be furnished before he could fully move in, Van Gogh moved from the Hôtel Carrel to the Café de la Gare on 7 May 1888.{{sfnp|Gayford|2006|loc=16}} He had befriended the Yellow House's proprietors, Joseph and [[L'Arlésienne (painting)|Marie Ginoux]], and was able to use it as a studio.{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=219}} Van Gogh wanted a gallery to display his work and started a series of paintings that eventually included ''[[Van Gogh's Chair]]'' (1888), ''[[Bedroom in Arles]]'' (1888), ''[[The Night Café]]'' (1888), ''[[Café Terrace at Night]]'' (September 1888), ''[[Starry Night Over the Rhone]]'' (1888), and ''[[Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers]]'' (1888), all intended for the [[décoration for the Yellow House|decoration for the Yellow House]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 175–176}}

Van Gogh wrote that with ''The Night Café'' he tried "to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime".{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 266}} When he visited [[Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer]] in June, he gave lessons to a Zouave second lieutenant – [[Portrait of Paul-Eugène Milliet#The Lover: Paul-Eugène Milliet|Paul-Eugène Milliet]]{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= 356, 360}} – and painted [[Saintes-Maries (Van Gogh series)|boats on the sea and the village]].{{refn|[http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0028V1962 "Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888"]. Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. Retrieved 23 February 2016.}} MacKnight introduced Van Gogh to [[Eugène Boch]], a Belgian painter who sometimes stayed in Fontvieille, and the two exchanged visits in July.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= 356, 360}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:De zaaier - s0029V1962 - Van Gogh Museum.jpg|alt=A man sowing seeds in front of a giant sun going down near a large tree|''The Sower with Setting Sun'', {{circa}}1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vissersboten op het strand van Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - s0028V1962 - Van Gogh Museum.jpg|alt=On the edge of the sea four boats on the water in the distance; closer, four boats are on the dry sand on the beach|''Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries'', {{circa}}June 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vincent van Gogh - De slaapkamer - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A small room with paintings on the wall, two chairs, a single bed and a table|''[[Bedroom in Arles]]'', {{circa}}1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - The Old Mill (1888).jpg|alt=A large building under a clear sky with a landscape in the background and two people in the near distance|''The Old Mill'', {{circa}}1888. [[Albright–Knox Art Gallery]], [[Buffalo, New York]]
</gallery>

====Gauguin's visit (1888)====
{{See also|Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)}} 
[[File:Paul Gauguin - Vincent van Gogh painting sunflowers - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Gauguin]], ''[[The Painter of Sunflowers]]: Portrait of Vincent van Gogh'', 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam|alt=A seated red-bearded man wearing a brown coat, facing to the left, with a paintbrush in his right hand, is painting a picture of large sunflowers.]]

When Gauguin agreed to visit Arles in 1888, Van Gogh hoped for friendship and to realise his idea of an artists' collective. Van Gogh prepared for Gauguin's arrival by painting four versions of ''[[Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Sunflowers]]'' in one week.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sunflowers |url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/59202 |access-date=22 October 2022 |website=philamuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> "In the hope of living in a studio of our own with Gauguin," he wrote in a letter to Theo, "I'd like to do a decoration for the studio. ''Nothing but large Sunflowers''."<ref>{{Cite web |title=666 (670, 526): To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 21 or Wednesday, 22 August 1888. - Vincent van Gogh Letters |url=https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let666/letter.html |access-date=22 October 2022 |website=vangoghletters.org}}</ref> 

When Boch visited again, Van Gogh painted a portrait of him, as well as the study ''The Poet Against a Starry Sky''.{{refn|{{harvp|Hulsker|1980|loc= 356}}; {{harvp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 168–169, 206.}}}}{{efn|group=note| Boch's sister [[Anna Boch|Anna]] (1848–1936), also an artist, purchased ''[[The Red Vineyard]]'' in 1890.{{refn|{{harvp|Hulsker|1980|loc= 356}}; {{harvp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 168–169, 206.}}}}}}

In preparation for Gauguin's visit, Van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor [[The Roulin Family (Van Gogh series)|Joseph Roulin]], whose portrait he painted. On 17 September, he spent his first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House.{{refn|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let677/letter.html Letter 677] |ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Sunday, 9 September 1888}}; Letter 681 Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Sunday, 16 September 1888; {{harvp|Gayford |2006|loc= 18}}; {{harvp|Nemeczek|1999|loc=61.}}}} When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, Van Gogh started to work on the ''[[Décoration for the Yellow House]]'', probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook.{{sfnp|Dorn |1990}} He completed two chair paintings: ''Van Gogh's Chair'' and ''Gauguin's Chair.''{{sfnp|Pickvance |1984|loc  =234–235}}

After much pleading from Van Gogh, Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October and, in November, the two painted together. Gauguin depicted Van Gogh in his ''[[The Painter of Sunflowers]]''; Van Gogh painted pictures from memory, following Gauguin's suggestion. Among these "imaginative" paintings is ''[[Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles)|Memory of the Garden at Etten]]''.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc= 374–376}}{{efn|group=note|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let719/letter.html Letter 719]|ps= &nbsp;Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Sunday, 11 or Monday, 12 November 1888:{{paragraph break}}I've been working on two canvases&nbsp;... A reminiscence of our garden at Etten with cabbages, cypresses, dahlias and figures&nbsp;... Gauguin gives me courage to imagine, and the things of the imagination do indeed take on a more mysterious character.{{paragraph break}}}}}} Their first joint outdoor venture was at the [[Alyscamps]], when they produced the pendants ''[[Les Alyscamps]]''.{{sfnp|Gayford|2006|loc=61}} The single painting Gauguin completed during his visit was his portrait of Van Gogh.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 411}}

Van Gogh and Gauguin visited [[Montpellier]] in December 1888, where they saw works by [[Gustave Courbet|Courbet]] and [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]] in the [[Musée Fabre]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 195}} Their relationship began to deteriorate; Van Gogh admired Gauguin and wanted to be treated as his equal, but Gauguin was arrogant and domineering, which frustrated Van Gogh. They often quarrelled; Van Gogh increasingly feared that Gauguin was going to desert him, and the situation, which Van Gogh described as one of "excessive tension", rapidly headed towards crisis point.{{sfnp|Gayford |2006|loc= 274–277}}

<gallery class=center widths="165px" heights="165px">
File:Le café de nuit (The Night Café) by Vincent van Gogh.jpeg|''[[The Night Café]]'', 1888. [[Yale University Art Gallery]], New Haven, Connecticut|alt=A billiard table in the centre of a room of a cafe surrounded by tables. Patrons are seated at several tables, and a man dressed in white stands behind the billiard table.
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh - Cafe Terrace at Night (Yorck).jpg|''[[Café Terrace at Night]]'', 1888. [[Kröller-Müller Museum]], [[Otterlo]]|alt=The outdoor terrace of a cafe with several tables filled with patrons. People are walking along the street under a starry sky.
File:red vineyards.jpg|''[[The Red Vineyard]]'', November 1888. [[Pushkin Museum]], Moscow. Sold to [[Anna Boch]], 1890|alt=A vineyard with many people working picking fruit, while a very large and bright sun shines in the sky.
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 138.jpg|''Van Gogh's Chair'', 1888. [[National Gallery]], London|alt=A single, simple, yellow, wooden and straw, armless, empty chair, with a pipe and tobacco on the seat, in an empty room with tiles on the floor.
File:Vincent van Gogh - De stoel van Gauguin - Google Art Project.jpg|''Paul Gauguin's Armchair'', 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam|alt=An armchair with a cushion seat; there are two books and a lit candle on the seat. A lit lamp is on the wall.
</gallery>

====Hospital in Arles (December 1888)====
{{See also|Hospital in Arles}}
[[File:Le Forum Républicain (Arles) - 30 December 1888 - Vincent van Gogh ear incident.jpg|thumb|Local newspaper report dated 30 December 1888 recording Van Gogh's self-mutilation{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc= 380–382}}|alt=photograph of a partial 19th-century newspaper story about a self-mutilation]]
[[File:Felix Rey portrait & sketch.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Doctor Rey]]'', January 1889, [[Pushkin Museum]]; note written by Dr Rey for novelist [[Irving Stone]] with sketches of the damage to Van Gogh's ear]]

The exact sequence that led to the mutilation of Van Gogh's ear is not known. Gauguin said, fifteen years later, that the night followed several instances of physically threatening behaviour.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc=66}} Their relationship was complex and Theo may have owed money to Gauguin, who suspected the brothers were exploiting him financially.{{sfnp|Druick|Zegers|2001|loc= 266}} It seems likely that Vincent realised that Gauguin was planning to leave.{{sfnp|Druick|Zegers|2001|loc= 266}} The following days saw heavy rain, leading to the two men being shut in the Yellow House.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 290}} Gauguin recalled that Van Gogh followed him after he left for a walk and "rushed towards me, an open razor in his hand".{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 290}} This account is uncorroborated;{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 1}} Gauguin was almost certainly absent from the Yellow House that night, most likely staying in a hotel.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 290}}

After an altercation on the evening of 23 December 1888,<ref name="berkeley" /> Van Gogh returned to his room where he seemingly heard [[auditory hallucination|voices]] and either wholly or in part severed his left ear with a razor{{efn|group=note|Theo and his wife, Gachet and his son, and Signac, who saw van Gogh after the bandages were removed, maintained that only the [[earlobe]] had been removed.{{sfnp| Rewald|1978|loc= 243–248}} According to Doiteau and Leroy, the diagonal cut removed the lobe and probably a little more.{{sfnp|Doiteau|Leroy|1928}} The policeman and Rey both claimed van Gogh severed the entire [[auricle (anatomy)|outer ear]];{{sfnp| Rewald|1978|loc= 243–248}} Rey repeated his account in 1930, writing a note for novelist [[Irving Stone]] and including a sketch of the line of the incision.<ref name="artnews">{{cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-how-one-art-history-teacher-solved-two-of-the-biggest-mysteries-about-van-gogh|title=How One Art History Teacher Solved Two of the Biggest Mysteries about Van Gogh|last=Cain|first=Abigail|date=26 July 2016|website=artsy.net|access-date=21 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221224047/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-how-one-art-history-teacher-solved-two-of-the-biggest-mysteries-about-van-gogh|archive-date=21 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>}} causing severe bleeding.{{sfnp| Rewald|1978|loc= 243–248}} He bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper and delivered the package to a woman at a brothel Van Gogh and Gauguin both frequented.{{sfnp| Rewald|1978|loc= 243–248}} Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital,{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 235}}{{sfnp|Gayford|2006|loc=277}} where he was treated by Félix Rey, a young doctor still in training. The ear was brought to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it as too much time had passed.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 290}} Van Gogh researcher and art historian Bernadette Murphy discovered the true identity of the woman named Gabrielle Berlatier,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bailey |first1=Martin |title=Living with Vincent van Gogh: The Homes & Landscapes That Shaped the Artist |date=2020 |publisher=Quarto Publishing Group |isbn=9780711240193 |page=139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zx2XDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 |access-date=30 May 2024}}</ref> who died in Arles at the age of 80 in 1952, and whose descendants still lived (as of 2020) just outside Arles. Gabrielle, known in her youth as "Gaby", was a 17-year-old cleaning girl at the brothel and other local establishments at the time Van Gogh presented her with his ear.<ref name="berkeley">{{Cite web|url=https://news.lib.berkeley.edu/van-Gogh-ear|title=What actually happened to Vincent van Gogh's ear? Here are 3 things you should know.|website=UC Berkeley Library News|access-date=6 September 2020|archive-date=26 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026061425/https://news.lib.berkeley.edu/van-Gogh-ear|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMBRQLhgFE|title=BBC The Mystery of Van Goghs Ear|date=2 January 2017 |via=www.youtube.com|access-date=6 September 2020|archive-date=6 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200906063851/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMBRQLhgFE|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/historian-bernadette-murphy-on-digging-into-the-van-gogh-ear-mystery/article30915559/|title=Historian Bernadette Murphy on digging into the Van Gogh ear mystery|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=14 July 2016|access-date=6 September 2020|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030165223/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/historian-bernadette-murphy-on-digging-into-the-van-gogh-ear-mystery/article30915559/|url-status=live|last1=Adams|first1=James}}</ref>

Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he may have suffered an acute mental breakdown.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc=707–708}} The hospital diagnosis was "acute mania with generalised delirium",{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 249}} and within a few days, the local police ordered that he be placed in hospital care.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/documentation.html Concordance, lists, bibliography: Documentation]}}{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 237}} Gauguin immediately notified Theo, who, on 24 December, had proposed marriage to his old friend [[Andries Bonger]]'s sister Jo.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 37}} That evening, Theo rushed to the station to board a night train to Arles. He arrived on Christmas Day and comforted Vincent, who seemed to be semi-lucid. That evening, he left Arles for the return trip to Paris.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 704–705}}

During the first days of his treatment, Van Gogh repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for Gauguin, who asked a policeman attending the case to "be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him."{{sfnp|Gayford|2006|loc=284}} Gauguin fled Arles, never to see Van Gogh again. They continued to correspond, and in 1890, Gauguin proposed they form a studio in Antwerp. Meanwhile, other visitors to the hospital included Marie Ginoux and Roulin.{{sfnp|Pickvance |1986|loc=62}}

Despite a pessimistic diagnosis, Van Gogh recovered and returned to the Yellow House on 7 January 1889.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 713}} He spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and [[delusion]]s of poisoning.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 298–300}} In March, the police closed his house after a petition by 30 townspeople (including the Ginoux family) who described him as ''le fou roux'' "the redheaded madman";{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/documentation.html Concordance, lists, bibliography: Documentation]}} Van Gogh returned to hospital. Paul Signac visited him twice in March;{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 300}} in April, Van Gogh moved into rooms owned by Rey after floods damaged paintings in his own home.{{refn|{{harvp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 239–242}}; {{harvp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 265–273.}}}} Two months later, he left Arles and voluntarily entered an asylum in [[Saint-Rémy-de-Provence]]. Around this time, he wrote, "Sometimes moods of indescribable anguish, sometimes moments when the veil of time and fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant."{{sfnp|Hughes|1990|loc= 145}}

Van Gogh gave his 1889 ''[[Portrait of Doctor Rey]]'' to Rey. The doctor was not fond of the painting and used it to repair a chicken coop, then gave it away.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/gun-used-by-vincent-van-gogh-to-kill-himself-goes-on-display-1.2719415|title=Gun used by Vincent van Gogh to kill himself goes on display|last=Cluskey|first=Peter|date=12 July 2016|newspaper=The Irish Times|access-date=22 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023053859/http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/gun-used-by-vincent-van-gogh-to-kill-himself-goes-on-display-1.2719415|archive-date=23 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2016, the portrait was housed at the [[Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts]] and estimated to be worth over $50&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vangoghstudio.com/portrait-of-doctor-felix-rey/|title=Portrait of Doctor Felix Rey Oil Painting Reproduction, 1889|website=van gogh studio|language=nl-NL|access-date=22 October 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023061312/http://www.vangoghstudio.com/portrait-of-doctor-felix-rey/|archive-date=23 October 2016}}</ref>

<gallery widths="165px" heights="165px" class="center">
File:Van Gogh - Selbstbildnis mit verbundenem Ohr und Pfeife.jpeg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the right; he is smoking a pipe, wearing a winter hat. His ear is bandaged and he has no beard.|''Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe'', 1889, private collection
File:Van Gogh - Garten des Hospitals in Arles1.jpeg|alt=A courtyard garden of a large building with tree and fountain.|''The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles'', 1889, Oskar Reinhart Collection "[[Am Römerholz]]", [[Winterthur]], Switzerland
File:Vincent van Gogh - Self-portrait with bandaged ear (1889, Courtauld Institute).jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the right; he is wearing a winter hat, his ear is bandaged and he has no beard.|''Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear'', 1889, [[Courtauld Institute of Art]], London
File:Ward in the Hospital in Arles.jpg|alt=A large room of a large building with hospital beds and several people gathered around a wood-burning stove; nuns and others are in the background.|''Ward in the Hospital in Arles'', 1889, Oskar Reinhart Collection "Am Römerholz", Winterthur, Switzerland
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

====Saint-Rémy (May 1889&nbsp;– May 1890)====
{{Main|Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (Van Gogh series)}}
[[File:VanGogh-starry night ballance1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt= A landscape in which the starry night sky takes up two-thirds of the picture. In the left foreground a dark pointed cypress tree extends from the bottom to the top of the picture. To the left, village houses and a church with a tall steeple are clustered at the foot of a mountain range. The sky is deep blue. In the upper right is a yellow crescent moon surrounded by a halo of light. There are many bright stars large and small, each surrounded by swirling halos. Across the centre of the sky the Milky Way is represented as a double swirling vortex.|''[[The Starry Night]]'', June 1889. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York]]

Van Gogh entered the [[Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole|Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum]] on 8 May 1889, accompanied by his caregiver, Frédéric Salles, a Protestant clergyman. Saint-Paul was a former monastery in Saint-Rémy, located less than {{convert|30|km|mi}} from Arles, and it was run by a former naval doctor, [[Théophile Peyron]]. Van Gogh had two cells with barred windows, one of which he used as a studio.{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=246}} The clinic and [[Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (Van Gogh series)#The garden|its garden]] became the main subjects of his paintings. He made several studies of the hospital's interiors, such as ''Vestibule of the Asylum'' and ''Saint-Rémy (September 1889)'', and its gardens, such as ''[[Lilacs (painting)|Lilacs]]'' (May 1889). Some of his works from this time are characterised by swirls, such as ''[[The Starry Night]]''. He was allowed short supervised walks, during which time he painted [[Cupressus|cypresses]] and olive trees, including ''[[Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above]]'', [[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|''Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background 1889'']], ''[[Cypresses (Metropolitan Museum of Art)|Cypresses 1889]]'', ''Cornfield with Cypresses'' (1889), ''Country road in Provence by Night'' (1890). In September 1889, he produced two further versions of ''Bedroom in Arles'' and [[The Gardener (Van Gogh)|''The Gardener'']].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 102–103}}

Limited access to life outside the clinic resulted in a shortage of subject matter. Van Gogh instead worked on [[Copies by Vincent van Gogh|interpretations of other artist's paintings]], such as [[Jean-François Millet|Millet]]'s ''[[The Sower (Millet)|The Sower]]'' and ''Noonday Rest'', and variations on his own earlier work. Van Gogh was an admirer of the [[Realism (visual art)|Realism]] of [[Jules Breton]], [[Gustave Courbet]] and Millet,{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=23}} and he compared his copies to a musician's interpreting [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 154–157}}

His ''[[Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré)]]'' (1890) was painted after an [[engraving]] by [[Gustave Doré]] (1832–1883). Tralbaut suggests that the face of the prisoner in the centre of the painting looking towards the viewer is Van Gogh himself;{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 286}} [[Jan Hulsker]] discounts this.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=434}}

Between February and April 1890, Van Gogh suffered a severe relapse. Depressed and unable to bring himself to write, he was still able to paint and draw a little during this time,{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 440}} and he later wrote to Theo that he had made a few small canvases "from memory&nbsp;... [[Houses at Auvers#"Reminisces of the North"|reminisces of the North]]".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let863/letter.html letter 863]|ps= . Theo van Gogh to Vincent, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, 29 April 1890.}} Among these was ''Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset''. Hulsker believes that this small group of paintings formed the nucleus of many drawings and study sheets depicting landscapes and figures that Van Gogh worked on during this time. He comments that this short period was the only time that Van Gogh's illness had a significant effect on his work.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 390, 404}} Van Gogh asked his mother and his brother to send him drawings and rough work he had done in the early 1880s so he could work on new paintings from his old sketches.{{sfnp| Rewald|1978|loc= 326–329}} Belonging to this period is ''[[At Eternity's Gate|Sorrowing Old Man ("At Eternity's Gate")]]'', a colour study Hulsker describes as "another unmistakable remembrance of times long past".{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 820}}{{refn|{{harvp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 390, 404}}; {{harvp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 287.}}}} His late paintings show an artist at the height of his abilities, according to the art critic [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], "longing for concision and grace".{{sfnp|Hughes|1990|loc= 144}}

After the birth of his nephew, Van Gogh wrote, "I started right away to make a picture for him, to hang in their bedroom, branches of [[Almond Blossoms|white almond blossom]] against a blue sky."{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 293}}

<gallery widths="165px" heights="165px" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 037.jpg|alt=In an indoor prison yard a large group of men walk in a circle, one behind the other. The face of the prisoner in the centre of the painting and looking toward the viewer looks like van Gogh.|''[[Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré)]]'', 1890. Pushkin Museum, Moscow
File:Vincent van Gogh - The Sower - c. 17-28 June 1888.jpg|alt=A man is scattering seeds in a ploughed field. The figure is represented as small and is set in the upper right and walking out of the picture. He carries a bag of seed over one shoulder. The ploughed soil is grey; behind it rises a standing crop and, in the left distance, a farmhouse. In the centre of the horizon is a giant yellow rising sun with emanating yellow rays. A path leads into the picture, and birds are swooping down.|''The Sower'' (after [[Jean-François Millet]]), 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
File:Van Gogh - Zwei grabende Bäuerinnen auf schneebedecktem Feld.jpeg|alt=Two women are digging in a snowy field, covered in white, houses off in the distance, while the sun rises.|''[[Copies by Vincent van Gogh|Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset]]'' (after [[Jean-François Millet]]), 1890. [[Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection]], Zurich, Switzerland
File:Van Gogh - Trauernder alter Mann.jpeg|''[[At Eternity's Gate|Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate')]]'', 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 820}}|alt=A painting of an old man who sits on a chair with his head in his hands.
</gallery>

