Vincent van Gogh

Known for: The Starry Night (1889), Sunflowers (1888)

Vincent van Gogh produced more than 2,000 works in the last decade of his life, having taken up painting seriously only in his late twenties. His letters to his brother Theo — more than 800 survive — are among the most extensive self-commentaries any painter has produced and constitute a document of artistic thinking equal in importance to the paintings themselves. His work was virtually unknown at his death in 1890; today his paintings command the highest prices in auction history.