Van Gogh: 900 Paintings, One Sale, and Why Everything Ships from the City That Invented His Blue

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Vincent van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) produced approximately 900 paintings and over 1,100 drawings in ten years of professional activity (1880–1890). He sold one painting during his lifetime (The Red Vineyard, Brussels, 1890, for 400 francs). He wrote 902 surviving letters to his brother Theo. He died at 37 — two months after the only sale. The five most significant facts in art history’s most specific career. DeckArts Berlin: Van Gogh classical art on Canadian maple from ~$140. All Prussian-blue-dominant Van Gogh works ship from Berlin — the city where Prussian blue was invented in 1704. External reference: Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam; Van Gogh Letters Project.

Van Gogh’s Biography: The Essential Facts

Born: 30 March 1853, Zundert, Netherlands. The son of a Dutch Reformed Church pastor. Named Vincent Willem after a stillborn brother born exactly one year earlier — same name, same birthdate, different year. He grew up visiting his brother’s grave, which bore his own name.

Early career: Van Gogh worked for the art dealer Goupil & Cie from 1869 to 1876, in The Hague, London, and Paris. He was dismissed after repeatedly expressing contempt for art he considered commercially dishonest. He then attempted careers as a lay preacher (Netherlands, 1876) and a missionary in the Borinage coal-mining district of Belgium (1878–1880), where he gave away all his possessions to the miners and was dismissed for excessive zeal by the Church authorities. He began drawing seriously in 1880, at 27.

Professional artist period: 1880–1890, ten years. Locations: The Hague (1881–1883, with Sien Hoornik and her children — his first quasi-domestic arrangement), Drenthe (1883), Nuenen (1883–1885, parents’ vicarage, Potato Eaters period), Antwerp (1885–1886), Paris (1886–1888, with Theo, Impressionist influence and palette change), Arles (1888–1889, Yellow House, Gauguin’s visit, the ear incident), Saint-Rémy asylum (1889–1890, Starry Night), Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890, Dr Gachet, 75 paintings in 70 days, death).

Death: 29 July 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France, aged 37. He sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen on 27 July 1890 — the circumstances are disputed (self-inflicted or accidental, the latter proposed by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith in their 2011 biography). He died two days later with Theo at his bedside. Theo died six months later, aged 33, without having recovered from Vincent’s death. They are buried side by side in the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.

The one sale: The Red Vineyard (1888, Pushkin Museum, Moscow) was sold at the 1890 Les Vingt exhibition in Brussels for 400 francs (approximately €2,000–2,500 in 2026 purchasing power) to Anna Boch, a Belgian Impressionist painter and art collector. It is the only painting definitively documented as sold during Van Gogh’s lifetime. The 900 paintings that were not sold during his lifetime are now collectively estimated at several billion euros.

900 Paintings, 10 Years, 1 Sale

The arithmetic of Van Gogh’s career: approximately 900 paintings in 10 years = approximately 90 paintings per year = approximately 1.7 paintings per week across the entire decade. At his most productive — the Arles period (May 1888–May 1889, twelve months) — he produced approximately 200 paintings: approximately 4 paintings per week. In the final 70 days at Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890), he produced approximately 75 paintings: more than one per day.

The production rate is the most specific biographical argument for understanding Van Gogh’s psychological condition: the Arles productivity was extraordinary not as a norm but as a specific response to the experience of finally having his own home and working space (the Yellow House), to the anticipation of Gauguin’s arrival, and to the specific meteorological and chromatic qualities of Provençal light that Van Gogh wrote about extensively in his letters. The Auvers productivity is equally extraordinary and equally specific: it was the final acceleration of a person who knew his remaining time was limited and was working against it.

The 902 surviving letters are the most comprehensive self-documentation of any major artist in the Western tradition — more extensive than Delacroix’s journals, more personal than Cézanne’s correspondence, more specific than Mondrian’s theoretical writings. The letters cover: specific pigment choices (why he uses chrome yellow, why Prussian blue, why he avoids certain earth pigments); compositional intentions; the relationship between his work and Japanese woodblock prints; his reading; his specific emotional state at the moment of writing; his requests for more paint tubes; his descriptions of the weather. The full archive is at vangoghletters.org.

The Major Periods: Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint-Rémy

Netherlands (Nuenen, 1883–1885): The darkest period in palette and subject matter: earth tones, dark interiors, peasant subjects. The Potato Eaters (1885, Van Gogh Museum) is the defining work — five peasants eating potatoes in a dark interior by lamplight, rendered in dark ochres and browns. Van Gogh wrote: “I wanted to give the impression of people eating potatoes in the lamplight, with those hands they put in the dish, having dug the earth themselves.” The peasant’s hands are the subject; the labour that made the food is in the hands that eat it.

