Expressive luminosity of colour and blotchy brushwork are the distinguishing characteristics which made Vincent Van Gogh, (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) the model of Expressionist painters at the turn of the century. A vicar's son, he originally planned to study theology. But, professional and personal failure led him to painting, in which he saw a way of giving expression to tragic mental and emotional tensions. His own painting style was primarily self taught. In 1888 he settled in Arles, and this stay in Provence, which only lasted a year, is seen as the zenith of his creative work. Van Gogh's pictures, which were not saleable during his life, are today auctioned at very high prices. Very few people now are unfamiliar with (or unaffected by) Van Gogh's paintings. Somehow, this alienated, impoverished artist was able to access the deepest parts of himself and communicate some of the most powerful truths about human feeling. In a way, everything Van Gogh painted was a self-portrait: an honest and brutal view of himself and his reactions to the world.
