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Vincent van Gogh was born March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert,
the Netherlands. Starting in 1869, he worked for a firm of
art dealers and at various short-lived jobs. By 1877, van
Gogh had begun religious studies, and from 1878 to 1880 he
was an evangelist in the Borinage, a poor mining district in
Belgium. While working as an evangelist, he decided to become
an artist. Van Gogh admired the work of Jean Fran�ois Millet
and Honor� Daumier, and his early subjects were primarily
peasants depicted in dark colors. He lived in Brussels and in
various parts of the Netherlands before moving to Paris in
February 1886.
In Paris, he lived with his brother, Theo, and encountered
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Van Gogh worked
briefly at Fernand Cormon�s atelier, where he met Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec. The artist also met Emile Bernard, Edgar
Degas, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Signac at
that time. Flowers, portraits, and scenes of Montmartre, as
well as a brighter palette, replaced his earlier subject matter
and tonalities. Van Gogh often worked in Asni�res with Bernard
and Signac in 1887.
In February of the following year, van Gogh moved to Arles,
where he painted in isolation, depicting the Proven�al landscape
and people. Gauguin joined him in the fall, and the two artists
worked together. Van Gogh suffered his first mental breakdown
in December 1888; numerous seizures and intermittent
confinements in mental hospitals in Arles, Saint-R�my, and
Auvers-sur-Oise followed from that time until 1890. Nevertheless,
he continued to paint. In 1890, van Gogh was invited to show with
Les Vingt in Brussels, where he sold his first painting. That same
year, he was represented at the Salon des Ind�pendants in Paris.
Van Gogh shot himself on July 27, 1890, and died on July 29 in
Auvers-sur-Oise,
France.
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