====1890 Exhibitions and recognition====

{{See also|Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890}}

[[Albert Aurier]] praised his work in the ''[[Mercure de France]]'' in January 1890 and described him as "a genius".{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc=Appendix III, 310–315|ps = . Aurier's original 1890 review in French with parallel English translation.}} In February, Van Gogh painted five versions of ''[[L'Arlésienne (painting)|L'Arlésienne]] (Madame Ginoux)'', based on a charcoal sketch Gauguin had produced when she sat for both artists in November 1888.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc=175–177}}{{efn|group=note|The version intended for Ginoux is lost. It was an attempt to deliver this painting to her in Arles that precipitated his February relapse.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 440}}}} Also in February, Van Gogh was invited by ''[[Les XX]]'', a society of [[avant-garde]] painters in Brussels, to participate in [[Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890|their annual exhibition]]. At the opening dinner a ''Les XX'' member, [[Henry de Groux]], insulted Van Gogh's work. Toulouse-Lautrec demanded satisfaction, and Signac declared he would continue to fight for Van Gogh's honour if Lautrec surrendered. De Groux apologised for the slight and left the group.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=The London |date=7 June 2021 |title=Essay {{!}} The Madman and the Dwarf: Van Gogh and Lautrec by Jeffrey Meyers |url=https://thelondonmagazine.org/essay-the-madman-and-the-dwarf-van-gogh-and-lautrec-by-jeffrey-meyer/ |access-date=4 October 2024 |website=The London Magazine |language=en-GB}}</ref>

From 20 March to 27 April 1890, Van Gogh was included in the sixth exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in the Pavillon de la Ville de Paris on the Champs-Elysées. Van Gogh exhibited ten paintings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=854 (855, 626): To Theo van Gogh. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Wednesday, 12 February 1890. – Vincent van Gogh Letters|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let854/letter.html|access-date=29 April 2021|website=vangoghletters.org|archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506085123/http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let854/letter.html|url-status=live}}</ref> While the exhibition was on display with the Artistes Indépendants in Paris, [[Claude Monet]] said that Van Gogh's work was the best in the show.{{sfnp|Rewald|1978|loc= 346–347, 348–350}}

====Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890)====
{{See also|Houses at Auvers|Auvers size 30 canvases|Double-squares and Squares}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Les Vessenots à Auvers (1890).jpg|thumb|left|''Les Vessenots à Auvers'', 1890. [[Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum]], Madrid, painted weeks before the artist's death]]

In May 1890, Van Gogh left the clinic in Saint-Rémy to move nearer to both [[Paul Gachet|Dr Paul Gachet]] in the Paris suburb of [[Auvers-sur-Oise]] and to Theo. Gachet was an amateur painter and had treated several other artists – [[Camille Pissarro]] had recommended him. Van Gogh's first impression was that Gachet was "iller than I am, it seemed to me, or let's say just as much."{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/RM20/letter.html Letter RM20]|ps= . Vincent to Theo and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, Saturday, 24 May 1890.}}

The painter [[Charles-François Daubigny|Charles Daubigny]] moved to Auvers in 1861 and in turn drew other artists there, including [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot|Camille Corot]] and [[Honoré Daumier]]. In July 1890, Van Gogh completed two paintings of ''[[Daubigny's Garden]]'', one of which is likely his final work.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 270–271}}

[[File:Vincent van Gogh - The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise, View from the Chevet - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Church at Auvers]]'', 1890. Musée d'Orsay, Paris]]
During his last weeks at Saint-Rémy, his thoughts returned to "[[Houses at Auvers#"Reminisces of the North"|memories of the North]]",{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let863/letter.html letter 863]|ps= . Theo van Gogh to Vincent, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, 29 April 1890.}} and several of the approximately 70 oils, painted during as many days in Auvers-sur-Oise, are reminiscent of northern scenes.{{sfnp|Rosenblum|1975 |loc= 98–100}} In June 1890, he painted several portraits of his doctor, including ''[[Portrait of Dr. Gachet|Portrait of Dr Gachet]]'', and his only [[etching]]. In each the emphasis is on Gachet's melancholic disposition.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 640}} There are other paintings which are probably unfinished, including ''[[Farms near Auvers (Van Gogh)|Thatched Cottages by a Hill]].''{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 270–271}}

In July, Van Gogh wrote that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow".{{sfnp|Edwards|1989|loc=115}} He had first become captivated by the fields in May, when the wheat was young and green. In July, he described to Theo "vast fields of wheat under turbulent skies".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let898/letter.html Letter 898]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Thursday, 10 July 1890.}}

He wrote that they represented his "sadness and extreme loneliness" and that the "canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words, that is, how healthy and invigorating I find the countryside".{{refn|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let898/letter.html Letter 898]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Thursday, 10 July 1890}}; {{harvp|Rosenblum|1975 |loc= 100.}}}} ''[[Wheatfield with Crows]]'', although not his last oil work, is from July 1890 and Hulsker discusses it as being associated with "melancholy and extreme loneliness".{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=478–479}} Hulsker identifies seven oil paintings from Auvers that follow the completion of ''Wheatfield with Crows''.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=472–480}} Hulsker also expressed concern about the number of paintings attributed to Van Gogh from the period.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 July 1997 |title=At least 45 van Goghs may well be fakes: The Art Newspaper investigates |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/1997/07/01/at-least-45-van-goghs-may-well-be-fakes-the-art-newspaper-investigates |access-date=7 March 2024 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events |quote=Citing van Gogh’s period in Auvers-sur-Oise, he pointed out that “the number of paintings attributed to van Gogh far exceeds the amount of work he could have done in the 70 days he stayed there before his death.” Mr Hulsker catalogues 76 oil paintings from Auvers, which represents just over one a day.}}</ref>

===Death===
{{Main|Death of Vincent van Gogh|Auberge Ravoux|Vincent van Gogh's health}}
[[File:Vincent-van-gogh-echo-pontoisien-august7-1890.jpg|thumb|Article on Van Gogh's death from ''L'Écho Pontoisien'', 7 August 1890|alt=Photograph of a 19th-century newspaper announcement of someone's death]]

On 27 July 1890 (Sunday), aged 37, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a [[revolver]].{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 342–343}} The shooting may have taken place in the wheat field in which he had been painting, or in a local barn.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 669}} The bullet was deflected by a rib and passed through his chest without doing apparent damage to internal organs – possibly stopped by his spine. He was able to walk back to the [[Auberge Ravoux]], where he was attended to by two doctors. One of them, Dr Gachet, had served as a war surgeon in the 1870 [[Franco-Prussian War]] and had extensive knowledge of gunshots. Vincent was possibly attended to during the night by Dr Gachet's son Paul Louis Gachet and the innkeeper, Arthur Ravoux. The following morning, Theo rushed to his brother's side, finding him in good spirits but within hours Vincent's health began to fail, suffering from an infection resulting from the wound. He died in the early hours of Tuesday, 29 July. According to Theo, Vincent's last words were: "The sadness will last forever".{{refn|{{harvp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 342–343}}; {{harvp|Hulsker|1980|loc=480–483.}}}}<ref>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5703399s "La misère ne finira jamais", Études, 1947, p. 9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122024925/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5703399s |date=22 November 2016 }}, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Philosophie, histoire, sciences de l'homme, D-33939</ref><ref>"La tristesse durera toujours", François-Bernard Michel, ''La face humaine de Vincent Van Gogh'', Grasset, 3 November 1999, {{ISBN|978-2-246-58959-4}}</ref><ref name="TvGletter">{{cite web |first1= Theodorus |last1= van Gogh |title= Letter from Theo van Gogh to Elisabeth van Gogh Paris, 5 August 1890 |publisher= Webexhibits.org |access-date= 28 April 2015 |url= http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/21/etc-Theo-Lies.htm |quote= he said, "La tristesse durera toujours" [The sadness will last forever] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110624060011/http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/21/etc-Theo-Lies.htm |archive-date= 24 June 2011 |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[File:Graves of Vincent and Théodore Van Gogh.jpg|thumb|Vincent and Theo's graves at [[Auvers-sur-Oise]] Cemetery|alt=Two graves and two gravestones side by side; heading behind a bed of green leaves, bearing the remains of Vincent and Theo van Gogh, where they lie in the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. The stone to the left bears the inscription: ''Ici Repose Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)'' and the stone to the right reads: ''Ici Repose Theodore van Gogh (1857–1891)'']]
Van Gogh was buried on 30 July, in the municipal cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. The funeral was attended by Theo van Gogh, [[Andries Bonger]], [[Charles Laval]], [[Lucien Pissarro]], Émile Bernard, Julien Tanguy and Paul Gachet, among twenty family members, friends and locals. Theo suffered from [[syphilis]], and his health began to decline further after his brother's death. Filled with grief after losing his brother, Theo only survived Vincent by six months, as he died on 25 January 1891 at [[Den Dolder]] and was buried in Utrecht.{{refn|{{harvp|Hayden|2003|loc=152}}; {{harvp|Van der Veen|Knapp|2010|loc=260–264.}}}} In 1914, [[Johanna van Gogh-Bonger|Jo van Gogh-Bonger]] had Theo's body [[exhumation|exhumed]] and moved from Utrecht to be re-buried alongside Vincent's at Auvers-sur-Oise.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 367}}

There have been numerous debates as to the nature of [[Vincent van Gogh's health|Van Gogh's illness]] and its effect on his work, and many [[retrospective diagnosis|retrospective diagnoses]] have been proposed. The consensus is that Van Gogh had an episodic condition with periods of normal functioning.{{sfnp|Arnold|2004}} Perry was the first to suggest [[bipolar disorder]] in 1947,{{sfnp|Perry|1947}} and this has been supported by the psychiatrists Hemphill and Blumer.{{sfnp|Hemphill|1961}}{{sfnp|Blumer|2002}} Biochemist Wilfred Arnold has countered that the symptoms are more consistent with [[acute intermittent porphyria]], noting that the popular link between bipolar disorder and creativity might be spurious.{{sfnp|Arnold|2004}} [[Temporal lobe epilepsy]] with bouts of depression has also been suggested.{{sfnp|Blumer|2002}} Whatever the diagnosis, his condition was likely worsened by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and alcohol.{{sfnp|Blumer|2002}}

==Style and works==

===Artistic development===
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Starry Night - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Starry Night Over the Rhône]]'', 1888. [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris|alt= A view of a dark starry night with bright stars shining over the River Rhone. Across the river distant buildings with bright lights shining are reflected into the dark waters of the Rhone.]]

