Of Vincent Van Gogh’s many series of paintings and periods in his career, his most famous is arguable that of the Sunflowers. Paintings of sunflowers have become synonymous with Van Gogh and his work in the latter part of his life. Many artists have tried to duplicate his technique over the years with originals and copies of the fabled flowers adorning galleries, offices and homes around the world.

The Sunflower series began in the years Van Gogh spent seeking his place in the artistic world in France. The first few paintings were created with the sole purpose of decorating Paul Gauguin’s home. Despite the volume of work in the series, most of the Sunflowers paintings were composed between 1888 and 1889 during Van Gogh’s time spent in Arles. The earliest works were created in Paris in 1887, where Van Gogh painted sunflowers with single flowers and clips rather than in vases.

Sunflowers - 1887

What makes the sunflower images so unique in contrast to any of his other paintings or those of other painters is the incredible attention to the aesthetics of the flower rather than the physical details. Van Gogh’s own use of yellow in the latter part of his life is most intensively accentuated in these images. However, through Van Gogh’s still lifes of Sunflowers, he also displayed the images of death through browns and then combined and contrasted the two, pitting vibrant life against dry and brittle death. Through the simple painting of flowers in still life, Van Gogh was able to describe and explore all the intricate aspects of both life and death and their relation to each other.

It is the use of balance and control of the observer’s eye, so deftly utilized in many of his paintings, that makes the Sunflower series so unique. By creating a careful balance not only in tonal range but in composition and in theme with life and death, yet drawing the viewers eyes to numerous locations, Van Gogh is able to entrance his admirers with such vibrant paintings of simple flowers.

Sunflowers - 1888

Many of the pictures in Van Gogh’s Sunflowers series are almost identical with the exception of a few small details. The layout and positioning of the flowers is often identical or very similar to any of a number of other paintings. If one were to combine two of them, they might find only superficial differences.

For example, common differences included the varying petal composition in each painting. Some paintings contained larger, bulkier petals than others, while others shaped intricate “V” patterns. The eye of each flower would occasionally differ in color as well. While one might display the yellow tints of life, another might contain the traditional black of a dying sunflower. The same technique was used for leaves. Occasionally, the only difference between one painting and the next might be that one displayed the petals as a vibrant yellow and the next with a tinge of wilting brown.

Ironically, the composition of Van Go’s sunflowers, so dependent on his use of color, might not have been possible only a century earlier. Because of the development of new paints and new colors in those paints, Van Gogh was able to utilize pigments such as Chrome Yellow that few other painters had ever had access to.

Vincent Van Gogh did not begin painting until 1880 when he was already 27 years old. He began at the most basic levels, working from beginners’ handbooks such as “Cours de dessin”. After two years he started looking for commissions to keep his art career afloat. He found them in his Uncle, Cornelias Marinus, the owner of a world famous gallery in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, his work did not prove to live up to his uncle’s standards and even after a second commission, Van Gogh was unable to impress him. Thus the earliest VanGogh paintings were considered failures.

Potato Eaters

However, despite his failure to impress Marinus, Van Gogh continued painting, shutting himself into a studio and working tirelessly to improve his technique. In 1882, he began painting what many would consider his first masterpieces, the single person and item, black and white studies that led to his later revelations. The next year, he started working on multi-figure paintings. These however, were largely destroyed after one of his brothers commented on their lack of appeal and liveliness.

In 1883, after more than a year spent improving his technique and painting with the support of his brother Theo, Van Gogh visited famous Hague scholars such as Weissenbruch and Blommers to learn more about the techniques and technical aspects of painting. It was in Nuenen that Vincent Van Gogh’s full size paintings were started. The Potato Eaters, painted in 1885, is considered by many to be his first full sized masterpiece. Two other large canvas paintings, The Old Tower and The Cottage, survive from this time period. Unfortunately, he destroyed many of the rest.

After more failures progressing in the art world, Vincent Van Gogh came to the conclusion that his short comings were a result of technical problems, not artistic talent. So, he left for Paris to study further and better improve his technique. While in Paris, Van Gogh learned much about the impressionist movement that had the art world so entranced. He did not, however, progress much himself until after moving to Arles.