Paris (1886–1888): The palette transformation. In Paris, Van Gogh encountered the Impressionists (Monet, Pissarro, Seurat) and Post-Impressionists (Gauguin, Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec) and underwent a radical chromatic transformation: from the dark earth tones of the Netherlands to the bright complementary palette of the Paris period. The Japanese woodblock print collection that Van Gogh assembled in Paris (several hundred prints, documented in his letters) was the specific influence on his move toward flat colour, bold outline, and compositional simplification.

Arles (1888–1889, 12 months): The productive peak. Van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888, rented the Yellow House in May, and produced the Sunflowers series, the Night Café, the Café Terrace at Night, the Postman Roulin series, the Sower series, the Starry Night over the Rhône, and the Bedroom in Arles — approximately 200 paintings. Gauguin arrived in October; on 23 December 1888, Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear and presented it to a woman called Rachel at a local brothel. Gauguin departed; Van Gogh was hospitalised at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Arles.

Saint-Rémy (May 1889–May 1890, 12 months): The asylum period. Van Gogh committed himself voluntarily to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in May 1889. During 12 months there he produced approximately 150 paintings, including the Starry Night (June 1889), multiple versions of the Bedroom in Arles, Irises, the Olive Trees series, and the Almond Blossom (February 1890, for his newborn nephew). The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam holds the primary collection of the Saint-Rémy period works.

The Starry Night: Asylum Window, Prussian Blue, Kolmogorov

The Starry Night (June 1889, oil on canvas, 73.7 × 92.1 cm, MoMA New York) was painted at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy in June 1889, approximately one year before Van Gogh’s death. It depicts the view from the window of his asylum room — with an added village (not actually visible from the window) in the lower section — in the pre-dawn hours.

The sky’s swirling forms: in 2006, physicists José Luis Araújo Neto and Marcelo Gleiser (Dartmouth College) and collaborators published an analysis in Physical Review Letters confirming that the turbulent patterns in the Starry Night’s sky conform to Kolmogorov’s 1941 mathematical theory of turbulence — the same statistical distribution of energy across spatial scales that describes actual atmospheric turbulence in physical fluid dynamics. Van Gogh, painting in 1889 from an asylum window, encoded a mathematically accurate representation of atmospheric turbulence 52 years before Kolmogorov formalised it. The Guardian covered the Kolmogorov turbulence finding in 2006.

The dominant blue pigment: Prussian blue, invented in Berlin in 1704. On a deep navy wall under 2700K warm LED, the Starry Night’s Prussian blue sky merges with the navy field, and the chrome yellow stars advance at maximum warm-cool complementary contrast. The most dramatic DeckArts living room installation. See: Van Gogh Starry Night: Complete Guide. View Starry Night Triptych →

The Sunflowers: For Gauguin’s Room, August 1888

The Sunflowers series (various versions, August–September 1888, Arles) was painted specifically to decorate the room that Van Gogh had prepared for Gauguin’s visit to the Yellow House. Van Gogh wrote to Theo: “I want to do a decoration for the studio. Nothing but large Sunflowers.” He painted at least four large Sunflowers vase paintings (12–15 heads) in the weeks before Gauguin arrived in October 1888, specifically as decorations for Gauguin’s room.

The most celebrated version: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (August 1888, National Gallery London, oil on canvas, 92.1 × 73 cm). Van Gogh used chrome yellow (lead chromate, PbCrO₄) for the petals — the same pigment responsible for the chrome yellow problem (chrome yellow reacts with air over time, darkening the originally brilliant yellow petals toward brown-green). Technical analysis confirms the petals’ original chromatic quality was significantly more brilliant and more warm than the current visible versions. The Prussian blue background advances the chrome yellow petals at maximum complementary contrast. See: Van Gogh Sunflowers: Complete Guide. View Sunflowers Triptych →

Almond Blossom: For a Specific Newborn, February 1890

Almond Blossom (February 1890, oil on canvas, 73.3 × 92.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam) was painted for Van Gogh’s newborn nephew Vincent Willem. Van Gogh began it “the very day” he received Theo’s letter announcing the birth. The upward-looking composition — looking up through the branches against the flat Prussian blue sky — was designed for a baby looking up from a crib. The nephew, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890–1978), founded the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam in 1973, which holds the original Almond Blossom. The most biographically complete gift painting in Western art history: made by the dying uncle (Van Gogh died five months later) for the nephew who would dedicate his life to preserving the uncle’s work. See: Van Gogh Almond Blossom: Complete Guide.

