Biography of Vincent Van GoghVincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Holland. Van Gogh held various jobs before becoming a theology student in Amsterdam. But due to both professional and personal failures, Van Gogh decided to "comfort the humble" and went to live and work in a mining community. While working and living in the mining community, Van Gogh found himself increasingly drawn to art. So in 1880 Vincent moved to Brussels and then to Antwerp to study painting. Van Gogh began his artistic career only at the age of 27. He soon began to follow the influence of Impressionism and began his own style (Rewald 225). Throughout his life Van Gogh struggled with madness, which may explain the painting of himself with a bandaged ear. It is thought that Van Gogh may have eaten his lead paint, which may have caused his madness. Vincent Van Gogh was one of the most influential contributors to the Post-Impressionist movement even though his paintings were not respected or accepted in his time. Post-Impressionism does not refer to a collective style but to a period of time between 1880 and 1910. A term such as Post-Impressionism refers to the increasingly fragmented art scene that would characterize the modern art of the late 19th and early 20th century. (Stokstad 1039). During his last years Van Gogh began to paint in a very expressionistic manner due to his heightened emotional state in the asylum. Van Gogh used these sensations to paint in a style that was more emotional than realistic. This emotional state can explain some of his paintings such as "The Starry Night". This painting was made while he was in a mental asylum and it seems that Van Gogh was already thinking about his death and moving to a heavenly place among the stars (www.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa.032798.htm). Vincent's painting style was like a child's painting with its simplicity of color and the roughness of his brushstrokes. He was very influenced by realism because he wanted to create what was really there with his bright colors put on the canvas in a rough style (Rewald 228). Van Gogh was well known for his use of primary colors placed next to each other in large quantities that balance out as the viewer moves away from the painting. Van Gogh's style for his self-portrait echoes the style that Georges Seurat created... in the middle of paper... at the end of his life. Van Gogh was much criticized during his lifetime and his style was never accepted in his time. But now he is one of the most hyped artists of all time. Many of his paintings sell for millions and millions of dollars (Rewald 230). Vincent Van Gogh together with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat and Paul Gauguin are now considered the main artists of the post-impressionist period. These painters were also at the beginning of the Modernism movement (Stokstad 1025). Although Van Gogh was only painting for 10 years, his genius and style have endured through the centuries and his works are seen today as brilliant and inspiring. Bibliography "The Art of Vincent Van Gogh", www.tqn. com/library/weekly/aa .032798.htm27 April 1999."Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890", www.ndirect.co.uk/~nas/masters/gogh/vaugh27 April 1999.Hammacher, A.M. and R. Van Gogh: A Documentary Biography.New York: MacMillan, 1982. Rewald, John. Post Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin.New York: Museum of Modern Art. 1989. Stokstad, Marylyn. History of art. New York: Harry n. Abrams, Inc. and Preston Hall, Inc, 1999.