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Re book: Vincent van Gogh (The years 1881-1890) The Paintings of Vincent van Gogh -- Holland, Paris, Arles and Auvers. Compiled and edited by Michael Schemmann.

Vincent van Gogh's life is a familiar story, the young boy passing daily by his still-born brother's grave, also named Vincent and also born on the 30th of March a year earlier in 1852.

Van Gogh loved art from an early age. He began to draw as a child, and he continued making drawings throughout the years leading to his decision to become an artist. He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during his last two years. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. His work included self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes of flowers, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.

Vincent suffered an ill-fated love affair with a landlord's daughter, with a widowed cousin, with a €lady of the night', and with an older woman. Vincent's art business failed, and he could not make it as a teacher, bookshop clerk, evangelist and preacher; his attachment to the miners of the Borinage.

Vincent's artistic career, disappointing meeting with Paul Gauguin, mutilation of his ear, periodic breakdowns and voluntary commitment to a mental institution, and his death at the young age of 37, then termed a €suicide' but now 120 years after the incident termed to be a shooting accident by children playing with a defective rifle Vincent accepted his fate and covered for the boys, embracing his death because he felt that he was a €burden on his supportive brother Theo' who was by his side when he died in Auvers, and passed away himself seven months later.

Paul Gauguin wrote about Vincent van Gogh, published in the Mercure the France, October 1903: €AVANT [Before]. Now, on this December day, in the rue Lepic of our good city of Paris, the pedestrians hasten more than usual without any desire to dawdle. Among them a shivering man, bizarrely outfitted, hurries to reach the outer boulevard. Goatskin envelops him, a fur cap -- rabbit, no doubt -- the red beard bristling. Like a cowherd. Do not observe him with half a glance; do not go your way without carefully examining, despite the cold, the white and harmonious hand, the blue eyes so clear, so childlike. Surely this is a poor beggar. His name is Vincent van Gogh. Hastily, he enters the shop of a dealer in primitive arrows, old scrap iron, and cheap oil paintings. Poor artist! You put a part of your soul into the painting of this canvas that you have come to sell. It is a small still life -- pink shrimps on pink paper. €Can you give me a little money for this canvas to help me pay my rent?' €My God, my friend,' answers the dealer, €the clientele is becoming difficult, they ask me for cheap Millets; then, you know,' the dealer adds, €your painting is not very gay. The Renaissance is in demand today. Well, they say you have talent, and I want to do something for you. Here, take a hundred sous.' And the round coin clinked on the counter. Van Gogh took the coin without a murmur, thanked the dealer, and went out. Painfully, he made his way back up the rue Lepic. When he had almost reached his lodgings, a poor woman, just out of Saint-Lazare, smiled at the painter, desiring his patronage. The beautiful white hand emerged from the overcoat: Van Gogh was a reader, he thought of la fille Elisa, and his five-franc piece became the property of the unfortunate girl. Rapidly, as if ashamed of his charity, he fled, his stomach empty.

APRS [AFTER]. A day will come, and I see it as if it had already come. I enter room no. 9 of the auction house: the auctioneer is selling a collection of paintings. €400 francs, The Pink Shrimps€¦ 450€¦ 500€¦ Come, gentlemen, its worth more than that€¦ No one says a word?€¦ Sold, The Pink Shrimps, by Vincent van Gogh€¦'F End of Gauguin's writing.

Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold at Christie's in May 1990 in what is now an historic auction. The painting sold for the monumental sum of $82.5 million, which set a world record that wasn't broken until 2004. The portrait was sold to Ryoei Saito of Tokyo. The painting was later acquired by Sotheby's in 1997, who sold it in 1998 to an undisclosed buyer.

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