Van Gogh was born in Groot Zundert on the 30th March 1853. His parents were called Theodorus Van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. He had a sister called Anna who was two years younger than him, he had a brother called Theo, he had two other sisters called Elizabeth and Wilhelmien , and another brother called Cornelius who died a tragic death committing suicide in 1900.

From the beginning of Van Gogh's artistic career he had the ambition to draw and paint figures, in 1884 he began working on mastering weathered hands, heads and other anatomical features of peasants. He was planning on creating a multiple figure piece that would make his name respected in the artistic community. The piece he created was entitled The Potato Eaters and was completed in 1885. This piece proved to be success, but not in his lifetime.

The potato eaters

Van Gogh suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy as well as other mental and physical conditions.

Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime and only became famous after his death.

In a short period of ten years Van Gogh made approximately 900 paintings.

Houses at Auvers

Starry night

Apricot Trees in Blossom

Two historians suggested that the painter did not cut off his own ear but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.

Others believed Van Gogh cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a girl called Rachel and presented the ear before sleeping in a blood drenched bed.

But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years researching, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.

On July 27, 1890, at the age of 37, whilst painting in a field he shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realizing that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn, where he died in his bed two days later. He suffered from depression, and it is suspected that it was a cry for help/attention rather than a genuine suicide attempt.

The end By Lucy and Megan