In Arles, Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings reverted back to many of the more traditional theories of painting that had intrigued him as a youth. He began painting series of images that reflected particular subjects for a given purpose. The first of these, Flowering Orchards was painted in 1888 and depicted series of three paintings. In a series of single figure paintings, he created The Roulin Family and after Gauguin had made the move to Arles to live beside Vincent Van Gogh, painting of his famous The Decoration for the Yellow House series was commenced.

Le Moulin de la Galette - 1886

The final period of Van Gogh’s life, those years spent in the Saint-Remy asylum are marked by his constant use of swirls and spiral patterns. Starry Night is arguable the most famous painting he composed during the year he spent there. He also painted numerous works depicting the wheat field outside the window of his cell, many of which have been sold for exorbitant prices.

His self portraits are another major portion of his life’s work. While pics of Van Gogh are few, the single image that has been recovered, originally taken Victor Morin, was believed to be used as the basis for the dozen or more self portraits and Van Go pictures. This single stock photo of Van Gogh has been authenticated as the man’s likeness and even the portrait of Vincent with a bandaged ear is believed to be drawn from this very photo. The close up of Van Gogh portrayed in the image is the identical angle and time frame of the numerous images he painted of himself in those final years of his life.

During his lifetime, Van Gogh is said to have gone through numerous stages. His early years were spent merely understanding the basic mechanics of the paintbrush, creating still life drawings and paintings and crafting his now famous single figure black and whites. His years in Paris, eventually jaded by the impressionism exhibits and galleries of the day that saturated the city, were spent reimagining his style and in Arles he began to paint the Post-Impressionist images that led to some of his greatest masterpieces, punctuated by his time in Saint-Remy.

In the years between 1886 and 1889, Van Gogh’s time in Paris in Arles, more than two dozen separate self-portraits were painted. As some of his most famous images, these portraits have been debated for years, scholars unsure of his purpose in painting them. The composition itself is believed to be derived from a single photograph taken in 1886 that directly resembles the composition of many of those self-portraits.

Vincent Van Gogh’s self-portrait painting has been openly compared to that of Rembrandt. However, Van Gogh completed his portraits in a markedly shorter time than Rembrandt, repeatedly painting the same pose with varying displays and colors.

Van Gogh’s Varying Self Portrait Styles

Self Portrait (Blue) - 1887

Each of the self-portraits displays the same intensity in the eyes, focusing intently outward, with some degree of unspoken emotion. However, the rest of the composition varies dramatically from one painting to the next. Each painting is composed of differing styles, ranging from his early elementary styles to the Impressionist and Neo-impressionist styles of his Paris years and beyond.

Each painting utilizes a solid background of varying color. Never does Van Gogh paint himself in landscape, nor does he often utilize any form of props. There are two exceptions to this rule though, including the portrait of Van Gogh painting on a canvas and the first self portrait with a bandaged ear, painted in 1889 by Van Gogh. Additionally, the change in attire has been noted from the earliest self portraits to those painted in Arles and Saint-Remy.

While his early portraits, depicting his Paris years, are often of a well-kempt, powerful looking Van Gogh in a nice suit, his latter portraits depict a man who is often missing something. From the portrait depicting Van Gogh as a Buddhist monk with his hair, to the painting of Van Gogh clean shaven or the two depicting Van Gogh’s bandaged ear, each image shows Van Gogh missing a small part of his identity, possibly seeking something else instead.

Purpose of the Van Gogh Portraits

Self portrait with bandage - 1889

Numerous reasons have been attached for the prolific use of the self-portrait by Van Gogh in his craft. On one hand, there have been theories from critics such as James Risser that the portraits represented some form of self-analysis. It is commonly believed that Van Gogh suffered from severe Manic Depression, evidenced in his combined bouts of manic outbursts and self-mutilation – including when Van Gogh cut off his ear – and depressive seclusions from society, evidenced by the self-inflicted gunshot wound that took his life.

