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Vincent Van Gogh : The Greatest Artist Of All Time

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Vincent van Gogh is arguably considered one of the greatest artist of all time, but his career wasn’t always focused on the arts. Vincent was born March 30th, 1853, in Zundert, Neth, and did not begin his art career until the age of 27. (1) Prior to his ventures in the arts, Vincent, at the age of 16, worked as an art dealer apprentice for Goupil and Company. During his 3 year stay at Gurpil and Company, “Daily contact with works of art aroused his artistic sensibility, and he soon formed a taste for Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and other Dutch masters, although his preference was for two contemporary French painters, Jean-François Millet and Camille Corot, whose influence was to last throughout his life.” Vincent found that he disliked being an art dealer, so in 1877, he worked as a language teacher and lay preacher in England. In the years of 1879 and 1880, Vincent found himself at a turning point while doing missionary work in Borinage, a poor coal mining region in Belgium. “Living among the poor, he gave away all his worldly goods in an impassioned moment; he was thereupon dismissed by the church authorities for a too-literal interpretation of Christian teaching.” After his dismissal, Vincent, depressed and withdrawn, decided then his new mission was to “bring consolation to humanity through art,” and found his true calling as an artist. Van Gogh stated, “I want to give the wretched a brotherly message, when I sign ‘Vincent,’ it is as one of them” This brought a new found

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