Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter who is among the best-known artists in history. His expressive depictions of street scenes, sunflowers, and portraits feature vivid palettes and lively brushwork, as seen in his seminal work Starry Night (1889). “Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of color to express myself more forcefully,” he once said. Born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands, he worked as an art dealer at the firm Goupil & Cie in both London and Paris as a young man. Disillusioned with his life and destitute after leaving the firm, he returned to his family and took up drawing. His brother Theo van Gogh helped him get a studio in The Hague and paid for painting...