Van Gogh was born in Holland, in 1853. He died at the age of 37, in France in 1890. He shot himself and died two days later.While he was alive he was a great artist. Some of his most famous paintings are: Starry night, On the road, Miners, Peasant walking with a stick, and Two women in the peat.

Here is his life story, His first name was Vincent. He became a painter in his twenty's. His first paintings were sad and dark colors. They were dark because he wanted people to know how it felt to be poor. Most of his early paintings were of people who only had a few potatoes on thier plates. As he went on his paintings got brighter with more colors. He worked in art gallery's selling paintings, he also worked at a book store, and was a preacher like his dad. He always tried to do his best at everything. He went to a lot of different art schools. When Van Gogh started painting with more colors people loved his paintings. What inspired him to paint with more colors was Japanese paintings. When Van Gogh was losing money he always counted on his little brother Theo. Theo sent him money when ever he needed it. Since Van Gogh was always sending and recieving letters to Theo or from Theo, he got to know the postman very well. He used the postman and his wife in some of his paintings.

In 1886 Van Gogh moved to Paris to live with Theo. Theo introduced Van Gogh to a lot of famous artists. A couple of years later he left Paris and moved to Arles. While he was in Arles he cut off part of his ear because he got into an argument with another artist tha that he was working with. He painted many pictures of himself as if he wished he hadn't cut off his ear. Van Gogh used so much paint, he was always runing out of it. Sometimes he didn't eat just so he could buy paint insted of food. Soon after Van Gogh last painting he killed himself. They don't know why he killed himself, but they think the last painting represents how he felt.