BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS ARIES: VINCENT VAN GOGH

Painter, born in Groot-Zundert, The Netherlands. In 1881 he went to Brussels to study art. At Nuenen he painted his first masterpiece, a domestic scene of peasant poverty, ‘The Potato Eaters’ (1885, Amsterdam). He studied in Paris where he developed his individual style of brushwork and a more colourful palette. At Arles, the Provençal landscape gave him many of his best subjects, such as ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘The Bridge’. He showed increasing signs of mental disturbance, and was placed in an asylum. One of the pioneers of Expressionism, he used colour primarily for its emotive appeal, and profoundly influenced the Fauves.