Vincent van Gogh was already 27 years old when he took the decision that would make him world-famous, choosing a career as an artist. In just over ten years (1880-1890) he produced some 900 paintings and 1,100 works on paper. He also left behind a large correspondence: 902 letters.

Youth
On 30 March 1853, Vincent Willem van Gogh was born. He was the eldest son of the Reverend Theodorus van Gogh and his wife Anna Cornelia Carbentus, who lived in the village of Zundert in the Dutch province of North Brabant. Vincent had two brothers and three sisters: Anna Cornelia, called Anna (1855-1930), Elizabeth Huberta, called Lies (1859-1936), Theodorus, called Theo (1857-1891), Willemien Jacoba, called Wil (1862-1941), and Cornelis Vincent, called Cor (1867-1900).

In 1869, after a patchy school career, he was taken on as an apprentice at the Hague office of the French art and print dealership Goupil & Cie, where his uncle Vincent van Gogh (1820-1888) was one of the partners. There he learned a great deal about visual art.

In 1876, after being fired by Goupil, he tried to earn a living as a teacher and assistant pastor in the English town of Ramsgate. But by 1877 he was back in the Netherlands, where he briefly worked in a bookshop in Dordrecht. When this too ended in failure, Vincent decided to follow in his father's footsteps and study for the ministry in Amsterdam, but he gave up that plan before even taking the admissions test. In 1879, he worked as a lay preacher among impoverished miners in the Borinage district of Belgium. But again, he was unsuccessful. Vincent was on the brink of despair. Eventually his brother Theo, who had been working for Goupil since 1873, advised him to become an artist. 

Dutch period
Van Gogh mastered the fundamentals of drawing through independent study and by copying prints. After moving to his parents' home in Etten (North Brabant) in early 1881, he drew inspiration from the rural setting and the local farmers, following the example of the painter Jean-François Millet (1814-1875).

In late 1881, Van Gogh moved to The Hague, where he took drawing and painting lessons from Anton Mauve (1838-1888), a member of the Hague School of artists. There he realized that he wanted to leave the city behind and, like Millet, become a painter of rural life.
In 1882, he began living with Sien Hoornik (1850-1904), who had previously worked as a prostitute. But in late 1883 he broke off this relationship and moved to the northeastern province of Drenthe, where he spent three months studying the landscape and rural life. These remained his favourite themes throughout his years in Nuenen, a village in North Brabant (1883-1885). He exchanged many letters about his ideas with his fellow painter Anthon van Rappard (1858-1892). At this point, painting became his chief aim in life, and he not only made studies but also tried to produce finished paintings that he could sell. The first tangible result of this effort was The potato eaters (1885).

Paris
In 1885 Van Gogh moved to Antwerp, where he briefly took lessons at the art academy. But he soon became frustrated with the traditional teaching methods used there, and in late February 1886, he moved to Paris, where he shared an apartment with Theo, who since 1881 had been financially supporting him. In Paris, he was exposed to Impressionism. For a short time, he studied at the studio of Fernand Cormon, and he met some of the city's modern artists, including Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Emile Bernard.

Studio of the South
In early 1888, Van Gogh fled the hectic life of Paris, moving to the town of Arles in southern France. By this time, he had grown into a mature artist with a style of his own. Theo offered Vincent moral and financial support. In return, Vincent sent him his paintings. Both men were convinced that Vincent could make a meaningful contribution to modern art.

Van Gogh dreamed of establishing a community of artists, the Studio of the South, with Paul Gauguin (1849-1903) as its leader. In October 1888, Gauguin moved into the yellow house in Arles with him. These two friends and fellow artists painted together and discussed art, but soon came into conflict. During a psychotic episode, Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe with a razor blade. He spent some time in a hospital in Arles. Afterward, he was unable to put his life back in order, and in April 1889 he had himself admitted voluntarily to a psychiatric clinic in the nearby village of Saint-Rémy.

Return to the north
In May 1890, he left the clinic and moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. There he worked at a feverish pace, painting the landscape and scenes of rural life. On 27 July, in a field near the village, Vincent van Gogh shot himself in the chest. Two days later he died with Theo at his bedside.