He and his brother Theo, who financed Vincent, made a poor decision when they asked Gauguin to join Vincent.

Many of us know Vincent the artist, but there are more facets to his life than the works that hang in many of the galleries around the world.Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, the wife of Vincent's brother Theo, spent many years after her husband's death in 1891 compiling the letters, which were first published in 1914. Vincent Willem van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. But I always admired his paintings for being decorative, for the bright colors, distinct style, and textures. It's a story of a man driven by internal conviction, who gets knocked down time and time again but gets up, no matter how hard it is, until he can get up no more.

Với van Gogh, nhân vật trong tranh chẳng cần là ngài bá tước, cô công chúa, hay những điển tích Thánh kinh nào hết, mà chỉ đơn giản là nông phu đào khoai, chở than, là người đưa thư, là cây hạnh trổ bông trắng ngần, là cây bách dưới bầu trời sao. What comforts me is that I am beginning to look upon madness as a disease like any other and accept it as such.

His first major work was 1885's The Potato Eaters, from a time when his palette mainly consisted of sombre earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid colouration that distinguished his later paintings. His letters from this period are full to bursting with pious sentiments; in one letter he even includes a sermon, which he composed in English. So instead of giving in to despair I chose active melancholy, in so far as I was capable of activity, in other words I chose the kind of melancholy that hopes, that strives and that seeks, in preference to the melancholy that despairs numbly and in distress.