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Vincent van Gogh is a global icon today, yet during his lifetime, he was barely recognized. Despite creating over 2,000 artworks in just ten years, he sold only one confirmed painting while he was alive — and that’s a documented fact. Why did the art world overlook someone we now consider a genius?
Listen now to explore the real reasons behind Van Gogh’s quiet career, and read more here:
👉 https://anitalouiseart.com/why-did-van-gogh-only-sell-one-painting-in-his-lifetime/
#VanGogh #VincentVanGogh #ArtHistory #FamousArtists #PaintingFacts #AnitaLouiseArt #VanGoghFacts #ArtPodcast
Anita Louise Art is a blog and a YouTube channel about all things to do with art. Check out our blogs at https://anitalouiseart.com/
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0:02
[Music]
0:08
hi this is Anita from Five Minutes with
0:10
Art you know one of the stories that's
0:12
often told about the painter Vincent Van
0:14
Gogh is that he only sold one paint in
0:17
his lifetime vincent Van Gogh did die
0:20
broke and he died without really seeing
0:25
how popular he is today he really only
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sold one painting though there has been
0:30
a record shown of another one of his
0:32
paintings going to London and I don't
0:34
know if that was before or after he
0:36
passed away but the art world you know
0:39
generally believes that he just sold one
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painting he gave us star night he gave
0:44
us sunflowers he gave us a bedroom died
0:47
thinking he was a failure you know think
0:50
about that for a moment here's one of
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the greatest artists that's ever lived
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and if you if I mentioned several times
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if you do search on Google if you did a
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search on Google trends of you know
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popular artists Vincent Van Go usually
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always comes up in the top you know one
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or two or three artists you know so but
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he really only sold one painting the red
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vineyard and even then he sold it to a
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friend so it wasn't even sold to
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somebody walked off the street and said
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"I love your artwork i want to buy it."
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It basically was sold to a friend
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another artist a Belgium artist on a
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book that she uh was the one who bought
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his painting she bought it for 400
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francs about a,000 to$2,000 US in
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today's money think about that for a
1:36
moment so she bought it but it was you
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know not a very expensive painting and
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she more or less almost like she was
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doing him a favor i'm going to buy one
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of your paintings and this is now
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displayed in a museum in Moscow
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there's some debate that Vincent Mang go
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he did trade some of his paintings for
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other people's paintings there was some
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debate about that but really when it
2:00
comes to like earning money on it
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probably more more was just one painting
2:04
that was actually sold why did he sell
2:06
so little well there's a couple reasons
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why one he was very much ahead of his
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time you know in in the art world if he
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had lived longer maybe he would have
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seen success later in his life
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he was constantly moving he was moving
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to different places he was you know
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lived in Netherlands Belgium Paris Aries
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you know he he was moving all over
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France and so you know he was constantly
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moving he didn't really have a you know
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stable place so much he was you know in
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an asylum half the time painting so you
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know he wasn't really out there he had
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no real commercial representation even
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though his brother Theo did represent
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him um he didn't have dealers actively
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seeking his work his brother Theo an art
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dealer in Paris tried to promote him but
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it was tough it was you know very hard
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for Theo to promote him but Theo
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believed in him and kept helping him
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with finances but he harder for him to
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sell his work and to promote it vince Go
3:00
was very socially isolated he had mental
3:03
illness he didn't have many stable
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relationships he you know he alienated
3:08
people he was probably one of these sort
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of odd ducks that people thought who is
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this guy in the neighborhood you know we
3:14
don't want to be around him and then on
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top of that he cut off his ear and
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handed his ear to a a prostitute in a
3:21
brothel and they had to call the police
3:23
on him so you know people were probably
3:26
saying "Who's this weirdo that cut off
3:28
his own ear?" He had a very short-lived
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career he started painting seriously at
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27 and he died by 37 so he only really
3:38
was painting seriously for 10 years
3:40
vincent McGo felt like he was being
3:42
overlooked he felt like people didn't
3:43
appreciate his art but he kept painting
3:46
anyway and that's one reason what I
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really love about Vincent Van Gogh is if
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any of you out there are artists you
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know maybe you feel that way people
3:53
don't appreciate your art they don't
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understand you or maybe there's
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something else in your life that they
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don't understand or you feel like you're
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just not understood if you can remember
4:02
the story of Vincent Van Gogh I think we
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can all learn from the story that here's
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a man that was very very misunderstood
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in his world that he you know they
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people just didn't understand him they
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didn't know who he was he was kind of
4:15
the weirdo um you know down the street
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but yet he turned out to be one of the
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greatest artist who ever lived and today
4:23
has a museum in Amsterdam dedicated to
4:27
him but not only that is I think
4:30
everyone knows his name i remember when
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I grew up this one of the sunflower
4:34
paintings my mother had a copy of it
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that was you know hanging in our kitchen
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it was a you know very popular painting
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during that time and I think a lot of
4:43
people loved his art they saw his art
4:46
they felt something when they saw his
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art i love Vincent Van Go he's
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definitely one of my favorite painters
4:52
if not my most favorite painter and the
4:55
more I get to know him and his story the
4:57
more I learned to appreciate him and
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just all he endured and all he went
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through in his life we hope that if
5:04
you're interested in this we will put in
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our description a link to our blog post
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entitled "Why did Van Go only sell one
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painting in his lifetime?" And this
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might give you a couple ideas as to why
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he only sold one painting in his
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lifetime and maybe give you some food
5:18
for thought for yourself and your own
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life and what does this mean for you
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because really art is not just about
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viewing the paintings it's about making
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art be part of who you are and it's
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maybe in seeing yourself and the world
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and those around you in a different way
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as you view art that is the power of art
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we've hope you've enjoyed this podcast
5:39
thank you so much for listening that you
5:41
will subscribe and join and be part of
5:43
our community where we talk about art
5:45
where we study about art where we learn
5:47
about art because art like I said it can
5:51
help you see the world in a different
5:53
way thank you so much for listening
5:58
[Music]
#Visual Art & Design
#Art Museums & Galleries
#Painting