Van Gogh drew and painted with [[watercolour painting|watercolours]] while at school, but only a few examples survive and the authorship of some has been challenged.{{sfnp|Van Heugten|1996|loc= 246–251}} When he took up art as an adult, he began at an elementary level. In early 1882, his uncle, Cornelis Marinus, owner of a well-known gallery of contemporary art in Amsterdam, asked for drawings of The Hague. Van Gogh's work did not live up to expectations. Marinus offered a second commission, specifying the subject matter in detail, but was again disappointed with the result. Van Gogh persevered; he experimented with lighting in his studio using variable shutters and different drawing materials. For more than a year he worked on single figures&nbsp;– highly elaborate studies in black and white,{{efn|group=note|Artists working in black and white, e.g. for illustrated papers like ''[[The Graphic]]'' or ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' were among van Gogh's favourites.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1974}}}} which at the time gained him only criticism. Later, they were recognised as early masterpieces.{{sfnp|Dorn|Keyes|2000}}

In August 1882, Theo gave Vincent money to buy materials for working ''[[en plein air]]''. Vincent wrote that he could now "go on painting with new vigour".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let253/letter.html Letter 253]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Saturday, 5 August 1882.}} From early 1883, he worked on multi-figure compositions. He had some of them photographed, but when his brother remarked that they lacked liveliness and freshness, he destroyed them and turned to oil painting. Van Gogh turned to well-known [[Hague School]] artists like [[Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch|Weissenbruch]] and [[Bernard Blommers|Blommers]], and he received technical advice from them as well as from painters like [[Théophile de Bock|De Bock]] and [[Herman Johannes van der Weele|van der Weele]], both of the Hague School's second generation.{{sfnp|Dorn|Schröder|Sillevis|1996}} He moved to Nuenen after a short period in Drenthe and began work on several large paintings but destroyed most of them. ''The Potato Eaters'' and its companion pieces are the only ones to have survived.{{sfnp|Dorn|Schröder|Sillevis|1996}} Following a visit to the [[Rijksmuseum]] Van Gogh wrote of his admiration for the quick, economical brushwork of the [[Dutch Masters]], especially [[Rembrandt]] and [[Frans Hals]].{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let535/letter.html Letter 535]|ps= To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 13 October 1885.}}{{efn|group=note|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let535/letter.html Letter 535 ]|ps= To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 13 October 1885:{{paragraph break}}What particularly struck me when I saw the old Dutch paintings again is that they were usually painted quickly. That these great masters like Hals, Rembrandt, [[Jacob van Ruisdael|Ruisdael]]&nbsp;– so many others&nbsp;– as far as possible just put it straight down&nbsp;– and didn't come back to it so very much. And&nbsp;– this, too, please&nbsp;– that if it worked, they left it alone. Above all I admired hands by Rembrandt and Hals&nbsp;– hands that lived, but were not finished in the sense that people want to enforce nowadays&nbsp;... In the winter I'm going to explore various things regarding manner that I noticed in the old paintings. I saw a great deal that I needed. But this above all things&nbsp;– what they call&nbsp;– dashing off&nbsp;– you see that's what the old Dutch painters did famously. That&nbsp;– dashing off&nbsp;– with a few brushstrokes, they won't hear of it now &nbsp;– but how true the results are.{{paragraph break}}}}}} He was aware many of his faults were due to lack of experience and technical expertise,{{sfnp|Dorn|Schröder|Sillevis|1996}} so in November 1885 he travelled to Antwerp and later Paris to learn and develop his skills.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 708}}

[[File:Van_Gogh_The_Olive_Trees..jpg|thumb|''[[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background]]'', 1889. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York|alt=A squarish painting of green winding olive trees; with rolling blue hills in the background and white clouds in the blue sky above.]]

Theo criticised ''The Potato Eaters'' for its dark palette, which he thought unsuitable for a modern style.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=18}} During Van Gogh's stay in Paris between 1886 and 1887, he tried to master a new, lighter palette. His ''[[Portrait of Père Tanguy]]'' (1887) shows his success with the brighter palette and is evidence of an evolving personal style.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=18–19}} [[Charles Blanc]]'s treatise on colour interested him greatly and led him to work with complementary colours. Van Gogh came to believe that the effect of colour went beyond the descriptive; he said that "colour expresses something in itself".{{sfnp|Sund|1988|loc=666}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let537/letter.html Letter 537]|ps= . Vincent to Theo, Nuenen, on or about Wednesday, 28 October 1885.}} According to Hughes, Van Gogh perceived colour as having a "psychological and moral weight", as exemplified in the garish reds and greens of ''[[The Night Café]]'', a work he wanted to "express the terrible passions of humanity".{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 7}} Yellow meant the most to him, because it symbolised emotional truth. He used yellow as a symbol for sunlight, life, and God.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 11}}

Van Gogh strove to be a painter of rural life and nature;{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 232}} during his first summer in Arles he used his new palette to paint landscapes and traditional rural life.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=20}} His belief that a power existed behind the natural led him to try to capture a sense of that power, or the essence of nature in his art, sometimes through the use of symbols.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8–9}} His renditions of the sower, at first copied from [[Jean-François Millet]], reflect the influence of [[Thomas Carlyle]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s thoughts on the heroism of physical labour,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wamberg |first=Jacob |title=Totalitarian Art and Modernity |publisher=Aarhus University Press |year=2010 |editor-last=Rasmussen |editor-first=Mikkel Bolt |pages=36–104 |chapter=Wounded Working Heroes: Seeing Millet and van Gogh through the Cleft Lens of Totalitarianism |editor-last2=Wamberg |editor-first2=Jacob}}</ref> as well as Van Gogh's religious beliefs: the sower as Christ sowing life beneath the hot sun.{{sfnp|Sund|1988|loc=668}} These were themes and motifs he returned to often to rework and develop.{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 236}} His paintings of flowers are filled with symbolism, but rather than use traditional Christian [[iconography]] he made up his own, where life is lived under the sun and work is an allegory of life.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 12}} In Arles, having gained confidence after painting spring blossoms and learning to capture bright sunlight, he was ready to paint ''The Sower''.{{sfnp|Sund|1988|loc=666}}

[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 098.jpg|thumb|''[[Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles)|Memory of the Garden at Etten]]'', 1888. [[Hermitage Museum]], St Petersburg|alt=A squarish painting of a closeup of two women with one holding an umbrella while the other woman holds flowers. Behind them is a young woman who is picking flowers in a large bed of wildflowers. They appear to be walking through a garden on a winding path at the edge of a river.]]
Van Gogh stayed within what he called the "guise of reality"{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 223}} and was critical of overly stylised works.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=21}} He wrote afterwards that the abstraction of ''Starry Night'' had gone too far and that reality had "receded too far in the background".{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=21}} Hughes describes it as a moment of extreme visionary ecstasy: the stars are in a great whirl, reminiscent of [[Hokusai]]'s ''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa|Great Wave]]'', the movement in the heaven above is reflected by the movement of the cypress on the earth below, and the painter's vision is "translated into a thick, emphatic plasma of paint".{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8}}

Between 1885 and his death in 1890, Van Gogh appears to have been building an ''oeuvre'',{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 224}} a collection that reflected his personal vision and could be commercially successful. He was influenced by Blanc's definition of style, that a true painting required optimal use of colour, perspective and brushstrokes. Van Gogh applied the word "purposeful" to paintings he thought he had mastered, as opposed to those he thought of as studies.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=16–17}} He painted many series of studies;{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 223}} most of which were still lifes, many executed as colour experiments or as gifts to friends.{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}} The work in Arles contributed considerably to his ''oeuvre'': those he thought the most important from that time were ''The Sower'', ''Night Cafe'', ''[[Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles)|Memory of the Garden in Etten]]'' and ''Starry Night''. With their broad brushstrokes, inventive perspectives, colours, contours and designs, these paintings represent the style he sought.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=21}}

===Major series===
{{Main|List of works by Vincent van Gogh}}
[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 059.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[L'Arlésienne (painting)|L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux with Books]]'', November 1888. [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York|alt=A well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has two books on her lap, and is dressed in dark clothes vividly contrasted against a yellow background.]]

Van Gogh's stylistic developments are usually linked to the periods he spent living in different places across Europe. He was inclined to immerse himself in local cultures and lighting conditions, although he maintained a highly individual visual outlook throughout. His evolution as an artist was slow and he was aware of his painterly limitations. Van Gogh moved home often, perhaps to expose himself to new visual stimuli, and through exposure develop his technical skill.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc=138}} Art historian Melissa McQuillan believes the moves also reflect later stylistic changes and that Van Gogh used the moves to avoid conflict, and as a coping mechanism for when the idealistic artist was faced with the realities of his then current situation.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 193}}

====Portraits====
{{See also|Portraits by Vincent van Gogh|Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series)|Van Gogh's family in his art}}

Van Gogh said portraiture was his greatest interest. "What I'm most passionate about, much much more than all the rest in my profession", he wrote in 1890, "is the portrait, the modern portrait."<ref>{{Cite web |title=879 (883, W22): To Willemien van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Thursday, 5 June 1890. - Vincent van Gogh Letters |url=https://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let879/letter.html#translation |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.vangoghletters.org}}</ref> It is "the only thing in painting that moves me deeply and that gives me a sense of the infinite."{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let652/letter.html Letter 652]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 31 July 1888.}} He wrote to his sister that he wished to paint portraits that would endure, and that he would use colour to capture their emotions and character rather than aiming for photographic realism.{{refn|{{harvp|Channing|Bradley|2007|loc=67}}; {{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let879/letter.html Letter 879]|ps= . Vincent to Willemien van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Thursday, 5 June 1890.}}}} Those closest to Van Gogh are mostly absent from his portraits; he rarely painted Theo, van Rappard or Bernard. The portraits of his mother were from photographs.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 198}}

Van Gogh painted Arles' postmaster Joseph Roulin and his family repeatedly. In five versions of ''La Berceuse'' (''The Lullaby''), Van Gogh painted Augustine Roulin quietly holding a rope that rocks the unseen cradle of her infant daughter. Van Gogh had planned for it to be the central image of a triptych, flanked by paintings of sunflowers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 2004 |title=Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>

<gallery widths="135px" heights="165px" class="center">
File:Van Gogh - Bildnis der Mutter des Künstlers.jpeg|alt=A closeup portrait of an elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her left (the viewer's right). She has a pleasant smile and she is dressed in a dark top and she is wearing a hat, in front of a vivid green background.|''Portrait of Artist's Mother'', October 1888, [[Norton Simon Museum of Art]], Pasadena, California
File:Vincent van Gogh - Eugène Boch - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A closeup portrait of an intense young man well-dressed with suit and tie, facing to his right (the viewer's left), he has a moustache and goatee and he is standing in front of a starry sky in the background.|''[[Eugène Boch]] (The Poet Against a Starry Sky)'', 1888, [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris
File:Vincent van Gogh - Portret van de postbode Joseph Roulin.jpg|alt=A portrait of a middle aged man with a moustache and beard seated on a chair facing to his left (the viewer's right). He has a thoughtful look on his face and his hands are free while his left arm rests on a table, he is wearing a dark blue uniform and cap, in front of a pale blue background.|''Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin'' (1841–1903), early August 1888, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 084.jpg|alt=An elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has her hands clasped together on her lap, and she is dressed in a dark top and green dress in front of a vivid flower wallpaper background.|''La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin)'', 1889, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
</gallery>
{{clear}}

====Self-portraits====
{{main|Portraits of Vincent van Gogh#Self-portraits}}
[[File:Self-Portrait (Van Gogh September 1889).jpg|alt= A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with an extreme intense, intent look, and a red beard.|thumb|180x180px|''Self-Portrait'', September 1889. [[Musée d'Orsay]]]]

