1853-1890. Dutch painter, a
Post-Impressionist. He tried various careers,
including preaching, and began painting in
the 1880s. He met Paul Gauguin in Paris, and
when he settled in Arles, Provence, 1888,
Gauguin joined him there. After a quarrel van
Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe, and in
1889 he entered an asylum; the following year
he committed suicide. The Arles paintings
vividly testify to his intense emotional
involvement in his art; among them are The
Yellow Chair and several Sunflowers 1888
(National Gallery, London). Born in Zundert,
van Gogh worked for a time as a schoolmaster
in England before he took up painting. He
studied under Van Mauve at The Hague. One of
the leaders of the Post-Impressionist
painters, he executed still lifes and
landscapes, one of the best-known being A
Cornfield with Cypresses 1889 (National
Gallery, London). Van Gogh's painting Irises
1889 was sold for the record price of $53.9
million at Sotheby's, New York, on 11 Nov
1987.