painted Fee! ings vincent van Gogh was born on March 30* 1853 in Groot- sundert~a small town in southern Holland. He was the son of preacher People who knew himas a child remembered him assilent, serious, and thoughtful. Van Gogh stopped going to ., school around age 15 and, soon after, began working for a French sredealer. Asan art dealer, he worked in Holland, England, and France. After some time, van Gogh decided he didn’t like selling arto he became a preacher like his father. While preaching, van Gogh worked to help poor miners and their families. Around 1880, van Gogh abandoned preaching, and decided tobecome an artist (Vali GOgh dedicated only ten years orhis Jie to Being a FUlltIMe!aFtIst| but he produced over 2,000 works. He had a unique ability to show feeling and emotion in his work, and some of his paintings are now among the world’s most + popular and expensive works of art. Van Gogh's life as an artist was not an easy one. He was often depressed, and unhappy with his art. Today, his paintings sell for millions of dollars but when he was an artist van Gogh could not make enough money to survive. He lived in poor conditions » and often had to borrow money from his brother for food and art supplies. To make things worse, van Gogh failed at many of his personal relationships and spent much of his time alone. He committed suicide at age 37. . aes ‘van Gogh's life is a very sad story. After ten hard and lfficult years as an artist, he had only sold one painting. In the 1 it was van Gogh's ability to express his sadness that made him world famous. =