Van Gogh created more than 43 self-portraits between 1885 and 1889.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}}{{efn|group=note|[[Rembrandt]] is one of the few major painters to exceed this volume of self-portraits, producing over 50, but he did so over a forty-year period.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}}}} They were usually completed in series, such as those painted in Paris in mid-1887, and continued until shortly before his death.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc=263–269, 653}} Generally the portraits were studies, created during periods when he was reluctant to mix with others or when he lacked models and painted himself.{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}}{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 261}}

Van Gogh's self-portraits reflect a high degree of self-scrutiny.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 10}} Often they were intended to mark important periods in his life; for example, the mid-1887 Paris series were painted at the point where he became aware of [[Claude Monet]], [[Paul Cézanne]] and Signac.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 265–269}} In ''Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat'', heavy strains of paint spread outwards across the canvas. It is one of his most renowned self-portraits of that period, "with its highly organised rhythmic brushstrokes, and the novel halo derived from the Neo-impressionist repertoire was what Van Gogh himself called a 'purposeful' canvas".{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=83}}

They contain a wide array of [[Physiognomy|physiognomical]] representations.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}} Van Gogh's mental and physical condition is usually apparent; he may appear unkempt, unshaven or with a neglected beard, with deeply sunken eyes, a weak jaw, or having lost teeth. Some show him with full lips, a long face or prominent skull, or sharpened, alert features. His hair is sometimes depicted in a vibrant reddish hue and at other times ash coloured.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}}

Van Gogh's self-portraits vary stylistically. In those painted after December 1888, the strong contrast of vivid colours highlight the haggard pallor of his skin.{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 261}} Some depict the artist with a beard, others without. He can be seen with bandages in portraits executed just after he mutilated his ear. In only a few does he depict himself as a painter.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}} Those painted in Saint-Rémy show the head from the right, the side opposite his damaged ear, as he painted himself reflected in his mirror.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 535–537}}{{sfnp|Cohen|2003|loc=305–306}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Vincent van Gogh - Self-portrait with grey felt hat - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with a relaxed but intent look, a red beard and wearing a grey hat.|''Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat'', Winter 1887–88. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Van Gogh Self-Portrait with Straw Hat 1887-Metropolitan.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with a relaxed look, a red beard and wearing a straw hat.|''[[Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh|Self-Portrait with Straw Hat]]'', Paris, Winter 1887–88. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
File:Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889, NGA 106382.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left (good ear) holding a palette with brushes.  He is wearing a blue cloak and has yellow hair and beard. The background is a deep violet.|''Self-Portrait'', 1889. [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C. His Saint-Rémy self-portraits show the unmutilated ear, as reflected in the mirror.
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 102.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left (good ear), with no beard.|''[[Self-Portrait Without Beard]]'', (c. September 1889) may have been Van Gogh's last self-portrait, which he gave to his mother on her birthday.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 131}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let806/letter.html#n-16 Letter 806, note 16]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Saturday, 28 September 1889.}}
</gallery>

====Flowers====
{{See also|Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Almond Blossoms}}
[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 127.jpg|thumb|upright|''Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers'', August 1888. [[National Gallery]], London|alt=A ceramic vase with sunflowers on a yellow surface against a bright yellow background.]]

Van Gogh painted several landscapes with flowers, including roses, [[lilac]]s, [[iris (plant)|irises]], and [[sunflower]]s. Some reflect his interests in the language of colour, and also in Japanese [[ukiyo-e]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 80–81, 184–187}} There are two series of dying sunflowers. The first was painted in Paris in 1887 and shows flowers lying on the ground. The second set was completed a year later in Arles and is of bouquets in a vase positioned in early morning light.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 413}} Both are built from [[impasto|thickly layered paintwork]], which, according to the London National Gallery, evokes the "texture of the seed-heads".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers|title=Vincent van Gogh; Sunflowers; NG3863|publisher=National Gallery, London|access-date=1 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812154012/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers|archive-date=12 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In these series, Van Gogh was not preoccupied by his usual interest in filling his paintings with subjectivity and emotion; rather, the two series are intended to display his technical skill and working methods to Gauguin,{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 411}} who was about to visit. The 1888 paintings were created during a rare period of optimism for the artist. Vincent wrote to Theo in August 1888:
{{quote|I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers&nbsp;... If I carry out this plan there'll be a dozen or so panels. The whole thing will therefore be a symphony in blue and yellow. I work on it all these mornings, from sunrise. Because the flowers wilt quickly and it's a matter of doing the whole thing in one go.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let666/letter.html Letter 666]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 21 or Wednesday, 22 August 1888.}}}}

The sunflowers were painted to decorate the walls in anticipation of Gauguin's visit, and Van Gogh placed individual works around the ''[[Décoration for the Yellow House|Yellow House's guest room]]'' in Arles. Gauguin was deeply impressed and later acquired two of the Paris versions.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 411}} After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions of the sunflowers as wings of the ''Berceuse Triptych'', and included them in his [[Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890|''Les XX'' in Brussels exhibit]]. Today the major pieces of the series are among his best known, celebrated for the sickly connotations of the colour yellow and its tie-in with the Yellow House, the expressionism of the brush strokes, and their contrast against often dark backgrounds.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 417}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 128.jpg|alt=A ceramic vase with sunflowers on a yellow surface against a pale blue background.|''[[Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers]]'', August 1888. [[Neue Pinakothek]], Munich
File:Irises-Vincent van Gogh.jpg|alt=Irises growing in a garden. There is bare soil visible and orange flowers in the background.|''[[Irises (painting)|Irises]]'', May 1889. [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], Los Angeles
File:Vincent van Gogh - Almond blossom - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Pale pink blossoms on the branches of a tree against a pale blue sky.|''[[Almond Blossoms|Almond Blossom]]'', February 1890. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vincent van Gogh - Irises - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Iris flowers and some green leaves in a yellow vase.|''Still Life: [[Vase with Irises Against a Yellow Background]]'', May 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 819–820}}
<!-- File:Van Gogh - Vase of Roses.jpg|alt=Pale pink roses in a green vase, against a pale green background.|''Still Life: [[Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses|Vase with Pink Roses]]'', May 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 819–820}} -->
</gallery>
{{clear}}

====Cypresses and olives====
{{See also|Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Road with Cypress and Star - c. 12-15 May 1890.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Road with Cypress and Star]]'', May 1890, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo|alt= A painting of a large cypress tree, on the side of a road, with two people walking, a wagon and horse behind them, and a green house in the background, under an intense starry sky.]]

Fifteen canvases depict [[Cupressus sempervirens|cypresses]], a tree he became fascinated with in Arles.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101, 189–191}} He brought life to the trees, which were traditionally seen as emblematic of death.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8–9}} The series of cypresses he began in Arles featured the trees in the distance, as windbreaks in fields; when he was at Saint-Rémy he brought them to the foreground.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 110}} Vincent wrote to Theo in May 1889: "Cypresses still preoccupy me, I should like to do something with them like my canvases of sunflowers"; he went on to say, "They are beautiful in line and proportion like an Egyptian obelisk."{{sfnp|Rewald|1978|loc= 311}}

In mid-1889, and at his sister Wil's request, Van Gogh painted several smaller versions of ''[[Wheat Field with Cypresses]]''.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 132–133}} The works are characterised by swirls and densely painted impasto, and include ''The Starry Night'', in which cypresses dominate the foreground.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101, 189–191}} In addition to this, other notable works on cypresses include ''Cypresses'' (1889), ''Cypresses with Two Figures'' (1889–90), and ''[[Road with Cypress and Star]]'' (1890).{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101}}

During the last six or seven months of the year 1889, he had also created at least fifteen paintings of olive trees, a subject which he considered as demanding and compelling.<ref name="NGA">{{cite web |url=http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg84/gg84-46627.html |title=The Olive Garden, 1889 |year=2011 |work=Collection |publisher=National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510143650/http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg84/gg84-46627.html |archive-date=10 May 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> Among these works are ''[[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background]]'' (1889), about which in a letter to his brother Van Gogh wrote, "At last I have a landscape with olives".{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101}} While in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh spent time outside the asylum, where he painted trees in the olive groves. In these works, natural life is rendered as gnarled and arthritic as if a personification of the natural world, which are, according to Hughes, filled with "a continuous field of energy of which nature is a manifestation".{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8–9}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Van Gogh Starry Night Drawing.jpg|alt=A drawing of a landscape in which the starry night sky takes up two-thirds of the picture. In the left foreground a cypress tree extends from the bottom to the top of the picture. To the left, village houses and a church with a tall steeple are clustered at the foot of a mountain range. In the upper right is a crescent moon surrounded by a halo of light. There are many bright stars large and small, each surrounded by swirling halos. Across the centre of the sky the Milky Way is represented as a double swirling vortex|''Cypresses in Starry Night'', a [[reed pen]] drawing executed by Van Gogh after the painting in 1889
File:Van Gogh - Zypressen mit zwei weiblichen Figuren.jpeg|alt=A painting of a large group of cypress trees, beside which two young women are walking, a large house in the background, under a cloudy blue sky.|''Cypresses and Two Women'', February 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheat Field with Cypresses - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A painting of two large cypress trees under a bright afternoon sky, next to a wheat field in a landscape of hills, bushes, flowers and trees|''[[Wheat Field with Cypresses]]'', September 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
File:Vincent Van Gogh 0016.jpg|alt=A painting of two large cypress trees, under a late afternoon sky, with a crescent moon|''Cypresses'', 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
</gallery>

====Orchards====
{{See also|Flowering Orchards}}

The ''[[Flowering Orchards]]'' (also the ''Orchards in Blossom'') are among the first groups of work completed after Van Gogh's arrival in Arles in February 1888. The 14 paintings are optimistic, joyous and visually expressive of the burgeoning spring. They are delicately sensitive and unpopulated. He painted swiftly, and although he brought to this series a version of Impressionism, a strong sense of personal style began to emerge during this period. The transience of the blossoming trees, and the passing of the season, seemed to align with his sense of impermanence and belief in a new beginning in Arles. During the blossoming of the trees that spring, he found "a world of motifs that could not have been more Japanese".{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 331–333}} Vincent wrote to Theo on 21 April 1888 that he had 10 orchards and "one big [painting] of a cherry tree, which I've spoiled".{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc=45–53}}

During this period Van Gogh mastered the use of light by subjugating shadows and painting the trees as if they are the source of light – almost in a sacred manner.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 331–333}} Early the following year he painted another smaller group of orchards, including ''[[View of Arles, Flowering Orchards]]''.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=385}} Van Gogh was enthralled by the landscape and vegetation of the south of France, and often visited the farm gardens near Arles. In the vivid light of the [[Mediterranean climate]] his palette significantly brightened.{{sfnp|Fell |1997|loc= 32}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 014.jpg|alt=A watercolour of two pink peach trees in a blossoming orchard of trees near a wooden fence under a bright blue sky|''Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve)'', watercolour, March 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum
File:Vincent van Gogh - De roze boomgaard - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A painting of a blossoming orchard of trees under a bright blue sky.|''The Pink Orchard'' also ''Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees'', March 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Van Gogh - Blühender Obstgarten, von Zypressen umgeben.jpeg|alt=A painting of a blossoming orchard of many trees near wooden fences bordered by large cypress trees under a bright blue sky.|''Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses'', April 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent Van Gogh 0018.jpg|alt=A close view of three blossoming trees behind which can be seen a large orchard and field in which a man is working, a village filled with buildings and houses in the background, under a bright sky|''[[View of Arles, Flowering Orchards]]'', April 1889. [[Neue Pinakothek]], Munich
</gallery>

==== Wheat fields ====
{{See also|Wheat Fields (Van Gogh series)|The Wheat Field}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield under thunderclouds - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''[[Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds]]'', 1890, [[Van Gogh Museum]], Amsterdam, Netherlands|alt= An expansive painting of a wheatfield, with green hills through the centre underneath dark and forbidding skies.]]

