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Vincent Van Gogh (March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch painter, generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art history. He produced all of his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during a period of only ten years before he became mentally ill and committed suicide. He had little success during his lifetime, but his posthumous fame grew rapidly, especially following a showing of 71 of Van Gogh's paintings in Paris 11 years after his death.

Van Gogh's influence on expressionism, fauvism and early abstraction has been enormous, and can be seen in many other aspects of 20th-century art. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (also in the Netherlands), has a considerable collection of Vincent van Gogh paintings as well. Several paintings by Van Gogh rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. On March 30, 1987, Van Gogh's painting was sold for US$82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record, only beaten by Picasso.

In Dutch, the name

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in Zundert in the Province of Brabant, a province of the Netherlands, the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, a Protestant minister. Van Gogh found his father's profession appealing and would be drawn to it later in his life. As a child, Vincent was serious, silent and thoughtful. In 1852, exactly one year before van Gogh was born, his first brother, also named Vincent Willem, was born and died the same day. Four years after van Gogh was born, his brother Theodorus (Theo) was born on May 1 1857. He also had another brother named Cor and three sisters, Elisabeth, Anna and Wil. When van Gogh was eight he went to the Village School in Zundert. Two years later his education there was stopped and his home education started. On October 1st 1864, the home education ended and he went to the Boarding school of Jan Provily in Zevenbergen, The Netherlands. He stayed there for two years. On September 15 1866 he went to the

In 1869, at the age of 16, he got a position at the art dealer, Goupil and Co. in the Hague, through his uncle, and worked with them until he was dismissed from the London office in 1873. His brother Theo, four years his junior and with whom Vincent cherished a lifelong friendship, would join the company later. This friendship is amply documented in the large collection of letters they exchanged. He began writing these letters in August 1872. These letters have been preserved and were published in 1914. They provide much insight into the life of the painter, and show him to be a talented writer with a keen mind. Brother Theo would support van Gogh financially throughout his life. In June 1873, Goupil transferred him to London (where he lodged in Stockwell), then to Paris by 1875. He was transferred back to London again, and then to Paris again. He became increasingly interested in religion; in March 1876, van Gogh either lost all desire to become a professional art dealer, or Goupil dismissed him for lack of motivation.

Van Gogh now chose to follow in his father's foot steps and devote his life to the evangelization of the poor. He became a teaching assistant in Ramsgate in Kent, England (1876), and delivered his first sermon in November 1876. In January 1877 he returned to the Netherlands, temporarily working for a bookstore in Dordrecht. In May he moved in with his uncle Johannes van Gogh, who at that time was a at the Amsterdam Naval shipyard. In that year he studied theology at the University of Amsterdam. After two years, in 1878 he dropped out, without an attempt to pass the exam, most likely because of his lack of interest in Latin and Greek. He then followed a short missionary training at a Mission, and became a in a poor mining region known as the Borinage in Belgium. He even preached down in the mines and was extremely concerned with the lot of the workers. He gave away many of his belongings because of Christian teachings, and was criticized for taking passages in the bible too literally. He was dismissed after six months and continued without pay. During this period he started to produce charcoal sketches.

In 1880, Vincent followed the suggestion of his brother Theo and took up painting in earnest. For a brief period Vincent took painting lessons from Anton Mauve in The Hague. Although Vincent and Anton soon split over a divergence of artistic views, influences of the Hague School of painting would remain in Vincent's work, notably in the way he played with light and in the looseness of his brush strokes. However his use of colour, favouring dark tones, set him apart from his teacher. From this time Theo would regularly send him money from Paris because Vincent was not earning any, which continued until the end of his life.

In 1881, he moved in with his parents at their house in Etten. He declared his love to his widowed cousin Kee Vos, who rejected him. Later he would move in with the prostitute Sien Hoornik and her children and considered marrying her; his father was strictly against this relationship and even his brother Theo advised against it. They later separated. Vincent painted his first watercolor painting in 1882. His uncle Cornelis commissioned him to make a series of 12 views of The Hague.

Impressed and influenced by Jean-François Millet, Van Gogh focused on painting peasants and rural scenes. He moved to the Dutch province Drenthe, later to Nuenen, North Brabant, also in the Netherlands, to live with his parents again. Here he painted in 1885 , now in The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam). Vincent complained to Theo that Theo was not making enough effort to sell his paintings in Paris, Theo replied that they were too dark and not in line with the current of bright Impressionist paintings.

