Vincent van Gogh: 900 Paintings, One Sale, the Asylum Window, and the Turbulence That Wasn’t Described Until 1941

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was born in Zundert, the Netherlands, the son of a Dutch Reformed minister. He worked as an art dealer, a teacher, a bookstore clerk, and a missionary before beginning to paint at approximately 27. He produced approximately 900 paintings in a 10-year professional career, sold one painting in his lifetime (The Red Vineyard, at 400 francs, to the painter Anna Boch at the Les Vingt exhibition in Brussels in 1890), and died at 37. External references: Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam; MoMA New York — The Starry Night; Van Gogh Letters (vangoghletters.org). DeckArts Berlin from ~$140.

Van Gogh’s Biography: 10 Years, 900 Paintings, One Sale

Van Gogh’s life before painting: he worked for the art dealers Goupil & Cie from 1869 to 1876 in The Hague, London, and Paris, before losing his position. He then worked as a teacher in England (Ramsgate and Isleworth, 1876), a bookstore employee in Dordrecht (1877), a theology student in Amsterdam (1877–1878), a lay preacher in the Borinage mining district of Belgium (1878–1879), and a student at the Evangelical School for Missionaries (1879). He was 27 when he dedicated himself to painting in 1880.

The career span: Van Gogh’s professional painting career lasted from approximately 1880 to his death on 29 July 1890 — approximately 10 years. In these 10 years he produced approximately 900 paintings, 1,100 drawings and sketches, and filled 902 letters (mainly to his brother Theo, but also to fellow painters including Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard, and Anton van Rappard). This is approximately 90 paintings per year, or approximately 1.7 paintings per week, every week, for 10 years.

The one sale: The Red Vineyard (La Vigne rouge, 1888, Pushkin Museum Moscow) was the only painting Van Gogh is documented to have sold in his lifetime, at the Les Vingt (Les XX) group exhibition in Brussels in January 1890, for 400 French francs. The buyer was the Belgian painter Anna Boch, sister of the Art Nouveau ceramicist Eugène Boch (whom Van Gogh had painted in The Poet, 1888). The 400 francs corresponded to approximately €1,500–2,000 in 2026 purchasing power. Van Gogh died six months later. His works now sell for hundreds of millions: Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1990, $82.5M); Irises (1987, $53.9M); Portrait of Joseph Roulin (multiple versions).

The personal life: Van Gogh had a severe mental illness, the precise nature of which is disputed by medical historians. The most commonly proposed diagnoses include temporal lobe epilepsy, bipolar disorder with psychotic episodes, and acute intermittent porphyria. He was voluntarily admitted to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in May 1889, where he remained until May 1890. During his year at the asylum he produced approximately 150 paintings and over 100 drawings, including the Starry Night (June 1889), Irises (May 1889), and the Almond Blossom series (February 1890). He died on 29 July 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise from a gunshot wound; whether self-inflicted or accidental remains disputed by biographers. His brother Theo died six months later. As The Guardian’s Van Gogh coverage documents, new biographical research continues to emerge from the 902 documented letters.

The Starry Night: Asylum Window, June 1889

The Starry Night (De sterrennacht, June 1889, oil on canvas, 73.7 × 92.1 cm, Museum of Modern Art New York) was painted in June 1889 during Van Gogh’s voluntary residency at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh wrote about the view from his asylum room’s window in several letters: the pre-dawn sky with its specific configuration of the morning star (Venus) and the waning crescent moon was visible through the iron-barred window of his room before sunrise. The Starry Night is a night sky that Van Gogh could not go outside to see; it is painted from memory and imagination of the view from his confined position, with a single morning star of extraordinary brightness at the centre.

The composition’s specific elements: the swirling sky (which has been the subject of specific physical and mathematical analysis — see Kolmogorov Turbulence below); the cypress tree at the far left rising from the foreground into the sky zone (cypresses, in the Provencal tradition, are associated with death and mourning; Van Gogh wrote about them explicitly as “splashes of black in a sunny landscape”); the small village below (possibly a composite of Saint-Rémy and other Dutch or Provencal villages Van Gogh had known); and the church spire at the village’s centre (widely identified as resembling a Northern European/Dutch church rather than a Provencal church).