Van Gogh made several painting excursions during visits to the landscape around Arles. He made paintings of harvests, wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area, including ''The Old Mill'' (1888); a good example of a picturesque structure bordering the wheat fields beyond.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 177}} At various points, Van Gogh painted the view from his window – at The Hague, Antwerp, and Paris. These works culminated in ''[[The Wheat Field]]'' series, which depicted the view from his cells in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=390–394}}

Many of the late paintings are sombre but essentially optimistic and, right up to the time of Van Gogh's death, reflect his desire to return to lucid mental health. Yet some of his final works reflect his deepening concerns.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=283}}{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 680–686}} Writing in July 1890, from Auvers, Van Gogh said that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow".{{sfnp|Edwards|1989|loc=115}}

Van Gogh was captivated by the fields in May when the wheat was young and green. His ''Wheatfields at Auvers with White House'' shows a more subdued palette of yellows and blues, which creates a sense of idyllic harmony.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 654}}

About 10 July 1890, Van Gogh wrote to Theo of "vast fields of wheat under troubled skies".{{refn|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let898/letter.html Letter 898]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Thursday, 10 July 1890.}}}} ''[[Wheatfield with Crows]]'' shows the artist's state of mind in his final days; Hulsker describes the work as a "doom-filled painting with threatening skies and ill-omened crows".{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=478–479}} Its dark palette and heavy brushstrokes convey a sense of menace.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 680}}

<gallery widths="165px" heights="135px" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 007.jpg|alt= A bright squarish painting of a wheatfield, a river, houses, mountains and the rising sun.|''Enclosed Wheat Field with Rising Sun'', May 1889, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh, Dutch - Rain - Google Art Project.jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a wheatfield in a dense pouring rain.|''[[Rain (Van Gogh)|Rain]]'' or ''Enclosed Wheat Field in the Rain'', November 1889, [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]], [[Philadelphia]]
File:Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon (F735).jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a darkened wheatfield of stacks, with a river and mountains in the background under a rising full moon.|''[[Wheat Fields]]'', early June 1889. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
File:Vincent van Gogh - House at Auvers - Google Art Project.jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a wheatfield, in the afternoon, with landscape and a white house in the background.|''Wheat Field at Auvers with White House'', June 1890, [[The Phillips Collection]], Washington D.C.
</gallery>

== Reputation and legacy ==
{{See also|Posthumous fame of Vincent van Gogh|Cultural depictions of Vincent van Gogh}}
[[File:Jo van Gogh-Bonger, by Woodbury and Page-2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Johanna van Gogh-Bonger]], 1889|alt=Black and white formal head shot photo of a young woman, with an easy expression and slight smile]]

After Van Gogh's first exhibitions in the late 1880s, his reputation grew steadily among artists, art critics, dealers and collectors.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 244–254}} In 1887, [[André Antoine]] hung Van Gogh's alongside works of [[Georges Seurat]] and [[Paul Signac]], at the [[Théâtre Libre]] in Paris; some were acquired by Julien Tanguy.{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 305}} In 1889, his work was described in the journal ''[[Le Moderniste Illustré]]'' by Albert Aurier as characterised by "fire, intensity, sunshine".{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 307}} Ten paintings were shown at the Société des Artistes Indépendants, in Brussels in January 1890.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc=72}} French president [[Marie François Sadi Carnot]] was said to have been impressed by Van Gogh's work.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/27/van-gogh-not-unappreciated-lifetime-myth-busting-letter-shows/ |title=Van Gogh was not unappreciated in his lifetime, myth-busting letter shows |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |last=Furness |first=Hannah |date=27 August 2018 |access-date=7 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908015803/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/27/van-gogh-not-unappreciated-lifetime-myth-busting-letter-shows/ |archive-date=8 September 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After Van Gogh's death, memorial exhibitions were held in Brussels, Paris, The Hague and Antwerp. His work was shown in several high-profile exhibitions, including six works at ''[[Les XX]]''; in 1891 there was a retrospective exhibition in Brussels.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc=72}} In 1892, [[Octave Mirbeau]] wrote that Van Gogh's suicide was an "infinitely sadder loss for art&nbsp;... even though the populace has not crowded to a magnificent funeral, and poor Vincent van Gogh, whose demise means the extinction of a beautiful flame of genius, has gone to his death as obscure and neglected as he lived."{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 305}}

Theo died in January 1891, removing Vincent's most vocal and well-connected champion.{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 310}} Theo's widow Jo van Gogh-Bonger was a Dutchwoman in her twenties who had not known either her husband or her brother-in-law very long and who suddenly had to take care of several hundreds of paintings, letters and drawings, as well as her infant son, Vincent Willem van Gogh.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 244–254}}{{efn|group=note|Her husband had been the sole support of the family, and Johanna was left with only an apartment in Paris, a few items of furniture, and her brother-in-law's paintings, which at the time were "looked upon as having no value at all".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/memoir/nephew/1.html Memoirs of V.W. van Gogh]}}}} Gauguin was not inclined to offer assistance in promoting Van Gogh's reputation, and Jo's brother Andries Bonger also seemed lukewarm about his work.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 244–254}} Aurier, one of Van Gogh's earliest supporters among the critics, died of [[typhoid fever]] in 1892 at the age of 27.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 245}}

[[File:Vincent Van Gogh 0013.jpg|thumb|right|upright|''Painter on the Road to Tarascon'', August 1888 (destroyed by fire in the Second World War)|alt=A man wearing a straw hat, carrying a canvas and paintbox, walking to the left, down a tree-lined, leaf-strewn country road]]

In 1892, Émile Bernard organised a small solo show of Van Gogh's paintings in Paris, and Julien Tanguy exhibited his Van Gogh paintings with several consigned from Jo van Gogh-Bonger. In April 1894, the [[Durand-Ruel]] Gallery in Paris agreed to take 10 paintings on consignment from Van Gogh's estate.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 245}} In 1896, the [[Fauvist]] painter [[Henri Matisse]], then an unknown art student, visited [[John Russell (Australian painter)|John Russell]] on [[Belle Île]] off Brittany.{{sfnp| Spurling|1998|loc= 119–138}}<ref name=abc>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1430343.htm|title=The Unknown Matisse&nbsp;... – Book Talk|last=interview with [[Hilary Spurling]]|date=8 June 2005|work=[[ABC Online]]|access-date=1 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012112023/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1430343.htm|archive-date=12 October 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Russell had been a close friend of Van Gogh; he introduced Matisse to the Dutchman's work, and gave him a Van Gogh drawing. Influenced by Van Gogh, Matisse abandoned his earth-coloured palette for bright colours.<ref name=abc/>{{sfnp|Spurling|1998|loc= 138}}

In Paris in 1901, a large Van Gogh retrospective was held at the [[Bernheim-Jeune]] Gallery, which excited [[André Derain]] and [[Maurice de Vlaminck]], and contributed to the emergence of Fauvism.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 245}} Important group exhibitions took place with the [[Sonderbund westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler|Sonderbund]] artists in Cologne in 1912, the [[Armory Show]], New York in 1913, and Berlin in 1914.{{sfnp|Dorn|Leeman|1990}} [[Henk Bremmer]] was instrumental in teaching and talking about Van Gogh,{{sfnp|Rovers|2007|loc= 262}} and introduced [[Helene Kröller-Müller]] to Van Gogh's art; she became an avid collector of his work.{{sfnp|Rovers|2007|loc= 258}} The early figures in [[German Expressionism]] such as [[Emil Nolde]] acknowledged a debt to Van Gogh's work.{{sfnp|Selz|1968|p= 82}} Bremmer assisted [[Jacob Baart de&nbsp;la&nbsp;Faille]], whose ''[[catalogue raisonné]]'' ''L'Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh'' appeared in 1928.{{sfnp|Crockett|Daniels|n.d.}}{{efn|group=note|In de&nbsp;la&nbsp;Faille's 1928 catalogue each of van Gogh's works was assigned a number. These numbers preceded by the letter "F" are frequently used when referring to a particular painting or drawing.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc=721}} Not all the works listed in the original catalogue are now believed to be authentic works of van Gogh.{{sfnp|Feilchenfeldt|2013|loc=278–279}}}} Van Gogh's fame reached its first peak in Austria and Germany before World War I,{{sfnp|Weikop|2007|loc= 208}} helped by the publication of his letters in three volumes in 1914.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 867}} His letters are expressive and literate, and have been described as among the foremost 19th-century writings of their kind.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 19}} These began a compelling mythology of Van Gogh as an intense and dedicated painter who suffered for his art and died young.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= x}} In 1934, the novelist [[Irving Stone]] wrote a biographical novel of Van Gogh's life titled ''[[Lust for Life (novel)|Lust for Life]]'', based on Van Gogh's letters to Theo.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0994883/|title=IMDb for Vincent van Gogh|website=[[IMDb]]|access-date=9 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527102007/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0994883/|archive-date=27 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> This novel and the [[Lust for Life (1956 film)|1956 film]] further enhanced his fame, especially in the United States where Stone surmised only a few hundred people had heard of Van Gogh prior to his surprise best-selling book.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= xii}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlhn_Kxgm8g | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211114/dlhn_Kxgm8g| archive-date=14 November 2021 | url-status=live|title=Irving Stone interview |work=[[Day at Night]] |author-link=James Day (journalist)|first=James |last=Day |date=23 April 1974 |access-date=2 August 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 1957, [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]] based a series of paintings on reproductions of Van Gogh's ''The Painter on the Road to Tarascon'', the original of which was destroyed during the [[Second World War]]. Bacon was inspired by an image he described as "haunting", and regarded Van Gogh as an alienated outsider, a position which resonated with him. Bacon identified with Van Gogh's theories of art and quoted lines written to Theo: "[R]eal painters do not paint things as they are&nbsp;... [T]hey paint them as ''they themselves'' feel them to be."{{sfnp|Farr|Peppiatt|Yard|1999|loc=112}}

[[Don McLean]] composed a song, "[[Vincent (Don McLean song)|Vincent]]", about Van Gogh after reading a biography of the artist. The 1971 song is also known by its opening line, "Starry, Starry Night".<ref>{{cite web |title=Why Did Don McLean Write a Song about Vincent? |website=Van Gogh Museum |accessdate=2025-01-25 |url=https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/vincent-van-gogh-faq/why-did-don-mclean-write-a-song-about-vincent}}</ref>

