BRAVE HEARTS- Vincent Willem van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot- Zundert, a village close to Breda in the province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands. Van Gogh was the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, who was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. As a child, Van Gogh was serious, silent and thoughtful. In July 1869, at the age of fifteen, he obtained a position with the art dealer This was a happy time for Van Gogh: he was successful at work, and was already, at the age of 20, earning more than his father.Over a period of time, Vincent became increasingly isolated and fervent about religion. His religious emotion grew to the point where he felt he had found his true vocation in life, and he returned to England to do unpaid work Eventually Vincent prepared for university but failed In January 1879 Van Gogh got a temporary post as a missionary in the village of Petit Wasmes. Taking Christianity to what he saw as its logical conclusion, Vincent opted to live like those he preached to, sharing their hardships to the extent of sleeping on straw in a small hut at the back of the baker's house where he was billeted; the baker's wife used to hear Vincent sobbing all night in the little hut. His choice of squalid living conditions did not endear him to the appalled church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood There was considerable conflict between Vincent and his father, and his father made enquiries about having his son committed to a lunatic asylum at Geel.In 1880, Vincent followed the suggestion of his brother Theo and took up art in earnest. he went to Brussels, intending to follow Theo's recommendation to study with the prominent Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, who persuaded Van Gogh (despite his aversion to formal schools of art) to attend the Royal Academy of Art. There he not only studied anatomy, but the standard rules of modelling and perspective Van Gogh cut off the lobe of his left ear during some sort of seizure on 24 December 1888. Mental problems afflicted him, particularly in the last few years of his life. During some of these periods he did not paint or was not allowed to. There has been much debate over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's mental illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label his illness, and some 30 different diagnoses have been suggested. Diagnoses which have been put forward include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. A recently proposed illness is lead poisoning. The paints he used were lead-based, and one of the symptoms of lead poisoning results in a swelling of the retina, which may have led to the halo effect seen in many of Van Gogh's later works. It has been suggested that Van Gogh suffered from the brain disorder, Hypergraphia. The disorder causes a near constant overwhelming urge to write and is associated with epilepsy or mania. he died on 29th July 1890 at the age of 37.