In each of his self-portraits, the intensity of emotion present in the eyes is contrasted with some form of color or deformity in the face. The purposeful painting of the bandaged ear in two of his self portraits, especially in the self-portrait with him smoking a pipe depict a depressed, self aware man, unhappy with his life and his actions, possibly in response to his depressive state.

Van Gogh’s Buddhist Self-Portrait

Self Portrait - 1887

These paintings could very well have been a combination of self-critique and despair over having lost control of his life and his actions. A painting that reveals another deepened aspect of Van Gogh, displaying a lifestyle that would have contrasted with that of his youth and young adulthood is Self Portrait Dedicated to Gauguin. This painting, completed in Arles in 1888 depicts Van Gogh as a bald headed Buddhist monk. He describes the painting himself as a “portrait of a Bronze…worshipping the eternal Buddha”. The calm displayed in this painting depicts the ideal of a “calm monk” with absolute control, control that Van Gogh sought for most of his life.

During this time, Van Gogh was berated constantly by the wavering insecurity of his own sanity and the image of him as a Buddhist monk displays how he was capable of maintaining some vestige of control.

A More Technical Cause

There is of course the possibility that the majority of Van Gogh’s self-portraits were composed simply as technical experiments, allowing Van Gogh to attempt new styles and techniques. Van Gogh stated repeatedly that he could not often find models that suited his needs and so it is possible that he became his own model. The varying degrees of style and attention to certain details that make up the bulk of Van Gogh’s portraits carefully parallel his own progression into, through, and out of his Impressionist years in Paris.

Vicent VanGogh was only able to sell a single painting during his lifetime. However, after death, the impressionistic painting of Vincent Van Gogh became some of the most celebrated and expensive paintings ever sold. Having started his painting career at the age of 27 and only finding some definition of success years later in Paris, Vincen Van Gogh’s repertoire is surprisingly deep. On the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold his rank quite high repeatedly.

There are numerous reasons for this. Foremost, he painted them recently enough that many of them are in the collections of private owners. Included in the library of contemporary art, Van Gogh’s paintings have been available to many collectors over the years. However, regardless of their relative newness compared to other worldly masterpieces, Vincet Van Gogh’s work is highly sought after and even his prints are among the most popular available.

Highest Selling Van Gogh Pieces in History

Wheatfield with Cypresses - 1889

Almost all sold in the last 20 years or so; six of Vincevt Van Gogh’s masterpieces have sold for more than $50 million dollars. While many of his most famous works are kept in museums such as the Hermitage in Russia, the MET in New York and the Kroller Muller in the Netherlands, still more have been made available for private purchase at auction.

Because Vince VanGogh painted so prolifically and his work was not deemed to be the masterwork that it is now when it was originally painted, many of his paintings found their way into private collections and have thus appeared time and time again on the auction block and will likely continue to do so.

The most famous and most expensive of these sales is that of the Portrait of Dr. Gachet, sold in 1990 for $82.5 million, equivalent to $130 million today. The painting’s whereabouts are currently unknown though. Other paintings of Vince Van Gogh’s to have sold for more than $50 million include Irises sold for $53.9 million in 1987, Portrait de l’artists sans barbe sold for $71.5 million in 1998, A Wheatfield with Cypresses sold for $57 million in 1993, Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers sold for £24.75 million in 1987, and Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat sold for $60.8 million in 1997.

Where to Buy Prints and Copies

Because of the enduring fame and popularity of his images, Vincents Van Go’s paintings, such as Starry Night, have become the most requested and reprinted poster and replica sales in the art industry. There are numerous places in which to find such posters and artwork. Any of the museums in which the paintings are sold you can often find and purchase such work. Around the internet, dozens of poster sellers and replica painters have produced his work again and again.

Because of the nature of Van Gogh’s work in particular, replicas of his work have circulated the art world for generations. There are numerous Viincent Van Gogh galleries dedicated to replicas and reimaginings of his work. Similar to the effect Da Vinci and Michelangelo had on their students and admirers 500 years ago, painters in the last century have flocked to Vinceent Van Gogh’s images and repainted them repeatedly. Therefore, it is common practice to find numerous reprints and copies of his work littering the art world, whether as a hobby or monetary practice, it is often hard to tell.

