I guess we could ask this question about many famous painters. Many do not become famous until after their death. But let’s focus on Vincent van Gogh. If his paintings are so impressive and hang in museums all over the world, why did he have trouble selling his paintings when he was alive?
First, let’s consider that Vincent didn’t start painting until about ten years before his untimely death in 1890. When he was painting, people didn’t like his work. He didn’t like many of his own paintings and he threw many away.
Also, he wasn’t a very nice person to get along with. That was probably because he didn’t like himself too much. The only people who seemed to like him were other artists, like Gauguin, Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
It seems that van Gogh sparked a different way of looking at art, seeing paintings as feelings, rather than trying to paint exactly what you see. Van Gogh painted with emotion; he used dazzling colors in his works, his paintings were creepy, in a way.
And perhaps the public was not prepared for plays like this. That is why he supposedly sold only one painting in his life. His work was not really appreciated yet.
Also, no one knew much about Vincent. His brother Theo was an art dealer and exhibited his art for sale. Other than that, few saw Vincent’s artwork.
That seemed to significantly distress van Gogh and likely affected his early death from a gunshot wound. He suffered greatly most of his life. He had a younger brother named Vincent, who died when he was a baby. Perhaps the second Vincent suffered a great deal of angst from being a “replacement Vincent.”
Vincent van Gogh never married, although he did have relationships, one with his widowed cousin. But his closest relative was always his younger brother Theo, who provided a lot of financial support to help his brother.
But other artists enjoyed his works and began to use his ideas. Vincent’s closest friends, if he had any, were painters and his brother Theo.
Plus, there’s the story of Vincent cutting off his ear. There are many discrepancies about the story, but the persistent one seems to be that Vincent was unstable, which probably made many uncomfortable dealing with him.
In the last years of his life, van Gogh spent time in an insane asylum. It was there that he created what would later become his most famous paintings, including “The Starry Night,” perhaps his most famous. Vincent painted some 100 works during his time in the asylum.
How did Van Gogh become famous anyway? Much of that is due to his sister-in-law, named Jo. Vincent’s brother Theo died only a few months after Vincent, and Theo’s wife Jo inherited Vincent’s works, not to mention Vincent’s letters to Theo. Her vocation was to promote Vincent’s artwork, which was immediately acclaimed throughout Europe.
So it is really through the efforts of Jo van Gogh that Vincent became the much admired artist that he was.