Vincent Willem van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in Groot-Zundert, a village close to Breda in the Province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands.
He began drawing in 1880. He encountered Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in Paris.
He produced more than 2,000 works, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches, during the last ten years of his life.
Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life, during which time he cut off part of his left ear following a breakdown in his friendship with Paul Gauguin. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide.
The picture in the upper part of the page is the Sunflower, the most important picture of Van Gogh. He made from oil in August 1888, and cost 12 million $.