Theo provided his brother with both financial and emotional support. They lay the foundation for most of what is known about the thoughts and beliefs of the artist. The most comprehensive primary source for the understanding of van Gogh as an artist is the collection of letters between him and his younger brother, art dealer Theo van Gogh. According to art critic Robert Hughes, van Gogh's late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and "longing for concision and grace". Despite a widespread tendency to romanticize his ill health, modern critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of illness. The extent to which his mental health affected his painting has been a subject of speculation since his death. He spoke of them leading 'a way of life completely different from ours, from that of civilized people.' He strove to paint the faces, 'the color of a good, dusty potato, unpeeled naturally,' and to convey the idea that these people had 'used the same hands with which they now take food from the plate to dig the earth and had thus earned their meal honestly.' This meant Van Gogh tried to paint his subjects with deep feeling, but without sentimentality. And like the French master Jean-François Millet, Van Gogh wanted to be a true "peasant painter." Van Gogh deliberately chose a composition which would challenge his growing prowess as a painter. His work grew brighter in color, and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style that became fully realized during his stay in Arles in 1888. Later, he moved to the south of France and was influenced by the strong sunlight he found there.
In March 1886, he moved to Paris and discovered the French Impressionists. His palette at the time consisted mainly of somber earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid coloration that distinguished his later work. In 1885, he painted his first major work The Potato Eaters. One of his early aspirations was to become a pastor and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining region in Belgium where he began to sketch people from the local community. Van Gogh spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers, traveling between The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught for a time in England. His work included self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life.
Van Gogh began to draw as a child, and he continued to draw throughout the years that led up to his decision to become an artist. His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art.
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