Vincent Van Gogh painted yet one more variant of his night sky work in Café Terrace at Night, completed while in Arles in 1888. Painted using oils on a canvas of 81 x 65.5 cm, Café Terrace at Night is one of Van Gogh’s best known paintings. It bears some striking similarities to the two other Starry Night paintings, but also a few variations.

Kept today in the Kroller-Muller Museum of Otterlo, Netherlands, Café Terrace at Night represented the fusion of much of what Van Gogh learned during his time in France with what he had already developed. His time in Arles in particular and in this painting has long been cited as an example of the Impressionist shift in his work going into the last two years of his life. Merely comparing this painting with the Starry Night over the Rhone which he completed later that month, the shifts are incredibly apparent.

Cafe Terrace at Night - 1888

The stars are much smaller and less absorbed in their own light in this painting. Also, there is a bright yellow wall that draws much of the attention in the painting. While the other paintings are known to focus the attention on the stars and force the observer to move the eyes about, Café Terrace at Night gives a point for the observer to relax and focus on a single point. In contrast, the dark city on the right of the painting creates a sense of balance that does not permeate his other paintings.

The café Van Gogh used as his centerpiece in the painting still exists in Arles, though it has now been renamed to Café Van Gogh and has long been a unique setting for a painting by Van Gogh, a man who typically did not use such warm colors and careful perspective depth. Despite its comparison to the other two Starry Night paintings, Café Terrace at Night is the first painting in which he painted the night sky. The famous precursor to Starry Night, Starry Night over the Rhone was painted later in the same month.

In Van Gogh’s own words, this work was a revelation, and he described it in great detail in a letter to his sister. He described the “immense yellow lantern [illuminating] the terrace, the façade, the side walk and even [casting] light on the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone.”

He spoke of how much he enjoyed painting the café terrace on the street at night rather than sketching the night sky and working on it in a studio during the day.

He describes how the conventional depiction of night is too dull, utilizing only the most basic of white lights. The colors and tones of night are too great for such a simple approach though as he said even candles were awash with amazing tones of yellow and orange. This painting represents much of what Van Gogh would later attempt with color and form.

Vincent Van gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert to Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, a local minister. Born in the Netherlands, The nationality of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh and his native language were Dutch, but he would later go on to learn English, French and German and spend much of his time in France. Named for his grandfather and his still-born older brother, there have been numerous theories about the possible effects of having been named after a dead older sibling, citing his depictions of male figures in pairs. Three of Van Gogh’s uncles were art dealers and his great uncle was a sculptor. Vincent Van Gogh’s timeline is well documented, mostly in thanks to the correspondence he carried on with his brother Theo throughout his lifetime, revealing most of the facts known know about his life.

Facts about Vincent Van Gogh’s Childhood

Vincent Van Gogh’s younger brother Theo was born in May of 1857 followed by his brother Cor and sisters, Elizabeth, Anna and Wil. Van Gogh’s schooling as a child was maintained by a Catholic school teacher in Zundert, followed by 3 years of home schooling by a Governess and the attendance of boarding schools in Zevenbergen and Tilburg in the Netherlands. While attending Middle School in Tilburg, Van Gogh learned to draw from an accomplished Parisian artist. Van Gogh has been quoted as having a “gloomy and cold” childhood and eventually returned home in 1868 from boarding school.

History of Vincent Van Gogh’s Early Employment

Girl in the Woods - 1882

At the age of fifteen Van Gogh began working for an art dealer in The Hague through his Uncle Vincent. After four years of training, Vincent was moved to London where he was financially successful and happy. After falling in love with his landlady’s daughter, Eugenie Loyer, Vincent was rejected and subsequently heartbroken. After this encounter, Van Gogh turned to religion and isolated himself. After being sent to Paris to work for a different art dealer, Van Gogh became bitter at how the French treated art and was terminated from his employment in 1876.

After losing his job, Van Gogh decided to become an assistant to an English Methodist minister. After moving back home later that year before Christmas, Van Gogh spent six months working in a nearby bookstore, translating Bible passages into many of the languages of Van Gogh’s schooling; English, French and German. In 1877, Van Gogh’s father sent Vincent to Amsterdam to stay with his uncle, an Admiral in the Navy. He studied theology to enter the University there but later failed in his endeavor, abandoning his desire to return to school. After leaving his uncle’s house in 1878, Van Gogh failed another course in Missionary School.