Bedroom in Arles: First Real Home at 35

Bedroom in Arles (October 1888, oil on canvas, 72 × 90 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam) was painted when Van Gogh was 35 and had, for the first time in his life, his own home — the Yellow House. He wrote to Theo: “I wanted to express absolute restfulness.” He painted it three times (Version 1: Van Gogh Museum; Version 2: Art Institute Chicago; Version 3: Musée d’Orsay Paris). The walls were originally violet (organic red lake + ultramarine) — the red component has faded over 137 years, leaving only the cooler ultramarine. The most domestic and the most biographically specific interior in Van Gogh’s work. See: Van Gogh Bedroom in Arles: Complete Guide.

Prussian Blue: The Berlin Pigment Across the Work

The most specific material thread connecting Van Gogh’s major works in the DeckArts range: Prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide, Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃), invented in Berlin in 1704, adopted by Van Gogh in his Arles and Saint-Rémy periods. The Prussian blue works:

• Starry Night (June 1889): Prussian blue sky, dominant. Chrome yellow stars advance from Prussian blue at maximum warm-cool complementary contrast.
• Sunflowers (August 1888): Prussian blue background. Chrome yellow petals advance from Prussian blue.
• Almond Blossom (February 1890): Prussian blue flat sky, in the Japanese woodblock print convention (Hiroshige reference, Letter 854). The most specifically Japanese use of Prussian blue in Van Gogh’s work.

All three works are reproduced by DeckArts and ship from Berlin — the city where their dominant pigment was invented 322 years ago. The material circle is specific and verifiable: Berlin 1704 (invention) → Japan c.1820 (arrival via Dutch East India Company) → Hokusai 1831 (Great Wave) → Hiroshige 1856–1858 (Van Gogh’s print collection) → Van Gogh 1888–1890 (Sunflowers/Starry Night/Almond Blossom) → DeckArts Berlin 2026 (UV archival reproductions shipped from city of invention). See: Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704.

DeckArts Van Gogh Collection

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Prussian blue pigment invented Berlin 1704 · 900 paintings 1 sale · 902 letters to Theo · UV archival 100+ years · Canadian maple · ships from Berlin

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FAQ

How many paintings did Van Gogh sell in his lifetime?

One. The Red Vineyard (1888, Pushkin Museum Moscow) was sold at the Les Vingt exhibition in Brussels in 1890 for 400 francs to Anna Boch, a Belgian Impressionist painter and art collector. It is the only painting definitively documented as sold during Van Gogh’s lifetime. He died two months later. The approximately 900 paintings not sold during his lifetime are collectively worth billions of euros today. Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. DeckArts from ~$140.

What is Van Gogh’s most famous painting?

The Starry Night (June 1889, MoMA New York) is Van Gogh’s most globally recognised painting. Painted at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy, it depicts the pre-dawn view from his asylum room with a swirling sky whose turbulent patterns have been confirmed to conform to Kolmogorov’s 1941 mathematical theory of turbulence. The dominant blue is Prussian blue, invented in Berlin in 1704. DeckArts triptych from ~$310. MoMA New York collection page. View Starry Night at DeckArts →

Where are Van Gogh’s paintings?

The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam holds the largest single collection (approximately 200 paintings, 500 drawings, the letters). MoMA New York holds the Starry Night. The National Gallery London holds one of the Sunflowers versions. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the Bedroom in Arles Version 2. The Musée d’Orsay Paris holds major works from the Paris and Arles periods. The Pushkin Museum Moscow holds The Red Vineyard — the one sold painting. vangoghmuseum.nl. DeckArts UV archival reproductions from ~$140.

