Although Vincent van Gogh worked as an artist for only ıo years or so, he is one of the bestknown artists today. Part of his fame is due to his unusual life, wich fostered all kinds of myth. The huge variety of jobs he held testify eloquently to his unyielding search for unknown goals, for a meaning to life.

The painter who sold only one painting in his entire life and yet whose works today command record sums, was also an art dealer in The Hague, London, and Paris, a supply teacher in Ramsgate, and a Methodist ministers assistant in Middlesex, England.

He worked as a bookseller in Dordrecht, embarked on theological studies in Amsterdam and was subsequently a preacher in La Borinage in Belgium for nearly two years. There, among the miners, he began to draw, purposeful at last: in their midst, the change from evangelist to artist took place, in an environment of oppressive poverty. The empathy with want and wretchedness and his restless endeavor remained characteristic of van Goghs entire life.