Happy Birthday Vincent van Gogh, you crazy one-eared bastid...

http://www.thinkexist.com/

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853
Dutch painter, one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, 1853-1890

"But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things."



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Van_Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh listen (help·info) (March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch painter, classified as a Post-impressionist, and is generally considered one of the greatest painters in the history of European art. His work shows the objects, people and places in his life with bold, usually distorted, draughtsmanship and visible dotted or dashed brushmarks, which are intensely yet subtly coloured.

He is popularly known as much for his embodiment of the myth of the tortured romantic artist as for his work, which is seen as the visual expression of his life. Three of the most widespread myths about him are that he cut off his ear (it was only the lobe), that he killed himself because no one recognised his talent (in the last six months of his life he received generous accolades which he found very disturbing), and that he painted as he did because he was mad (he painted during his lucid periods).

He produced all of his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during the ten year period before he committed suicide. Most of his best known work was produced in the final two years of his life. In the two months before his death he painted 90 pictures.

He was afflicted with increasingly recurrent periods of mental ill health, spending time in a sanatorium. His state of mind was not helped by overwork (especially in the hot sun), bad dietary habits and reliance on tobacco, coffee and alcohol. His career was cut short too early for him to reap success during his lifetime; his fame then grew slowly, helped by the devoted promotion of it by his widowed sister-in-law. A major show of 71 paintings was held in Paris eleven years after his death.