Van Gogh's works are among the world's [[List of most expensive paintings|most expensive paintings]]. Those sold for over US$100&nbsp;million (today's equivalent) include ''Portrait of Dr Gachet'',{{refn|{{cite web|first=Andrew|last=Decker| url=http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/decker/decker11-4-98.asp |date=5 November 1998 |title= The Silent Boom|website=[[Artnet]] |access-date= 14 September 2011}}}}'' [[:File:Vincent van Gogh - Portrait of Joseph Roulin.jpg|Portrait of Joseph Roulin]]'' and ''Irises''. The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] acquired a copy of ''[[Wheat Field with Cypresses]]'' in 1993 for $57&nbsp;million by using funds donated by publisher, diplomat and philanthropist [[Walter Annenberg]].{{refn|{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/25/arts/annenberg-donates-a-van-gogh-to-the-met.html |title=Annenberg Donates A van Gogh to the Met |first=Michael |last=Kimmelman |newspaper=The New York Times |date=25 May 1993}}}} In 2015, ''[[Les Alyscamps|L'Allée des Alyscamps]]'' sold for $66.3&nbsp;million at [[Sotheby's]], New York, exceeding its reserve of $40&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.artnet.com/market/led-66m-van-gogh-sothebys-impressionist-modern-sale-robustly-kicks-off-season-294831|first=Brian|last=Boucher|date=5 May 2015|title=Mysterious Asian Buyer Causes Sensation at Sotheby's $368 Million Impressionist Sale|newspaper=[[Artnet]]|access-date=4 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807123039/https://news.artnet.com/market/led-66m-van-gogh-sothebys-impressionist-modern-sale-robustly-kicks-off-season-294831|archive-date=7 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Minor planet [[4457 van Gogh|4457 Van Gogh]] is named in his honour.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-540-29925-7_4402 |chapter=(4457) van Gogh |publisher=Springer |date=2003 |pages=383 |isbn=978-3-540-29925-7 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_4402 |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names }}</ref>

In October 2022, two [[Just Stop Oil]] activists protesting against the effects of the fossil fuel industry on climate change threw a can of tomato soup on Van Gogh's ''Sunflowers'' in the National Gallery, London, and then glued their hands to the gallery wall. As the painting was covered by glass it was not damaged.<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 October 2022 |title=Van Gogh's Sunflowers back on display after oil protesters threw soup on it |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63254878 |access-date=15 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 October 2022 |title=UK: Climate protesters throw soup on van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' |url=https://apnews.com/article/london-painting-climate-and-environment-b15e0092560b290c04920620b2d7c061 |access-date=15 October 2022 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref>

On October 15, 2024, the Netherlands' State Secretary of [[Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature]], [[Jean Rummenie]], granted [[national park]] status to [[Van Gogh National Park]] in [[North Brabant]], the area Vincent van Gogh grew up in.<ref>West 8 "Van Gogh National Park granted official status!" West 8, West 8, 2025, https://www.west8.com/van-gogh-national-park-granted-official-status/, Date accessed: August 13, 2025</ref><ref>Van Gogh National Park "Over ons" Van Gogh Nationaal Park Voor partners, Van Gogh Nationaal Park, 2025, https://partners.vangoghnationalpark.com/nl/over-ons, Date accessed: August 13, 2025</ref>

===Van Gogh Museum===
{{main|Van Gogh Museum}}
[[File:Weesp and Amsterdam (Netherland, June 2020) - 7 (50550627911).jpg|thumb|The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]]

Van Gogh's nephew and namesake, [[Vincent Willem van Gogh (art collector)|Vincent Willem van Gogh]] (1890–1978),{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 253}} inherited the estate after his mother's death in 1925. During the early 1950s he arranged for the publication of a complete edition of the letters presented in four volumes and several languages. He then began negotiations with the Dutch government to subsidise a foundation to purchase and house the entire collection.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 252}} Theo's son participated in planning the project in the hope that the works would be exhibited under the best possible conditions. The project began in 1963; architect [[Gerrit Rietveld]] was commissioned to design it, and after his death in 1964 [[Kisho Kurokawa]] took charge.<ref name=nga>{{citation |url=http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/vgmsm.shtm |title=Van Gogh's Van Goghs: The Van Gogh Museum |date=4 October 1998 |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=23 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529195527/http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/vgmsm.shtm |archive-date=29 May 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> Work progressed throughout the 1960s, with 1972 as the target for its grand opening.{{sfnp| Rewald|1986|loc= 253}}

The [[Van Gogh Museum]] opened in the [[Museumplein]] in Amsterdam in 1973.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= xiii}} It became the second most popular museum in the Netherlands, after the [[Rijksmuseum]], regularly receiving more than 1.5&nbsp;million visitors a year. In 2015 it had a record 1.9&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/150751/bezoekersrecords_voor_van_gogh_museum_en_nemo|title=Bezoekersrecords voor Van Gogh Museum en NEMO|date=15 December 2015|trans-title=Record breaking number of visitors to the Van Gogh Museum and the NEMO Science Museum|language=nl|work=[[AT5]]|access-date=4 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721082453/http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/150751/bezoekersrecords_voor_van_gogh_museum_en_nemo|archive-date=21 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Eighty-five percent of the visitors come from other countries.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2015/sep/01/van-gogh-museum-chief-axel-ruger-interview|title=Van Gogh Museum chief: it's critical to diversify our income streams|last=Caines|first=Matthew|date=1 September 2015|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826101634/https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2015/sep/01/van-gogh-museum-chief-axel-ruger-interview|archive-date=26 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Nazi-looted art ==
{{Main|Nazi looting of artworks by Vincent van Gogh}}

