10 Lesser Known Facts about the Legendary Van Gogh

realshepower
Jul 29, 2020
2 min read

The post-impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh left an unmatched legacy of art, philosophy and an incredible mind. He is one of the most famous and revered artist of the world. Van Gogh was born in 1853, Netherlands. He created over 2,100 pieces of art, 860 of which were oil paintings. Most of these pieces were done in the last 2 years of his life. He started to paint after 27 years of age. This and many more facts remain unknown by the admirers of his work. We bring to you 10 such lesser-known facts about the incredulous mind Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent was a self-taught artist who painted 30 self-portraits. He attended an art school for a few months 4 years before his death.
In his lifetime, he sold only one of his paintings "The Red Vineyard". He remained oblivion to mankind as his tryst with fame and glory started posthumously.
"Starry Nights" remains to be his most celebrated, known paintings of all time. But do you know he painted it in an asylum in France?
Vincent was an avid writer, his imagination had no bounds. He penned over 800 letters, mostly to his brother, Theo, who was his close confidant and someone who supported him financially throughout life.
He suffered from multiple illnesses including epilepsy, hallucination, and mental issues. Once during an epileptic seizure, he attacked his friend with a razor and instead of ending up cutting off a piece of his ear, not the entire ear as mostly believed by people.
He died by shooting himself in the chest while he was painting in a field. He somehow walked back to his home and died after 30 hours of shooting.
His last words according to Theo were, "The sadness will last forever."
Theo's wife later made it her life purpose to collect Vincent's paintings and letters and spread his work widely so it receives its due recognition and acknowledgement. It is her relentless efforts for years that Vincent's legacy remains.
$82.5 million was the highest bid made for Vincent's painting ever. The bid was the Portrait of Dr Gachet.
He always signed his paintings as "Vincent" since Gogh was often misspelt and mispronounced by people.