Van Gogh received a post as a missionary in Petit Wasmes in January of 1879, a small town in Belgium. During his stay with the poor that he ministered to, Van Gogh slept on straw and lived in squalor. Despite his desire to live in similar conditions, the church looked down on his decisions. After arguing with his parents about returning home, Van Gogh and his father became increasingly unhappy with each other, with the older Van Gogh declaring at one time that he would commit his son to an asylum.

After a year of drifting and arguing with his family, Van Gogh’s brother Theo was able to convince him to take up art full time in the fall of 1880. It was then that Willem Roelofs, a recommended Dutch Artist convinced Vincent to attend the Royal Academy of Art. Van Gogh studied anatomy, perspective and modeling while there.

Returned to Etten – The First of Van Gogh’s Various Controversies

Capenters Workshop seen from the Artists Studio - 1882

After completing a short stint in the Academy, Van Gogh returned to Etten where his parents lived. During this short stint, he fell in love with his recently widowed cousin, Kee Vos Stricker. Vehemently denying his advances, Vos Stricker, who was seven years older than Van Gogh and had an eight year old child, proved to be a major blow for Van Gogh. Despite her refusals, Vincent repeatedly appealed to her father, receiving angry denials again and again. At one point, he held his hand over an open flame, requesting to speak with her for as long as he could keep his hand in the flame. Nothing came of his persistence though as Von Stricker did not believe Van Gogh could support himself or his daughter financially.

Van Gogh Visits The Hague

The entire situation left Van Gogh feeling betrayed and sickened by the hypocrisy of his uncle and his father and after turning down an offer of money from his father, Vincent prepared to leave for The Hague. In 1882, Van Gogh moved to The Hague and started studying art with his cousin, Anton Mauve. The two worked together only for a short time though as Mauve soon stopped responding to Van Gogh’s letters.

Part of Mauve’s coldness might be related to Van Gogh’s first of many sordid love affairs, this one with Clasina Maria Hoornik (Sien), a local prostitute. After he moved into an apartment with Sien and her five year old daughter, Van Gogh’s family became extremely unhappy with the coupling and though Sien was pregnant, Van Gogh’s father urged him to leave her.

Van Gogh was commissioned by his uncle, Cornelius Marinus van Gogh, to draw twelve views of the city during this time. His uncle, not fully satisfied with the drawings commissioned Van Gogh to paint six more, more detailed than the previous twelve. After completing the first batch of drawings in May of that year, Vincent was admitted to the hospital with Gonorrhea for three weeks. After returning, Van Gogh begins working with oil paints and lithography, and moves Sien and the children into a larger apartment.

In 1883, Van Gogh makes the decision to break up with Sien and leaves her with the new born Willem and her daughter. Van Gogh reported to his brother that the situation had become too hard and it is thought that Sien might have returned to prostitution to make up for the lack of income, putting increased strain on the family. Sien told her youngest child later in life that he is the son of a painter named Vincent Van Gogh, though the timing makes this unlikely. She eventually committed suicide in 1904, drowning herself in a river.

Vincent Van Gogh’s Return to Nuenen

Woman Miners Carrying Coal - 1882

Van Gogh moved to Drenthe, followed by Nieuw Amsterdam, soon followed by a return to his parents’ home in Nuenen by the end of 1883. While in Nuenen, Van Gogh devoted large amounts of time to sketching cottages and local peasants. In 1884, Van Gogh embroiled himself in another controversy, this time in an affair with Margot Begemann, a woman 10 years older than him. She fell deeply in love with him and the two planned to marry. However, their families disapproved and soon afterward Margot attempted suicide.

Following the end of their relationship and Margot’s narrow survival, Van Gogh’s father died of a stroke, on March 26, 1885. After a long period of grieving, Van Gogh painted The Potato Eaters, his first undisputed masterpiece, and was given his first chance to show his work, with interest rising in Paris and in The Hague. However, another controversy found him in September of that year when a sitter became pregnant and he was forbidden from using anymore villagers to model in his paintings.

