Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in a small village in southern Holland. As a child, he was serious and sensitive. He loved to draw, and his work showed talent, but no one encouraged him to become an artist. Instead, his father thought he should take a job—something like a carpenter. As a young adult, he wandered from job to job with little success and very little money, becoming more depressed with each failure. In March 1880, however, just before his 27th birthday, something changed inside van Gogh. He realized he was meant to be a painter, and he began to study art in Brussels, receiving money from his brother Theo, which helped him to live.
In 1886, van Gogh moved to Paris, hoping to learn more about color techniques being used by Impressionist artists there. Instead of grays and browns, his work began to use blue and red, and then yellow and orange. Soon he began to see life differently: Go slow. Stop thinking. Look around. You'll see something beautiful if you open yourself. These were the principles that guide his art. With his innovative (创新的) use of colors, van Gogh wanted to show his viewers how to better appreciate a flower, the night sky, or a person's face.
Today, people around the world immediately recognize Starry Nights and Sunflowers—both painted in bold, intense（浓重的） colors—as the work of Vincent van Gogh. Probably no other artist, at any time in any culture, has achieved such popularity. His Portrait （肖像画）of Dr. Gachet sold in 1990 reached more than $80 million, breaking the world record for art pieces. Many of his other works have also sold for millions. Of course, people are buying great art when they purchase his paintings. But they are also buying a piece of his story, which like his work, will live on forever.
