Van Gogh's Emotional Turmoil and Its Reflection in His Paintings

Vincent van Gogh's art is inseparable from his lifelong mental struggles, which shaped both his subject matter and his revolutionary style. From an early life marked by failure and rejection—including a failed theology exam and dismissal as a missionary—Van Gogh turned to painting as an act of desperation. His early works, such as The Potato Eaters (1885), used dark, muddy tones to depict peasant life and convey social empathy and personal melancholy. After moving to Paris in 1886, he adopted a brighter palette influenced by Impressionism and pointillism, meeting artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. His style became fully realized in Arles, where he produced around 200 works in 14 months, using color arbitrarily to express emotion, as seen in The Night Café and Starry Night. Following a breakdown in December 1888, he cut off part of his ear and later admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He died by suicide on July 27, 1890, in Auvers-sur-Oise. Posthumous theories about his mental state include bipolar disorder, acute intermittent porphyria, temporal lobe epilepsy, and depression, worsened by malnutrition and overwork.