Related Guides

• Van Gogh Starry Night: The Asylum Window, Prussian Blue, Kolmogorov
• Van Gogh Sunflowers: For Gauguin’s Room, Chrome Yellow
• Van Gogh Almond Blossom: The Only Canonical Nursery Gift
• Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704, Arrived Japan 1820
• Van Gogh Bedroom in Arles: First Real Home at 35

Article Summary

Van Gogh complete guide: born 30 March 1853 Zundert Netherlands (pastor’s son; named after stillborn brother born exactly 1 year earlier, grew up visiting grave bearing his own name); early career Goupil & Cie art dealer 1869–1876 (The Hague/London/Paris, dismissed for expressing contempt for commercial art); lay preacher 1876; missionary Borinage Belgium 1878–1880 (gave away all possessions, dismissed for excessive zeal); began drawing 1880 aged 27. Professional period 1880–1890 10 years; locations: The Hague (Sien Hoornik, first quasi-domestic), Drenthe, Nuenen (parents’ vicarage, Potato Eaters, earth tones/dark interiors), Antwerp, Paris (1886–1888, Theo’s apartment Rue Lepic, Impressionist encounter, palette transformation, 300+ Japanese woodblock prints collected), Arles (Yellow House February 1888, first real home, Sunflowers/Night Café/Bedroom in Arles/200 paintings in 12 months, Gauguin October–December 1888, ear incident 23 December), Saint-Rémy asylum (May 1889–May 1890, Starry Night/Irises/Almond Blossom/150 paintings), Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890, Dr Gachet, 75 paintings in 70 days); died 29 July 1890 aged 37 (gunshot wound 27 July, circumstances disputed: self-inflicted vs accidental Naifeh/Smith 2011); Theo died 6 months later aged 33; both buried Auvers-sur-Oise. 900 paintings 10 years 1 sale: ~90 paintings/year, ~1.7/week across decade; Arles peak ~200 in 12 months (~4/week); Auvers final 70 days 75 paintings (more than 1/day); The Red Vineyard (1888, Pushkin Museum Moscow) only definitively documented lifetime sale, Les Vingt Brussels 1890, 400 francs, Anna Boch Belgian Impressionist; died 2 months after only sale; 900 unsold paintings collectively worth billions. 902 surviving letters (most comprehensive artist self-documentation in Western tradition; covers specific pigments/compositional intentions/Japanese print influence/emotional state/paint tube requests/weather; vangoghletters.org). Periods: Netherlands Nuenen (darkest palette, earth tones, Potato Eaters 1885, peasant hands as subject, the labour in the hands that eat it); Paris (palette transformation from dark earth to bright complementary via Impressionist/Post-Impressionist encounter and Japanese print collection); Arles (productive peak, Yellow House, Sunflowers series for Gauguin’s room, Bedroom in Arles first real home, ear incident 23 December); Saint-Rémy (voluntary asylum, Starry Night June 1889, Almond Blossom February 1890). Starry Night: June 1889, 73.7×92.1 cm, MoMA New York; asylum room window view (added village not visible from window); Kolmogorov turbulence confirmed 2006 (Araújo Neto/Gleiser et al, Physical Review Letters, swirling sky conforms to Kolmogorov 1941 mathematical theory of turbulence = mathematically accurate representation 52 years before formalisation; Guardian 2006 coverage); Prussian blue dominant; on navy: Prussian blue merges + chrome yellow stars maximum warm-cool contrast. Sunflowers: August–September 1888 Arles; painted for Gauguin’s room specifically (Letter to Theo: “nothing but large Sunflowers”); Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (August 1888, National Gallery London, 92.1×73 cm); chrome yellow (lead chromate PbCrO₄) petals reacting with air over time (darkening toward brown-green); Prussian blue background; original chromatic quality more brilliant than current visible. Almond Blossom: February 1890, 73.3×92.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam; begun “the very day” of Theo’s letter announcing nephew’s birth; upward-looking composition designed for crib; nephew Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890–1978) founded Van Gogh Museum 1973 holding original; dying uncle’s gift to nephew who would preserve uncle’s work. Bedroom in Arles: October 1888, 72×90 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam; first real home at 35; three versions (Van Gogh Museum/Art Institute Chicago/Musée d’Orsay); walls originally violet (organic red lake + ultramarine, red component faded 137 years). Prussian blue: Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃, Berlin 1704 Diesbach; used in Starry Night (sky dominant), Sunflowers (background), Almond Blossom (flat sky Japanese convention); DeckArts ships all three from Berlin = material circle (Berlin 1704 invention → Japan 1820 VOC → Hokusai 1831 → Hiroshige 1856–1858 → Van Gogh 1888–1890 → DeckArts Berlin 2026). DeckArts collection table (Starry Night triptych navy ~$310; Sunflowers triptych navy/warm white ~$310; Almond Blossom single warm white ~$140; Bedroom in Arles single warm white ~$140). Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam + MoMA New York + vangoghletters.org. DeckArts from ~$140. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. Berlin. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director from Ukraine based in Berlin.