He Loved Color And He Let It Show

Vincent Van Gogh wrote on the 19th of November, 1883, in a letter to his brother and benefactor Theo, "And my aim in my life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then, at the end of my life, I hope to pass away, looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, 'Oh, the pictures I might have made!'"

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While it would be interesting to speculate on what else the post-impressionist Dutch painter might have produced during a prolonged life, he did leave behind some 2200 artistic creations including 870 paintings, 1,037 drawings, 150 watercolors and 133 letter sketches.

Considering that Van Gogh decided to become a painter only ten years before his death, those were ten very productive years.

Van Gogh's work is generally better known than that of any other artist and he is considered to be the second greatest of the "Masters" behind Rembrandt.

Van Gogh is also remembered for his struggles with mental illness. Due in part to poverty and ensuing malnourishment, Van Gogh endured a myriad of physical ailments. He was addicted to the narcotic beverage absinthe whose toxic element "thujone" has been reported to cause hallucinations, convulsions, and permanent damage to the nervous system. It is also speculated that he suffered from a form of epilepsy, syphilis, tinnitus, Meniere's syndrome and lead poisoning. It is quite possible that the lead poisoning came about from the lead ingredients in the paints he used.

Ironically, the lead pigments in the paint may have played a role in Van Gogh's degraded mental state as well as have been helped inspire some of his greatest works. Over-exposure to lead can to depression and paranoia. Not only did Van Gogh use gobs of paint in his compositions, he was also known to ingest the lead containing pigments. The whites and yellows of the day and of which he particularily fond contained high concentrations of lead.

Lead poisoning also causes swelling around the optic nerve. This would cause a distortion of vision such that one would see a glow or halo around lights. Interestingly, his later works feature glows around lights and stars. "Starry Night," which he painted in 1989 while at the asylum at Saint-Remy, prominently features this effect.

If you were Freud, you would probably also attribute much of Van Gogh's mental anguish to the fact one year to the day before he was born, his mother gave birth to a another son, also named Vincent, who was stillborn.

Van Gogh's most notorious display of his mental anguish came on the evening of December 23, 1888, after an altercation with his friend and fellow artist Paul Gaugin. It is said that Van Gogh, who was susceptible to wide mood swings (another side effect of lead poisoning), threatened Gauguin with a knife. He would later return to the "Yellow House" in Arles where he lived and once roomed with Gauguin and, using an open razor, would cut off the lower portion of his left ear. He then wrapped the ear in cloth and took it to his favorite brothel where he presented it as a "gift" to a prostitute.

While it may have been another bout of tinnitus, a ringing, whistling, or other imaginary noise perceived in the ears, which prompted Van Gogh to severe his ear, only sheer madness could have brought him to the conclusion that it would help him score.

Van Gogh would paint two self-portraits after the incident which featured his bandaged ear. In those self-portraits, it would appear that it is Van Gogh's right ear which is bandaged until you realize that Van Gogh must have been looking at himself in a mirror.

In the end, and most importantly, it is Van Gogh's extensive use of color and bold brush strokes that define his unique style.