Where was Vincent van Gogh born?

In Groot-Zundert, in the Dutch province of North Brabant, on 30 March 1853.

Where can I see The Starry Night?

The Starry Night (1889) is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

How many paintings did Van Gogh make?

About 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life.

How old was Van Gogh when he died?

He died on 29 July 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, aged 37.

Vincent van Gogh: Life, Paintings, Letters, Quiz & Videos

The storyTen years, two thousand works, one unmistakable vision

A failed art dealer, teacher and preacher who only became a painter at 27, Vincent van Gogh produced almost his entire body of work in a single decade, and most of his masterpieces in the last two years of his life. Barely known when he died, he is now one of the most famous and influential artists who ever lived.

years old at his death: 37
years as an artist (1880–1890): ~10
artworks: ~2,100
oil paintings: ~860
of his letters survive: 820
self-portraits: 35+

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant, the eldest surviving son of a Protestant minister. At 16 he joined the international art dealers Goupil & Cie, working in The Hague, London and Paris, until he was dismissed in 1876. He then tried teaching in England, bookselling in Dordrecht, studying for the ministry in Amsterdam, and finally preaching among the coal miners of the Borinage in Belgium.

In 1880, aged 27, he decided to become an artist. Supported financially for the rest of his life by his younger brother Theo, an art dealer in Paris, he taught himself largely through drawing, took lessons from his cousin-by-marriage Anton Mauve in The Hague, and painted dark, earthy scenes of peasant life in Nuenen, culminating in The Potato Eaters (1885).

Moving to Paris in 1886, he met the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists and discovered Japanese woodblock prints. His palette exploded into colour. In February 1888 he moved to Arles in the south of France, dreaming of an artists' colony. He rented the Yellow House and painted Sunflowers to decorate it for Paul Gauguin, who stayed from October to December 1888. Their partnership ended in crisis on 23 December, when Vincent cut off part or all of his left ear.

Suffering recurring mental health crises, he voluntarily entered the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in May 1889, where he painted around 150 canvases, including The Starry Night and Irises. In May 1890 he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, under the eye of Dr Paul Gachet, and painted at a furious pace. On 27 July 1890 he was wounded by a gunshot, generally accepted as self-inflicted; he died two days later, aged 37. Theo died six months afterwards.

It was Theo's widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who devoted herself to building Vincent's reputation, lending works to exhibitions and publishing his letters. Today his bold colour, expressive brushwork and emotional honesty are seen as a foundation of modern art, from Fauvism to Expressionism.

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1887, Art Institute of Chicago — Self-Portrait, 1887. Art Institute of Chicago.

Map & timelineFollow Vincent across Europe

He lived in more than a dozen towns and cities across four countries. Tap a moment in the timeline to fly to it on the map, or switch on the museum layer to see where his work hangs today.

Masterpieces16 paintings, and the colours inside them

Every painting comes with its dominant colour palette, extracted from the image. Tap a painting for the story behind it, tap a swatch to copy its hex code, or send the palette swirling into the sky at the top of the page.

In his own wordsFrom the letters

Some 903 letters of Van Gogh's correspondence survive, 820 of them written by him, most to Theo. Every quote below links to the full letter in the Van Gogh Museum's scholarly edition.

Did you know?Curious facts

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Test yourselfHow well do you know Vincent?

Ten questions, drawn at random each time you play. Everything you need is somewhere on this page.

Watch & learnDocumentaries and painting tutorials

Videos are embedded from YouTube and belong to their creators. They only load when you press play.

See them in personWhere to see his work today

SourcesWhere these facts come from

Wikipedia: Vincent van Gogh (biography, dates, number of works)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, incl. “Van Gogh's letters” (903 letters, 820 by Vincent)
Vincent van Gogh: The Letters (Van Gogh Museum & Huygens ING), source of every quotation; letters 155, 497, 638, 676, 678, 706, 741, 777, 783, 822, 879, 886, 898
MoMA: The Starry Night
Wikipedia: The Red Vineyard (sale to Anna Boch)
Wikipedia: Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1990 auction)
Wikipedia: Irises, Bedroom in Arles, Wheatfield with Crows, Almond Blossoms, Sunflowers, Café Terrace at Night, The Night Café, The Yellow House
Wikipedia: Jo van Gogh-Bonger; Portraits of Vincent van Gogh
Painting images: public-domain reproductions from Wikimedia Commons (each painting links to its file page)