Vincent van Gogh

Painter

1853-03-30 – 1890-07-29

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work transformed modern art. His paintings, including Starry Night and Sunflowers, became central works of Western art history.

Books by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh
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The letters of Vincent van Gogh
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The complete letters of Vincent van Gogh

with reproductions of all the drawings in the correspondence (Volume 2)
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Quotes by Vincent van Gogh

Those who love much, do much and accomplish much, and whatever is done with love is done well.... Love is the best and noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire. Happy is he who has loved much, and although he may have wavered and doubted, he has kept that divine spark alive and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be. If only one keeps loving faithfully what is truly worth loving and does not squander one's love on trivial and insignificant and meaningless things then one will gradually obtain more light and grow stronger.
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As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.
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It is only right and proper to be moved by the Bible, but present-day reality has so strong a hold over us that even when we try to imagine the past the minor events in our lives immediately wrench us out of our musings, and our own adventures throw us back irrevocably upon our personal feelings— joy, boredom, suffering, anger, or a smile.
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A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke
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In would rather die of passion than of boredom.
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And when I read, and really I do not read so much, only a few authors, - a few men that I discovered by accident - I do this because they look at things in a broader, milder and more affectionate way than I do, and because they know life better, so that I can learn from them.
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What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.
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The world concerns me only in so far as I owe it a certain debt and duty, so to speak, because I have walked this earth for 30 years, and out of gratitude would like to leave some memento in the form of drawings and paintings— not made to please this school or that, but to express a genuine human feeling.
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One of the most beautiful things to do is to paint darkness, which nevertheless has light in it.
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Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.
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I hope to depart in no other way than looking back with love and wistfulness and thinking, oh paintings that I would have made..
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A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
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We feel lonely now and then and long for friends and think we should be quite different and happier if we found a friend of whom we might say: "He is the one." But you, too, will begin to learn that there is much self-deception behind this longing; if we yielded too much to it, it would lead us from the road.
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In the fullness of artistic life there is, and remains, and will always come back at times, that homesick longing for the truly ideal life that can never come true.
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There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.
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Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.
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Where friendship blooms, life is reborn.
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It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.
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My great longing is to learn to make those very incorrectnesses, those deviations, remodellings, changes of reality, so that they may become, yes, untruth if you like - but more true than the literal truth.
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To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life
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