Vincent van Gogh was born in March 1853 and died in July 1890. He was of Dutch origin, born in the Netherlands, had four brothers and was an artist of the school of post-impressionist art. He didn't want to become a great artist until later in his life. He actually aspired to become a pastor like his father. He wasn't a very polite child, he was polite and serious. However he was always drawing even at a young age, but didn't start taking his art seriously until his late twenties. He painted over 2,100 paintings, although most of them were completed during his last two years of life. He suffered from mental illness throughout his life and extreme anxiety. A well-known episode of his mental illness was when he became angry to discover that his friend was going to live somewhere else. Van Gogh took a razor blade and cut off his ear, then went to a brothel and gave it to a prostitute and told her to guard it. He then told the police and they went to Van Gogh's house to find him covered in blood and trying to stop the bleeding with newspapers. His struggle with his mental illness is wo...