Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh worked as an art dealer's clerk, a teacher and a lay preacher before deciding, at twenty-seven, to become an artist. His career lasted barely ten years, yet he produced some 860 paintings and more than a thousand drawings.

In Paris he discovered Impressionism and Japanese prints, and his palette suddenly brightened. In 1888 he moved to Arles in the south of France and entered his most productive period. He suffered from recurring mental illness and died at Auvers in 1890, aged thirty-seven. His brother Theo supported him financially and emotionally throughout, and their letters are an essential key to his art.