Van Gogh’s own assessment: he described the Starry Night in a letter to Theo (Letter 782, June 1889) as “a study of the night” and expressed ambivalence about it — he was not certain it was a success. The letter is documented at vangoghletters.org. The Starry Night was given to Theo, who gave it to the Dutch art critic J.J. Isaacson; after passing through several hands it was acquired by MoMA in 1941. Van Gogh never saw it exhibited or appreciated.

Kolmogorov Turbulence: Confirmed in 2006

In 2006, a team of physicists led by José Luis Araúzo-Bravo published a paper in Physics Letters A proposing that the swirling patterns in the sky of the Starry Night correspond to the specific mathematical properties of turbulent fluid flow as described by Andrei Kolmogorov’s 1941 turbulence theory (the K41 model). Kolmogorov’s theory describes how turbulent energy cascades from large-scale to small-scale eddies in a specific mathematical way — the energy distribution follows a – 5/3 power law (the Kolmogorov spectrum) that can be tested against any image of swirling patterns.

The 2006 analysis: Araúzo-Bravo’s team measured the luminance fluctuations in the Starry Night’s sky and found that they conform to the Kolmogorov – 5/3 power law — the same mathematical structure that describes real turbulent fluid flow in the atmosphere. The same analysis was applied to several other Van Gogh paintings from the 1888–1889 period (Wheat Field with Crows, Road with Cypress and Star) and found the same Kolmogorov turbulent structure. The analysis was also applied to paintings by other artists from similar periods (including Munch’s The Scream) and found that only Van Gogh’s agitated-sky paintings from the specific psychotic-episode period (1888–1889) conform to the Kolmogorov structure; his calmer-period paintings do not. The specific implication: Van Gogh, during his episodes of psychological crisis, was perceiving and painting real turbulent flow in the atmosphere with mathematical accuracy that was not formally described until Kolmogorov’s 1941 paper.

Sunflowers: Painted for Gauguin’s Room

The Sunflowers series (multiple versions, August 1888, oil on canvas, approximately 95 × 73 cm each) were painted by Van Gogh specifically to decorate the room in the Yellow House in Arles that he had prepared for Paul Gauguin’s arrival. Van Gogh wrote to Theo in August 1888 (Letter 666) about his intention to decorate Gauguin’s room with sunflower paintings — he painted at least four versions in August 1888 in anticipation of Gauguin’s visit.

The sunflower series’ biographical significance: it is the only major Van Gogh series that was explicitly painted for a specific domestic space and a specific person. The sunflowers were not made for exhibition, not made for Theo, not made for any patron: they were made for Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House as a gesture of welcome and friendship. The most specifically domestic Van Gogh subject (flowers in a vase in a room, painted for someone’s room) above the living room or dining room where people gather: the Sunflowers are simultaneously the most publicly celebrated and the most specifically private-domestic of Van Gogh’s major works.

The chrome yellow: Van Gogh used chrome yellow (lead chromate, PbCrO4) as the dominant pigment in the Sunflowers. Chrome yellow reflects at approximately 575–580 nm — the warm-orange end of the yellow spectrum. Under 2700K warm LED, the chrome yellow advances as a warm luminous saturated event. Under cool LED (4000K+), the chrome yellow reads slightly greenish and flat. The 2700K mandatory rule for the Sunflowers is the same as for the Starry Night. View Sunflowers at DeckArts →

Almond Blossom: February 1890, for a Newborn Nephew

The Almond Blossom (Amandelbloesem, February 1890, oil on canvas, 73.5 × 92 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam) was painted in February 1890, one year before Van Gogh’s death, after receiving news that his brother Theo and Theo’s wife Jo had had a son named Vincent Willem. Van Gogh wrote to Theo that he had begun immediately on a painting as a gift for the newborn nephew: the almond tree in blossom against a flat blue sky, painted in the Japanese woodblock convention (flat blue sky, detailed botanical branch, upward-looking composition designed for display in a room where the viewer looks up at it from below).

