Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter born in 1853 in the Netherlands. He struggled with mental illness and unhappy relationships throughout his life. By the late 1880s, he had created over 900 paintings including Starry Night, Sunflowers, and The Potato Eaters. In December 1889, van Gogh suffered a severe mental breakdown and shot himself, dying three days later at the age of 37.