Snowy Landscape with Arlesinthe Background

By Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work -- which contained a rough beauty with bold colors -- was widely influential on 20th century art; however, the artist's work was mostly unknown during his own lifetime. He struggled with bouts of anxiety and mental illness throughout most of his life, and died at age 37 of a gunshot wound, which most people agree was self-inflicted (though no gun was ever to be found). Van Gogh didn't begin painting until his 20s, and most of his most well-known paintings were created in the last two years of his life. His vivid style, so well-known today, didn't come into its own until van Gogh discovered the French Impressionists and saw for himself the vivid, bright sunlight of the French countryside, while staying in Arles in 1888. In the decade leading up to his death, he created a total 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and over 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. His subject matter focused on self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.