In the winter of 1885–1886, Van Gogh attended the art academy of Antwerp. This proved a disappointment, as he was dismissed after a few months by Professor Eugène Siberdt. Van Gogh did, however, become familiar with Japanese art during this period, which he started to collect eagerly. He admired its bright colours, use of canvas space and the role lines played in the picture. These impressions would influence him strongly. Van Gogh made some paintings in Japanese

In spring 1886, Van Gogh went to Paris, where he moved in with his brother Theo; they shared a house on Montmartre. Here he met the painters Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Emile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. He discovered impressionism and liked its use of light and color, more than its lack of social engagement (as he saw it). (It should be noted that Van Gogh is regarded as a post-impressionist, rather than an impressionist.) He especially loved the technique known as pointillism (where many small dots are applied to the canvas that blend into rich colours, to one seeing it from a distance), which made its mark on Van Gogh's own . Van Gogh also used complementary colours, especially blue and orange, in close proximity in order to enhance the brilliance of each. A lovely quote from one of his letters: "I want to use colours that complement each other, that cause each other to shine brilliantly, that complete each other like a man and a woman."

When city life and living with his brother proved too much, Van Gogh left Paris and went to Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, arriving there on 21 February 1888. He was impressed with the local landscape and hoped to found an art colony. He decorated a "yellow house" and created a celebrated series of yellow sunflower paintings for this purpose. Only Paul Gauguin, whose simplified colour schemes and forms (known as synthetism) followed his invitation. The admiration was mutual, and Gauguin painted Van Gogh painting sunflowers. However their encounter ended in a quarrel. On December 23, 1888, Van Gogh cut off the lower part of his own left ear. He then took it to a brothel, where he asked for a prostitute named Rachel and handed the ear to her, asking her to "keep this object carefully". Gaugin left that month. It has been said that Gaugin and Van Gogh's contrary s and opinions were the primary reasons that Van Gogh cut off his own ear and had a subsequent mental and emotional breakdown.

One of Vincent's famous paintings, the , uses bright yellow and unusual perspective effects in depicting the interior of his bedroom. The boldly vanishing lines are sometimes attributed to his changing mental condition. The only painting he sold during his lifetime, , was created in 1888. Now on display in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Russia, it sold for only 400 francs (US$68 today).

Van Gogh now exchanged painting dots for small stripes. He suffered from depression or Bipolar disorder, and in May 1889 on his own request Van Gogh was admitted to the psychiatric centre at Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint Remy de Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. During his stay here the clinic and its garden became his main subject. At this time his work began to be dominated by swirls. This is especially shown in his most famous painting,

In May 1890, Vincent left the clinic and went to the physician Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, where he was closer to his brother Theo, who had recently married. Gachet had been recommended to him by Pissarro; he had treated several artists before. Here Van Gogh created his only etching: a portrait of the melancholic doctor Gachet. His depression deepened, and on July 27, at the age of 37, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. Without realising that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn, where he died two days later, with Theo at his side, who reported his last words as "" (French for "the sadness will last forever"). He was buried at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise; Theo, who contracted syphilis not long after Vincent's death was admitted to a hospital himself. Not being able to come to terms with his brother's absence, he died six months later and, at his wife's request, was buried next to Vincent. While many have mistakenly thought that

Van Gogh's fame grew shortly after his death. Large exhibitions were organized in Paris (1901), Amsterdam (1905), Cologne (1912), New York City (1913) and Berlin (1914).

Van Gogh's life forms the basis for Irving Stone's biographical novel (later turned into a film). In 1972, singer Don McLean wrote the ballad "Vincent", also known as "Starry Starry Night" (after his most known work), in honour of Van Gogh, later sang by Josh Groban in 2002. The punk band NOFX has also covered this song on a rarities and b-sides double album. In 1986-87, the composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote an opera, , based on several events in Van Gogh's life, and also later used some of the same themes in his 6th symphony, "Vincentiana."

† Denotes paintings which are recent recordholders for the highest price paid for a painting at an auction, see list of most expensive paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh is often pronounced in a completely different way from the original Dutch (particularly in the USA), something which can leave listeners confused as to who the speaker is talking about.

Asking a Dutch person for directions to the "van go" museum will usually lead to a look of either confusion or contempt. A better approximation of the correct pronunciation for non-Dutch speakers is "fun hoh".