Van Gogh’s time in Nuenen is marked by his use of earth colors, dark and lacking the tones of later life. Theo himself replied to Van Gogh’s complaints about his paintings not selling that they were too dark and not in the current style of Impressionism and bright colors.

The Paris Years

In 1886, Van Gogh left his home in Nuenen and entered the Academy of Art in Antwerp to improve his technique. Using live models during the evenings, Vincent developed much of his style in the realm of figures and live paintings. After a couple of short months at the Acaedmy, Vincent left for Paris where his brother Theo was working as an art dealer, selling Impressionist paintings. Vincent moved in with his brother and began studying the impressionist styles of Paris during that time. Almost immediately, he begins utilizing more colorful palettes, the hallmark of most of his greater works. Because Vincent lived with his brother Theo at 54 Rue Lepic, little is known about his life during the years spent in Paris. There were few letters written.

During this time, major impressionist exhibitions were done in Paris and Van Gogh was greatly affected. However, soon he felt that Paris had worn him out and after meeting Paul Gauguin and displaying his own work in numerous exhibits, he decided to leave the city for a less busy lifestyle.

More Trouble Arises in Arles for Van Gogh

Sunflowers - 1888

In 1888, Van Gogh departed Paris and arrived in Arles where he immediately took up the painting of various landscapes. His life in Arles was remarkably less exotic than in Paris and with the exception of a legal dispute over the cost of his hotel in the first months of his stay there, Van Gogh was relatively free of controversy at first. He eventually sorted out the cost of living and moved into the Yellow House where Gauguin joined him. Prompted by Gauguin, Van Gogh began experimenting with various forms of painting. It is in Arles that Van Gogh painted many of his Sunflowers as well as experimented with painting from memory.

The two quickly began to quarrel though, constantly disagreeing about art and on December 23, 1888, only 4 months after Gauguin had moved in, Van Gogh approached him with a razor blade in hand. Cutting off the lower part of his ear, Van Gogh then wrapped up the mutilated ear and gave it to a local prostitute named Rachel and asked her to “keep this object carefully”. Gauguin immediately left after informing Theo of the incident and Van Gogh spent numerous days in the hospital recovering. Gauguin would never see Van Gogh again.

Vincent Van Gogh at Saint-Remy Hospital

Van Gogh did return to the Yellow House, but after a month of hallucinations, mad ravings and paranoia, local citizens petitioned to have him removed from the house, fearing Van Gogh to be completely insane. Later, on May 8, 1889, Van Gogh had himself committed to the asylum in Saint Remy. Immediately they diagnose him with epilepsy. Given two small rooms, one to live in and one to paint in, Van Gogh begins painting the gardens and surrounding areas of the asylum. While in the asylum, numerous examples of Van Gogh’s work were exhibited in Paris. However, upon leaving the asylum to attend an exhibit, Vincent had a relapse and returned once more. Later, another two day trip to Arles resulted in a similar attack. During his stay in Saint-Remy, van Gogh painted hundreds of paintings, including his famed Starry Night, the numerous paintings of the Wheat Field and hills outside his window, and a selection of self-portraits.

On May 16, 1890, despite numerous relapses, Van Gogh left the asylum and visited his brother Theo. After spending a few days with them, he moved to Auvers and stayed with Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet, the subject of the twin portraits by Van Gogh. However, Van Gogh’s depression became too much to bear and on July 27th, 1890, he walked into a field and shot himself in the chest. The shot does not immediately kill him however as he stumbled back to his inn. Two days later however, with Theo by his side, he succumbed to the gunshot wound and died. Vincent Van Gogh’s grave is located today in Auvers-sur-Oise.

Theories Regarding Vincent Van Gogh’s Mental Illness

Green Wheatfield with Cypress at Saint Remy - 1889

Throughout his lifetime, Van Gogh was stricken with medical problems, most pointedly his mental instability. Despite his most famous stint in the hospital following the removal of his ear in 1888, Van Gogh is thought to have any number of possible diseases with hundreds of psychiatrists offering more than 30 different possible diagnoses in 117 years since his death. Largely agreed to have suffered from debilitating bouts of depression, Vincent Van Gogh was also known for his manic episodes, reacting violently with self-mutilation.

