Vincent van Gogh Playing Cards

Vincent van Gogh’s ten-year painting career yielded more than 2,000 paintings and drawings but little recognition from the art world. Lamenting this indifference, he wrote to his brother Theo, “One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it.” While he may have felt isolated in his time, the world now knows Van Gogh as one of the most impassioned and appreciated figures in the history of Western art. His life in France, despite an upbringing of means, was lived mostly in poverty, and the last decade was spent feverishly painting, fueled by his staples of coffee, cigarettes, and bread. His signature impasto "brush"-strokes—thick in consistency achieved by layering with a palette knife, brush, or spatula—were accomplished by applying paints directly onto the canvas and mixing them together with his own fingers.

Vincent van Gogh