Today we were immersed in the Van Gogh exhibition at St Mary’s, York. Fabulous!

Van Gogh ….

“Great things are done by a series of small things being brought together.”
Vincent Van Gogh

His happiest year was in London
In 1873, van Gogh travelled to London to work for the art dealer Goupil and Cie. This was the happiest time in his life. He was earning a lot of money and he fell in love with his landlady’s daughter Eugenie Loyer (she rebuffed his romantic advances). 

In less than 10 years, he created 2000 artworks
From November 1881 to July 1890, van Gogh produced 900 paintings and 1100 drawings. At the age of 27, he abandoned his unsuccessful careers as an art dealer and a missionary and concentrated on his painting and drawing. Most of his art was created in the last 10 years of his life (on average …… one piece every 36 hours)

A prolific correspondent
He wrote nearly as many letters as he created paintings. Van Gogh wrote 844 letters in his lifetime, mostly to his brother Theo.

Only one painting sold during his lifetime
Van Gogh was never famous as a painter during his lifetime and struggled with poverty. He sold only one painting while he was alive: The Red Vineyard which went for 400 francs in Belgium seven months before his death. His most expensive painting Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for $82.5 million in 1990 (about $170 million today)

Only the lobe, not the whole ear was cut off
It’s popularly believed that van Gogh cut off his ear but he actually only severed a part of the ear lobe. The accepted version is that the artist mutilated himself with a razor after an argument with his friend Paul Gauguin in Arles. He then ran to a bordello and presented the cut lobe to a prostitute. 

His Most Famous Work Was Done in an Asylum
Starry Night, arguably his most famous work, was painted in an asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. He voluntarily admitted himself there to recover from his 1888 nervous breakdown which resulted in the ear-cutting incident. The painting depicts the view from his bedroom window.

He died at 37
On July 27, 1890, van Gogh shot himself in the chest. There were no witnesses and the gun was never found. Two doctors tended to him, but the bullet could not be removed. He died on July 29, 1890 from an infection in the wound.