| Largely self-taught, Vincent Van Gogh's work was startlingly innovative from the very beginning. Neither his early realist work, though close to the Dutch tradition, nor his later impressionist phase met contemporary expectations. His depictions of everyday life showed a highly personal use of media, marked by a bold and distorted draughtsmanship, and visible dotted or dashed brush marks, sometimes in swirling or wave-like patterns, which are intensely yet subtly coloured. Since his death in 1890, van Gogh has been acknowledged as a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism and has had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists, and with a line that continues through to the Abstract Expressionism of Willem de Kooning and the British painter Francis Bacon.The central figure in Vincent van Gogh's life was his brother Theo, an art dealer with the firm of Goupil & Cie, who continually and selflessly provided financial support. VIncent Van Gogh |  |