How Come Nobody Liked Vincent Van Gogh Until After He Died?

In the southern Netherlands city of Zundert, Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853. He was unfortunate to only have 37 years of life and to have found his love for painting at the age of 27. Consequently, he spent only 10 years of his life working as an artist. This article explores why, despite the fact that he lived during the Enlightenment Era, when the art movement was at its height, his creative efforts were overlooked and undervalued.

This query might be posed to a variety of well-known painters, I guess. Many people don't become well-known until after their passing. However, let's focus on Vincent van Gogh. Why did he have problems selling his paintings when he was still living if his works are so incredible and are shown in museums all over the world?

First, let's consider that Vincent didn't start painting until about ten years before his untimely death in 1890. When he did paint, people didn't like his work. He didn't like many of his own paintings and threw many away.

Also, he was not a very nice person to get along with. That was probably because he didn't like himself too much. The only people that seem to like him were other artists, such as Gauguin, Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Van Gogh, rather than attempting to depict what you see accurately in his paintings, seems to have inspired a new way of viewing art. Van Gogh utilised vibrant colours and painted with emotion; in some ways, his paintings were spooky.

And perhaps the public wasn't ready for works like this. That's why he supposedly sold only one painting in his lifetime. His work just really wasn't appreciated yet.

Also, nobody knew a lot about Vincent. His brother Theo was an art dealer and displayed his art to sell. Outside of that, few saw Vincent's artwork.

That appeared to disturb van Gogh a lot, which most likely contributed to his gunshot wound-related early death. His life was marked by significant suffering. Vincent, his younger brother, was stillborn when he passed away. The fact that the second Vincent was a "replacement Vincent" may have caused him great suffering.

Vincent van Gogh never married, though he did have relationships, one with his widowed cousin. But his closest relative was always his younger brother Theo, who did much in the way of financial support to help his brother out.

But other artists enjoyed his works and started using his ideas. Vincent's closest friends, if he had any, were painters and his brother Theo.

Also, there is the story of Vincent cutting off his ear. There are many discrepancies about the story, but the lingering one seems to be that Vincent was unstable, which probably caused many to be uneasy about dealing with him.

In the final few years of his life, van Gogh spent time in a mental asylum. It was there that he created what would later be his most famous paintings, including "The Starry Night," perhaps his most renowned. Vincent painted maybe 100 works during his time in the asylum.

So anyway, how did van Gogh become famous? A lot of that is due to his sister-in-law, named Jo. Vincent's brother Theo died just a few months after Vincent did, and Theo's wife Jo inherited Vincent's works, not to mention Vincent's letters to Theo. She made it her calling to promote Vincent's artwork, which became immediately acclaimed throughout Europe.

So it's really through Jo van Gogh's efforts that Vincent became the much-admired artist he did.

Vincent van Gogh is just an example of the talented people who failed in their pursuit towards glory.