Vincent van Gogh (van goh) was born at Groot-Zundret, Holland. He had begun drawing while he was a missionary, and in 1880 he finally decided to devote himself to his art. His early paintings, including such subjects as landscapes and peasants, were rather dark and subdued. Then, in early 1886, van Gogh discovered the Japanese Ukiyo-e (meaning "pictures of the floating world") woodblock prints, including those of Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige. The Japanese print influence could be seen in his use of a slightly altered perspective, his placement of subject matter, and his flat shapes.

Another great influence on van Gogh was Impressionism. His brother Theo, an art dealer, introduced van Gogh to the work of Impressionists such as Monet and Seurat, whose pointillist technique involved placing points or dabs of pure color next to each other to be "mixed" in the eye of the viewer. Van Gogh's painting style is called Post-Impressionist because his work followed the earlier period and was an effort to go beyond it. His colors grew much brighter, and his brushstrokes began to resemble many single active lines of color.

Though he was greatly troubled by seizures and depression in the last decade of his life, van Gogh's faith remained. In his landscapes and portraits, he painted both the seen and the unseen, the spiritual forces of nature. When he ended his life at age 37, this genius left the world with 1,600 remarkable artworks.