Van Gogh is famous because a handful of people spent decades making him famous. In his lifetime he sold almost nothing, and he died in 1890, at 37.
A critic, his brother's widow, an American novelist and a few museums then carried his name from one generation to the next.
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His life gave them a story to tell: an ear cut with a razor, a stay in the asylum at Saint-Rémy, in Provence, and the shot he fired at himself in a wheat field. His style gave them pictures nobody forgets, like the thick, swirling strokes of The Starry Night.
Neither would have carried his name far without help. That help came from a short chain of people, and the first link was a Paris critic who praised him in print in 1890, while the painter was still alive.
The critic who called him a genius
That writer called Van Gogh a genius. Vincent wrote back to thank him, and his reply pushed the praise toward two other men…
What You'll Discover
What his widow did with the canvases.
What a 1934 novel did to him.
How America finally gave in.
Where the family collection ended up.