Van Gogh’s life and work are so intemvined that it is hardly possible to see his pictures without reading in them the story of his life: a life which has been described so many times that it is by Van Gogh is the incarnatiou of the suffering， misunderstood martyr of modern art. the emblem of the artist as an outsider.

Van Gogh was born in 1853 at Groot-Zundert and died， by his own hand， at Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890.

In 1881， after one of the serious bouts of depression that afflicted him throughout his life， he was introduced to pain-ting by his friend Israels and his cousin Mauve.

In 1883， in the early stage of his somber realistic period，van Gogh produced rough，ponderous， sad paintings such as The Potato Eaters and The Shoes.

After his meeting withRubens in November 1885，van Gogh changed his aesthetic point of view. He discovered bright colours so characteristic of his future work. In Paris， he met Picasso， Degas， Gauguin，Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec，but he was also inspired by Hiroshige’s Japanese prints.His palette became more and more vibrant as he embraced the impressionist technique.

In 1888， van Gogh left Paris for Provence. He produ-ced more than 200 works in only 15 months， in a period of incredible creativity. But at the same time， his mental health was deteriorating and he had to be hospitalised at the asylum of Saint-Remy. When released from the asylum in 1890， he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise where he committed suicide in the wheat fields he had so often depicted.

“As through a looking glass,by dark reason ”

“Feeling nowhere so much myself a stranger as in my family and country...”

Holland, England and Belgium: 1853-1886

“The spreading of the ideas”

Paris: 1886-1888

“An artists’ house”

Aries: 1888-1889

“I was a fool and everything I did was wrong”

Aries: 1889

“What is the good of getting better?”

Saint-Remy: 1889-1890

“But there’s nothing sad in this death...”

Auvers-sur-Oise: 1890

Notes

Index