During the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi period]] (1933–1945) a great number of artworks by Van Gogh changed hands, many of them looted from Jewish collectors who were forced into exile or murdered. Some of these works have disappeared into private collections. Others have since resurfaced in museums, or at auction, or have been reclaimed, often in high-profile lawsuits, by their former owners.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Stryker|first=Mark|title=Dia defends its right to Van Gogh – Nazi-era collector's heirs say it's theirs|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MKSX32200381|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210225074732/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MKSX32200381|archive-date=25 February 2021|access-date=25 February 2021|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=20 January 2024 |title=Van Gogh painting looted by the Nazis embarrasses Japan |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2024/01/20/van-gogh-painting-looted-by-the-nazis-embarrasses-japan_6448880_117.html |access-date=1 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> The German Lost Art Foundation still lists dozens of missing Van Goghs<ref>{{Cite web|title=German Lost Art Foundation – Vincent Van Gogh|url=http://www.lostart.de/Webs/DE/Datenbank/Suche/SucheSimpelErgebnis.html?cms_param=SUCHE_ID%3D29168871|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}}</ref> and the [[American Alliance of Museums]] lists 73 Van Goghs on the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal|url=http://www.nepip.org/public/search/itemsearch.cfm?menu_type=search&action=itmqsrch|access-date=25 February 2021|website=www.nepip.org|archive-date=26 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426040901/http://www.nepip.org/public/search/itemsearch.cfm?action=itmqsrch&menu_type=search|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last= Arnold |first=Wilfred Niels |title=Vincent van Gogh: Chemicals, Crises, and Creativity|publisher=Birkhäuser |date=1992 |isbn=978-3-7643-3616-5 }}
* {{cite journal|last=Arnold|first=Wilfred Niels|title=The illness of Vincent van Gogh|journal=[[Journal of the History of the Neurosciences]]|volume=13|issue=1|pages=22–43|year=2004|doi=10.1080/09647040490885475|pmid=15370335|s2cid=220462421|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8345093|access-date=23 October 2018|archive-date=23 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023234318/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8345093|url-status=live | issn=0964-704X}}
<!-- * {{cite book |last= Bailey |first=Martin |title=The Sunflowers are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh's Masterpiece|publisher=Frances Lincoln |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-7112-3298-3}} -->
* {{cite journal |last=Blumer |first=Dietrich |doi=10.1176/appi.ajp.159.4.519 |doi-access=|title=The Illness of Vincent van Gogh |journal=[[American Journal of Psychiatry]] |year=2002 |volume=159 |issue=4 |pages=519–526 |pmid=11925286|s2cid=43106568 }}
* {{cite book |last=Callow |first=Philip |title=Vincent van Gogh: A Life |url=https://archive.org/details/vincentvangoghli00call_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |date=1990 |isbn=978-1-56663-134-1 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Channing |first1=Laurence |first2=Barbara J. |last2=Bradley |title=Monet to Dalí: Impressionist and Modern Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-940717-90-9 }}
* {{cite journal|last=Cohen|first=Ben |year=2003|title=A Tale of Two Ears|journal=[[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]]|volume=96 |issue=6|pmc=539517 |pmid=12782701 |pages=305–306 |doi=10.1177/014107680309600615}}
* Collins, Bradley (2001). ''Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams''. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. {{ISBN|0-8133-3595-7}}
*{{cite web|last1=Crockett |first1=Emily |first2=Monique |last2=Daniels |title=Faille, J-B de la |url=http://arthistorians.info/faillej |date=n.d. |work=Dictionary of Art Historians|access-date=3 August 2016}}
* {{cite book|last=Davies|first=Christopher|title=Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTSWCwAAQBAJ|year=2007|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-547-35028-8|access-date=20 October 2016|archive-date=7 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307072526/https://books.google.com/books?id=HTSWCwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Doiteau |first1=Victor |last2=Leroy |first2=Edgard |title=La Folie de Vincent Van Gogh |language=fr |publisher=Éditions Aesculape |date=1928 |oclc=458125921 }}
* {{cite book |last=Dorn |first=Roland |title=Décoration: Vincent van Gogh's Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles |trans-title=Décoration: Vincent van Gogh's Series of Works for the Yellow House in Arles |language=de |publisher=Olms Verlag |date=1990 |isbn=978-3-487-09098-6 }}
* {{cite contribution |last1=Dorn |first1=Roland |last2=Leeman |first2=Fred |contribution=(exh. cat.) |editor-last=Költzsch |editor-first=Georg-Wilhelm |title=Vincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement, 1890–1914|year=1990 |publisher=Luca-Verlag |isbn=978-3-923641-33-8 }} Other editions: {{ISBN|978-3-923641-31-4}} (German); {{ISBN|978-90-6630-247-1}}(Dutch)
* {{cite contribution |last1=Dorn |first1=Roland |last2=Keyes |first2=George |contribution=(exh. cat) |title=Van Gogh Face to Face: The Portraits |year=2000 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=978-0-89558-153-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/vangoghfacetofac0000gogh }} <!-- (REFCHECK alt) -->
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Dorn |editor1-first=Roland |editor2-last=Schröder |editor2-first=Albrecht |editor3-last=Sillevis |editor3-first=John |title= Van Gogh und die Haager Schule|publisher= Bank Austria Kunstforum |date=1996 |isbn=978-88-8118-072-1 }}
* {{cite contribution |last1=Druick |first1=Douglas |last2=Zegers |first2=Pieter |contribution=(exh. cat) |title=Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-500-51054-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/vangoghgauguinth00drui }}
* {{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Cliff |title=Van Gogh and God: A Creative Spiritual Quest |publisher=Loyola University Press|date=1989 |isbn=978-0-8294-0621-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Erickson |first=Kathleen Powers |title=At Eternity's Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh |url=https://archive.org/details/ateternitysgate00eric |url-access=registration |publisher=Eerdmans |date=1998 |isbn=978-0-8028-4978-6 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Farr |first1=Dennis |last2=Peppiatt |first2=Michael |author2-link=Michael Peppiatt |last3=Yard |first3=Sally |title=Francis Bacon: A Retrospective |url=https://archive.org/details/francisbaconretr0000farr |url-access=registration |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |date=1999 |isbn=978-0-8109-2925-8 }} <!-- WorldCat says place of publication not identified -->
* {{ cite book | last=Feilchenfeldt | first=Walter | year=2013 | title=Vincent Van Gogh: The Years in France: Complete Paintings 1886–1890 | publisher=Philip Wilson  | isbn=978-1-78130-019-0 }}
* {{cite book |last=Fell |first=Derek |author-link=Derek Fell |title=The Impressionist Garden|publisher=Frances Lincoln |date=1997 |isbn=978-0-7112-1148-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Fell |first=Derek |title=Van Gogh's Women: His Love Affairs and Journey into Madness |publisher=Pavilion Books |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-910232-42-2 }} <!-- WorldCat only has 2005; Carrol & Graf -->
* {{cite book |last=Gayford |first=Martin |title=The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles |publisher=Penguin |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-670-91497-5 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Geskó |editor-first=Judit |title=Van Gogh in Budapest|publisher=Vince Books |date=2006 |isbn=978-963-7063-34-3 }}; {{ISBN|978-963-7063-33-6}} (Hungarian)
* {{cite book|last=Grant|first=Patrick|title=The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2L7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|date=2014|publisher=Athabasca University Press|isbn=978-1-927356-74-6|access-date=20 October 2016|archive-date=7 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307050125/https://books.google.com/books?id=c2L7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Hammacher |first=Abraham M. |title=Vincent van Gogh: Genius and Disaster |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |date=1985 |isbn=978-0-8109-8067-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/vincentvangoghge0000hamm }}
* {{cite book |last=Hayden |first=Deborah |title=Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of Syphilis |url=https://archive.org/details/poxgeniusmadness0000hayd |url-access=registration |publisher=Basic Books |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-465-02881-8 }}
* {{cite journal |last =Hemphill |first= R. E. |title=The illness of Vincent van Gogh|journal=[[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine]] |year= 1961 |volume= 54 |issue= 12 |pages =1083–1088| doi= 10.1177/003591576105401206 |pmid=13906376| pmc= 1870504 | s2cid= 38810743 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Hughes (critic) |title=Nothing If Not Critical |publisher=The Harvill Press |date=1990 |isbn=978-0-14-016524-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/nothingifnotcrit00robe }}
* {{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Robert |title=The Portable Van Gogh|publisher=Universe |date=2002 |isbn=978-0-7893-0803-0 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hulsker |first=Jan |author-link=Jan Hulsker |title=The Complete Van Gogh, paintings, drawings, sketches |publisher=Phaidon |date=1980 |isbn=978-0-7148-2028-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hulsker |first=Jan|title=Vincent and Theo Van Gogh: A Dual Biography|publisher=Fuller Publications |date=1990 |isbn=978-0-940537-05-7 }}
* {{cite book |last=Lubin |first=Albert J. |title=Stranger on the Earth: A Psychological Biography of Vincent van Gogh |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |date=1972 |isbn=978-0-03-091352-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/strangeronearth00lubi }}
* {{cite book |last=McQuillan |first=Melissa |title=Van Gogh |publisher=Thames and Hudson |date=1989 |isbn=978-0-500-20232-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/vangogh00mcqu }}
* {{cite book |last1=Naifeh |first1=Steven W. |author-link1=Steven Naifeh |first2=Gregory White |last2=Smith |author-link2=Gregory White Smith |title=Van Gogh: The Life|publisher=Random House |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-375-50748-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Nemeczek |first=Alfred |title=Van Gogh in Arles| publisher=Prestel Verlag |date=1999 |isbn=978-3-7913-2230-8 }}
* {{cite journal|last=Perry|first=Isabella H.|title=Vincent van Gogh's illness: a case record|journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine|volume=21|pages=146–172|year=1947|issue=2|pmid=20242549}}
* {{cite contribution |last=Pickvance |first=Ronald |contribution=(exh. cat) |title=English Influences on Vincent van Gogh, an exhibition organised by the Fine Art Department, University of Nottingham and the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1974-5 |id=University of Nottingham, 1974/75|publisher=Arts Council |year=1974 }}
* {{cite contribution |last=Pickvance |first=Ronald |contribution=(exh. cat) |title=Van Gogh in Arles |id=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |publisher=Abrams |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-87099-375-6 }}
* {{cite contribution |last=Pickvance |first=Ronald |contribution=(exh. cat) |title=Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers |id=Metropolitan Museum of Art |publisher=Abrams |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-87099-477-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/vangoghinsaintre0000pick }}
* {{cite book |last=Pomerans |first=Arnold |author-link=Arnold Pomerans |title=The Letters of Vincent van Gogh |publisher=Penguin Classics |date=1997 |isbn=978-0-14-044674-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Rewald |first=John |author-link=John Rewald |title=Post-Impressionism: From van Gogh to Gauguin|publisher=Secker & Warburg |date=1978 |isbn=978-0-436-41151-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Rewald |first=John |title=Studies in Post-Impressionism |publisher=Abrams |date=1986 |isbn=978-0-8109-1632-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Rosenblum |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Rosenblum |date=1975 |title=Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friedrich to Rothko|publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-430057-5 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Rovers |first=Eva |year=2007 | title='He Is the Key and the Antithesis of so Much': Helene Kröller-Müller's Fascination with Vincent van Gogh|journal=[[Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art]]|volume= 33|issue=4 |pages=258–272 |jstor=25608496 }}
* {{cite book|last=Selz|first=Peter Howard|title=German Expressionist Painting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UimQfCpawyUC&pg=PA82|year=1968|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02515-8|access-date=20 October 2016|archive-date=7 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307074229/https://books.google.com/books?id=UimQfCpawyUC&pg=PA82|url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sund |first=Judy |year= 1988|title=The Sower and the Sheaf: Biblical Metaphor in the Art of Vincent van Gogh|journal=[[College Art Association|The Art Bulletin]] |volume= 70|issue=4 |pages=660–676 |jstor=3051107 |doi=10.2307/3051107}}
* {{cite book |last=Spurling |first=Hilary |author-link = Hilary Spurling |date= 1998|title=The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, Vol. 1, 1869–1908|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|isbn=978-0-679-43428-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Sund |first=Judy |title=Van Gogh |publisher=Phaidon |date=2002 |isbn=978-0-7148-4084-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/vangogh00sund }}
* {{cite book |last=Sweetman |first=David |author-link=David Sweetman |title=Van Gogh: His Life and His Art |publisher=Touchstone |date=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rN7qAAAAMAAJ&q=Sweetman+1990+%22Van+Gogh:+His+Life+and+His+Art%22 |isbn=978-0-671-74338-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Tralbaut |first=Marc Edo |title=Vincent van Gogh, le mal aimé |language=fr|publisher=Alpine Fine Arts |orig-year=1969 |date=1981 |isbn=978-0-933516-31-1 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Van der Veen |first1=Wouter |first2=Peter |last2=Knapp |title=Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days|publisher=Monacelli Press |date=2010 |isbn=978-1-58093-301-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Van der Wolk |first=Johannes |title=De schetsboeken van Vincent van Gogh |trans-title=The Sketchbooks of Vincent van Gogh |language=nl |publisher=Meulenhoff/Landshoff|isbn=978-90-290-8154-2 |date=1987 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Van Gogh |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent van Gogh |url=http://www.vangoghletters.org |title=Vincent van Gogh – The Letters |editor1=Leo Jansen |editor2=Hans Luijten |editor3=Nienke Bakker |publisher=Van Gogh Museum & Huygens ING |date=2009 }}
* {{cite book |last=Van Heugten |first=Sjraar |title=Vincent van Gogh: tekeningen 1: Vroege jaren 1880–1883
|trans-title=Vincent van Gogh: Drawings 1: Early years 1880–1883 |language=nl|publisher=V+K |date=1996 |isbn=978-90-6611-501-9 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Van Uitert |first=Evert |year= 1981|title=Van Gogh's Concept of His ''Oeuvre''|journal=Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art |volume= 12|issue=4 |pages=223–244 |jstor=3780499 | ref = {{sfnRef|van Uitert|1981}} |doi=10.2307/3780499}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=van Uitert |editor1-first=Evert |editor2-last=van Tilborgh |editor2-first=Louis |editor3-last=van Heugten |editor3-first=Sjraar |contribution=(exh. cat) |title= Vincent van Gogh|publisher= Arnoldo Mondadori Arte de Luca |date=1990 |isbn=978-88-242-0022-6 }}<!-- ISBN 13 conversion shows a false result -->
* {{cite book |last1=Walther |first1=Ingo |last2=Metzger |first2=Rainer |title=Van Gogh: the Complete Paintings|publisher=Taschen |date=1994 |isbn=978-3-8228-0291-5 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Weikop |first=Christian |year= 2007|title=Exhibition Reviews: Van Gogh and Expressionism. Amsterdam and New York |journal=The Burlington Magazine|volume= 149|issue=1248 |pages=208–209 |jstor=20074786 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wilkie |first=Kenneth |title=The van Gogh File: The Myth and the Man|publisher=Souvenir Press |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-285-63691-0 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|auto=1}}
* [http://www.vggallery.com/ The Vincent van Gogh Gallery], the complete works and letters of Van Gogh
* [http://vangoghletters.org/ Vincent van Gogh The letters], the complete letters of Van Gogh (translated into English and annotated)
* [http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/teachers/teaching-packets/van-gogh.html/ Vincent van Gogh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920143009/https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/teachers/teaching-packets/van-gogh.html/ |date=20 September 2017 }}, teaching resource on Van Gogh
* {{Gutenberg author | id=40599}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Vincent van Gogh}}
* {{Librivox author |id=6171}}
* {{IMDB name}}

{{Vincent van Gogh}}
{{Post-Impressionism}}
{{Fauvism}}
{{Modernism}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gogh, Vincent van}}
[[Category:Vincent van Gogh| ]]
[[Category:1853 births]]
[[Category:1890 deaths]]
[[Category:1890s suicides]]
[[Category:Artists who died by suicide]]
[[Category:Dutch Christians]]
[[Category:Dutch expatriates in Belgium]]
[[Category:Dutch expatriates in France]]
[[Category:Dutch expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Dutch flower artists]]
[[Category:Dutch landscape painters]]
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[[Category:Dutch people with disabilities]]
[[Category:Dutch Protestants]]
[[Category:Dutch still life painters]]
[[Category:Male suicides]]
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[[Category:Post-impressionist painters]]
[[Category:Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni]]
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[[Category:Suicides by firearm in France]]
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