Possible problems he might have suffered from include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, lead poisoning (from his paints), epilepsy, and porphyria. Combine any of these possible illnesses with his poor diet, constant work and dependence on alcohol and absinthe, and all of his symptoms could be accounted for.

Further medical study has been made of his constant use of the color yellow in his work. In particular, it has been found that overuse of Absinthe can result in xanthopsia, a condition that forces one to see all things in yellow. Another theory is that Dr. Gachet prescribed digitalis, supported by the Foxglove plant the doctor is holding in his portrait, the source of digitalis. Digitalis is known to cause a yellow tint in vision or even yellow spots similar to the stars in his night time paintings. Possible lead poisoning would have led to retina swelling as well which could account for Van Gogh’s halo affected images.

Van Gogh’s Work Today

The cost for original artwork by Vincent Van Gogh is known today as the highest among almost all artwork. The most expensive Vincent Van Gogh painting sold to date is the Portrait of Dr. Gachet which sold for $82.5 million in 1990. His work exists today in galleries all over the world, including The Hermitage, the MET, and dozens more. Valuing the cost of authentic artwork by Vincent Van Gogh has become increasingly difficult in recent years because of the ever growing price for which his work sells.

In 1999, one of Vincent van Gogh’s Pollarded Willow paintings was stolen. Miraculously, the painting was recovered in 2006, unharmed and returned to its home in Den Bosch at the F. van Lanschot Bankiers Headquarters. Surely, Van Gogh’s images are some of the most sought.

Vincent Van Gogh utilized numerous methods to create the landscapes and portraits that define his short artistic career. Rather than painting a landscape or portrait to portray exactly what was present, Van Gogh was interested in painting what he felt as well as what he saw. The world around him was an expression of how he felt and interacted rather than a simple image to be recorded. Van Gogh’s brushstrokes, often wild and unrestrained were not messy or quick, but expressions of emotions regarding his subjects. The emotion beneath the painting was more important to him than the painting itself.

Largely because of the development of photography in the time period during which Van Gogh lived, painters were no longer commissioned to paint imagery as it actually appeared. Art became an opportunity to interpret the world around the artist instead. The technology behind paint began to grow as well. The oil colors Van Gogh used changed from 1883 and the images of cottages and peasants in earthly browns to vibrant chrome yellows during his Paris days. With the freedom to take their canvases outside and the portability of tubed paint, Van Gogh and his contemporaries were freed from the restraints of in-studio imagery.

Even in Van Gogh’s line drawings, the expressive lines of this shift could be seen. His Fritillaries, painted in Paris in 1886 while studying with the Impressionists is a great example of Vincent Van Gogh’s sketches, recreating an image of the flowers without the constraints of depicting the exact image of the flowers. After meeting with the Impressionists, whose work used lighting and short, expressive brushstrokes to recreate the effects of light reflecting off of objects, Van Gogh continued to develop his own style.

Regardless of the few studies that Van Gogh produced though, very few Van Gogh pencil and paper works remain, possibly because he rarely sketched before painting. His painting was furious and rapid, taking place before his subject and never hesitating. Van Gogh did not paint from memory, nor did he spend his time painting what he saw.

Thus, for those that that have strived to learn how to paint like Van Gogh, the process is less about technique and more about mindset. Though there are often particulars in each of his paintings, such as the use of yellows, the rapid expressive brushstrokes of his wheat fields and the swirling patterns of his Saint-Remy days, Van Gogh did not have a singular style. Instead, he utilized the diversity of the new pallete available to painters to recreate images as he felt them.

Taking for example, his painting of Olive Trees. In this painting, Van Gogh paints his tress with full, twisting and curving branches. The ground does not lie flat, but undulates like the ocean, while the sun is a blinding yellow, blazing across the sky. His brushstrokes do not convey mere color. They depict life on their own, utilizing the painter’s energy to depict his emotions.