Vincent Willem van Gogh (Zundert, March 30, 1853 - Auvers-sur-Oise, July 29, 1890) was a Dutch painter, one of the main exponents of post-impressionism.

He painted about 900 paintings (including 43 self-portraits and 148 watercolors) and made more than 1,600 drawings. A central figure in his life was his younger brother Theo, an art dealer in Paris, who provided him with continuous and selfless financial support. The great friendship between them is documented in the numerous letters that were exchanged since August 1872. Of the 800 letters that remain from the painter, about 650 were for Theo; the others are correspondence with friends and family.​

From a young age he had an inclination towards drawing. His first job was in an art gallery. He later became a Protestant pastor and in 1879, at the age of twenty-six, he went as a missionary to a mining region in Belgium, where he began drawing people from the local community. In 1885 he painted his first major work, The Potato Eaters. At that time her palette was mainly composed of somber and earthy tones. The light and preference for bright colors for which he is known arose later, when he moved to the south of France, achieving its full potential during his stay in Arles in 1888.

The quality of his work was recognized only after his death, in a retrospective exhibition in 1890, making him currently considered one of the great masters in the history of painting. He greatly influenced the art of the 20th century, especially among the German Expressionists and Fauves such as Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Kees Van Dongen. He died at the age of thirty-seven from a gunshot wound; It is not yet known for sure whether it was a suicide or involuntary manslaughter. Although there is a general tendency to speculate that his mental illness influenced his painting, art critic Robert Hughes believes that the artist's works are executed under complete control; In fact, the painter never worked during the periods in which he was ill.