Little appreciated during his lifetime, Vincent Van Gogh’s fame grew in the years after his death. According to the legend, Van Gogh sold only one painting, The Red Vineyard, bought for 400 francs by the painter and art collector Anna Boch. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history’s greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art.
Van Gogh did not begin painting until his late twenties, and most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years. He produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches.
Today many of his pieces—including his numerous self portraits, landscapes, portraits and sunflowers—are among the world’s most recognizable and expensive works of art. On March 30, 1987, Irises was sold for a record US$53.9 million at Sotheby’s; on May 15, 1990, his Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million at Christie’s, establishing a new price record until exceeded in 2004 by a Picasso painting.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh’s work and that of his contemporaries. The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (also in the Netherlands), has another considerable collection of his paintings