Vincent van Gogh Quotes on Art

Vincent van Gogh is a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter and one of the most famous artists in the world. During his lifetime he wasn’t financially successful as an artist but after his death he would influence modern art and beyond. He produced paintings and drawings of mostly landscapes, portraits and the still life. Famous Vincent van Gogh paintings include “Sunflowers”, “The Potato Eaters”, “Bedroom in Arles”, and “The Night Cafe”.

Mini biography: Born Vincent Willem van Gogh on the 30th of March, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands. His mother was Anna Cornelia Carbentus and his father Theodorus van Gogh. Van Gogh never or had children. He suffered from various mental problems which eventually led to his early death from a self inflicted gunshot wound. Vincent van Gogh died on the 29th of July, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Van Gogh was 37 years old when he passed away. Van Gogh is buried alongside his brother Theo at the Auvers-sur-Oise Town Cemetery, Auvers-sur-Oise, Departement du Val-d’Oise, Île-de-France, France.

Vincent van Gogh Art Quotes

I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone. Vincent van Gogh

I certainly hope to sell in the course of time, but I think I shall be able to influence it most effectively by working steadily on, and that at the present moment making desperate efforts to force the work I am doing now upon the public would be pretty useless. Vincent van Gogh

If I were to think of and dwell on disastrous possibilities, I could do nothing. I throw myself headlong into my work, and come up again with my studies; if the storm within gets too loud, I take a glass too much to stun myself. Vincent van Gogh

I am not strictly speaking mad, for my mind is absolutely normal in the intervals, and even more so than before. But during the attacks it is terrible – and then I lose consciousness of everything. But that spurs me on to work and to seriousness, as a miner who is always in danger makes haste in what he does. Vincent van Gogh

My opinion is that the best thing would be to work on till art lovers feel drawn toward it of their own accord, instead of having to praise or to explain it. Vincent van Gogh

I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.’ Vincent van Gogh

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate. Vincent van Gogh

You can’t be at the pole and the equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be color. Vincent van Gogh

I see more and more that my work goes infinitely better when I am properly fed, and the paints are there, and the studio and all that. But have I set my heart on my work being a success? A thousand times no. I wish I could manage to make you really understand that when you give money to artists, you are yourself doing an artist’s work, and that I only want my pictures to be of such a quality that you will not be too dissatisfied with your work. Vincent van Gogh

You cannot always tell what keeps you confined, what immures you, what seems to bury you, and yet you can feel those elusive bars, railings, walls. Is all this illusion, imagination? I don’t think so. And then one asks: My God! will it be for long, will it be for ever, will it be for eternity? Vincent van Gogh

I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. Vincent van Gogh

What am I in the eyes of most people – a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person – somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then – even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. Vincent van Gogh

The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting. Vincent van Gogh

The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.Vincent van Gogh

It constantly remains a source of disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be. The difficulties are indeed numerous and great, and cannot be overcome at once. To make progress is a kind of miner’s work; it doesn’t advance as quickly as one would like, and as others also expect, but as one stands before such a task, the basic necessities are patience and faithfulness. In fact, I do not think much about the difficulties, because if one thought of them too much one would get stunned or disturbed. Vincent van Gogh

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed. Vincent van Gogh

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it. Vincent van Gogh

An artist needn’t be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men. Vincent van Gogh

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures. Vincent van Gogh

Art Quotes About Vincent van Gogh

Picasso was one of that genius caste which includes Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Van Gogh and above all Velázquez. Francis Bacon Quotes

But I owe something to Vincent, and that is, in the consciousness of having been useful to him, the confirmation of my own original ideas about painting. And also, at difficult moments, the remembrance that one finds others unhappier than oneself. Paul Gauguin Quotes

His pathos is alien to me, especially in my current phase, but he is certainly a genius. Pathetic to the point of being pathological, this endangered man can endanger one who does not see through him. Here a brain is consumed by the fire of a star. It frees itself in its work just before the catastrophe. Deepest tragedy takes place here, real tragedy, natural tragedy, exemplary tragedy. Permit me to be terrified. Paul Klee Quotes

Van Gogh is for me the most authentic, the greatest, the most poignant painter I know. To paint a bit of the most ordinary nature, putting all one’s faith and longings into it – that is the supreme achievement. Franz Marc Quotes

I think a single sentence by Van Gogh is better than the whole work of all the art critics and art historians put together. John Olsen Quotes

I felt a tremendous affinity with Van Gogh’s deep feeling for the things he painted and how he exaggerated the colors of sky, chairs, faces, to bring them to almost more than life. Susan Rothenberg Quotes

Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait Painting

More on Dutch Artist Vincent van Gogh

How has Vincent van Gogh influenced your art making? Is he the greatest artist EVER? Have you seen some of his great works in museums and what do you think? They’re so much more alive in the flesh. It’s like they were painted yesterday. See our Vincent van Gogh biography. Let us know what you think about Van Gogh in the comments below.

For more on the great Dutch artist here’s three excellent Vincent van Gogh books: “Van Gogh: Complete Works“, “The Letters of Vincent van Gogh“, and “Van Gogh: His Life and Works in 500 Images“.

Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Paul Cezanne ||| Brett Whiteley ||| Pierre Bonnard ||| Paul Gauguin and Famous Dutch Artists.