Happy Birthday Vincent von Gogh

ByMark Vallen

On this day, March 30, 1890, Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert, Netherlands. He once wrote:

“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. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion.

Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”

“Self-Portrait” (Detail). Vincent van Gogh. Oil on board. 1887.

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