11-2 Who Painted This?

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30th 1853 in the Netherlands. He had two brothers and three sisters. He talked the most to his younger brother Theo. Before Vincent became a painter, he worked at many different jobs. For example, he was a teacher in London and later he was a minister. Vincent also worked in a bookstore and art gallery. When Vincent was 27, he started to paint full-time. He started first with pictures of people, and he liked to use dark colors such as brown and green. His pictures were sad.

In 1886 Vincent moved to Paris to live with his brother Theo, and he started to use bright colors in his paintings. The paintings were of the streets and cafes of Paris. Vincent liked to paint pictures of people, but when he couldn't find models, he would paint self-portraits. He painted more than 20 pictures of himself. When Vincent was alive he was not famous. Today, people think he is one of the most important painters of his time, and his paintings sell for millions of dollars.