Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter born March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, and died July 29, 1890, in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, at 37. He didn't commit to art until August 1880, at 27, after failed stints as an art dealer, a teacher, and a lay missionary — and painted for barely a decade. In that decade he produced roughly 2,100 works, about 860 of them oil paintings, and sold only one, by name, while alive. All verified. This page gives you the facts worth keeping, and flags the popular "facts" that don't hold up, because a facts page that can't tell you what's false is only doing half the job.
The core facts, with why they matter
Before he was a painter, he failed at four other things. Art dealer at Goupil & Cie (from age 16), supply teacher in England, bookshop clerk in Dordrecht, and lay missionary among coal miners in the Borinage, Belgium — dismissed in 1879 for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood" after giving away his own possessions to the poor. He committed to art in August 1880, at 27, in Cuesmes, with his brother Theo's encouragement. The painter didn't arrive polished; he arrived by exhausting every safer option first.
"The Potato Eaters" (May 1885, Nuenen) is generally considered his first major work. Dark, heavy, deliberately unglamorous — painted years before the bright palette most people associate with him.
In Arles, he leased the "Yellow House" on May 1, 1888, hoping to found a "Studio of the South." Paul Gauguin joined him that autumn; the arrangement ended in late December 1888 with a breakdown between the two men and Van Gogh injuring his own ear. Accounts differ on the extent — some describe the lobe, others the whole outer ear — so treat any single confident version of the story with caution.
He spent May 1889 to May 1890 at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, making about 150 paintings there, including "The Starry Night" (June 1889). That's his most productive year, produced during hospitalization, not because of it — a distinction worth holding onto rather than romanticizing.
He sold exactly one painting, by name, in his lifetime: "The Red Vineyard," for 400 francs, to Belgian painter and collector Anna Boch, in 1890. He died commercially unsuccessful and became famous only after his death.
In May 1990, "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" sold at Christie's for $82.5 million — briefly the most expensive painting ever auctioned. He never knew any of this; it happened a century after he died.
Popular "facts" that need correcting
"He never sold a painting." Close, but not quite — he sold one, The Red Vineyard, in 1890.
"He cut off his whole ear." Disputed. Contemporary accounts vary on whether he removed the lobe or the entire outer ear; there isn't a single settled version.
"His mental illness is what made him a great painter." His most prolific stretch — about 150 works in a single year — happened while hospitalized, not because he was unwell. Crediting the illness flattens both the art and the man.
Five things Vincent van Gogh did (the honest short list)
- Committed to art as a vocation at 27, after four failed careers.
- Painted "The Potato Eaters" (1885), his first major work.
- Moved to Paris (1886) and let Impressionism and Japanese prints brighten his palette.
- Leased the Yellow House in Arles (1888) and tried to found a "Studio of the South" with Gauguin.
- Painted roughly 150 works, including "The Starry Night," during his year at Saint-Rémy (1889–90).
The fact pages can't hold him
Facts are the skeleton; the letters are the man — hundreds of them to Theo, and some to his sister Willemien and to fellow painter Émile Bernard, are the real record of his thinking on color, work, and purpose. Our Vincent, an AI recreation built from the sourced record and labeled as what it is, can talk through the Yellow House and the decade that produced almost everything he's known for.
More in this cluster: Van Gogh hub · his death · verified quotes · biography.