“I certainly hope to sell in the course of time, but I think I shall be able to influence it most effectively by working steadily on, and that at the present moment making desperate efforts to force the work I am doing now upon the public would be pretty useless.” Vincent Van Gogh

While many people see beautiful art when they look at any one piece of Vincent Van Gogh’s work’ other people see only the scribbling of a mad man. Whatever you believe about Vincent Van Gogh’ be it amazing artist or a serious mental health case’ it’s hard to dispute that he had a real talent that could not be realized in his time because he was so far ahead of where art was at the time. Sure’ Japanese art’ and pointillism’ and even Impressionists inspired Vincent’ but he remained true to his visions of art. He wasn’t afraid to stand behind his paintings’ because they were expressions of a man’ not just an artist.

Vincent Van Gogh didn’t lead a very extraordinary life in the way of fame and money’ but he did live to create beautiful paintings. His life and his travels took him to places that inspired him to paint beautiful landscapes that still exist in our minds today because he captured them so beautifully’ and because of this’ his state of mind shouldn’t overshadow the beauty of his work. Vincent Van Gogh went through several different phases where he painted with certain colors or in a certain manner’ but overall he never fit into just one category. While we could never do his work justice with words’ it might actually give some insight into the man behind the easel if we do look at some of his works beyond what lay on the top surface of the canvas.

From a very young age Vincent was interested in art’ although during that time it wasn’t often thought that a son of a preacher could make it out in the world as an artist. Vincent had a hard time finding support within his own family’ as he felt he could never be good enough for his father. So’ he may not have started out painting’ but he was always sketching. Today’ many of his sketches remain as a piece of Van Gogh history’ detailing the growth of an artist. In his lifetime’ Vincent Van Gogh was prolific in his writing to his brother as well as in sketching and painting as there are eight hundred known sketches and more than eight hundred known paintings! Unfortunately’ delving into the works of Vincent Van Gogh is not a simple task’ as he didn’t transition from one style of work to the next’ instead he had many styles that seemed to overlap throughout his life.

Any book cannot do Van Gogh’s artistic work justice no matter how brief or expanse the explanations. Instead of doing his work an injustice’ a few select paintings from important period of time will be discussed. This shouldn’t provide the only glimpse into Van Gogh art; instead it should serve as inspiration to keep looking and to keep studying the life and art of Vincent Van Gogh.