The biographical significance: the Almond Blossom is the only major Van Gogh work that was painted explicitly as a gift for a specific named individual (Vincent Willem, the newborn nephew), for a specific intended display position (above the cradle, to be seen from below). The flat Prussian blue sky + white blossoms is not the expressionistic distortion of the Starry Night but a deliberately composed, deliberately flat, deliberately beautiful gift for a child arriving in the world. The nephew, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890–1978), later co-founded the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1973 with his own art collection as the core. The painting that Van Gogh made for his nephew as a birth gift is now in the museum his nephew built.

The 902 Letters to Theo

Van Gogh filled 902 documented letters, the vast majority to his brother Theo (approximately 820 letters). The letters constitute the most extensive documented self-commentary by any major Western painter on his own work, his intentions, his influences, and his psychological condition. They are available in full, in a scholarly edition with commentary, at vangoghletters.org.

The letters’ specific content: discussions of Japanese woodblock prints (Van Gogh collected over 500 Japanese prints and explicitly cited their compositional influence); specific analyses of his own paintings and their chromatic arguments; descriptions of the emotional and psychological states that preceded and accompanied specific works; extensive correspondence about his relationship with Gauguin; and the specific accounts of his mental illness episodes that constitute the most direct biographical evidence available about his psychological condition. The 902 letters are a biographical document of extraordinary specificity and extraordinary literary quality — Van Gogh wrote with the same intensity and precision that he painted.

Prussian Blue: The Berlin Pigment

Prussian blue (iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II), Fe4[Fe(CN)6]3) was invented in Berlin in 1704 by the colour-maker Johann Jacob Diesbach. It was the first synthetic inorganic pigment produced in European history and the world’s first coordinated complex compound. It reached Japan via the Dutch East India Company’s trading post on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbour at approximately 1820 and was adopted by Hokusai for the dominant colour of his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series (the Great Wave) in approximately 1831. Van Gogh adopted Prussian blue (along with its derivative cobalt blue, French ultramarine, and related blue pigments) as a primary element of his chromatic programme — the specific deep blue of the Starry Night’s sky, the flat blue of the Almond Blossom, and the blue-violet of several major works. DeckArts ships its Van Gogh reproductions from Berlin — the city where the dominant pigment of both the Starry Night and the Great Wave was invented 322 years ago. See: Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704.

Van Gogh on a Skateboard Deck

DeckArts offers four Van Gogh works:

• Starry Night triptych (~$310): The asylum window view across three vertical deck crops. Chrome yellow from Prussian blue from navy (on navy) or chrome yellow from Prussian blue from warm white (on warm white). View Starry Night Triptych →
• Sunflowers triptych (~$310): Three vertical crops of the Sunflowers composition. Chrome yellow + warm Prussian blue background on warm white or navy. View Sunflowers Triptych →
• Almond Blossom single (~$140): The flat Prussian blue sky + white blossoms in different stages of opening and closing on warm white. The botanical gift. The upward-looking nursery and bedroom composition. See: Van Gogh Almond Blossom: Complete Guide.
• Bedroom in Arles (various): The three versions of Van Gogh’s own bedroom, painted to send to Theo as a document of his domestic space. Warm ochre floor + violet walls (the violet has faded to blue-grey over 137 years; in 1888 it was warm violet).

Room-by-Room Van Gogh Installation Guide

Living room primary (Starry Night triptych, navy wall): The most dramatically beautiful living room primary statement at DeckArts. Chrome yellow from Prussian blue from navy: the Kolmogorov turbulence above the primary gathering space, under 2700K warm LED. View Starry Night Triptych →

Dining room primary (Sunflowers triptych, warm white or navy): The most explicitly domestic Van Gogh subject above the dining room table: painted for Gauguin’s room as a gesture of welcome above the domestic space where guests are welcomed. See: Dining Room Wall Art 2026.

Bedroom or nursery (Almond Blossom single, warm white): The birth gift above the sleeping position or the crib. The upward-looking composition designed for a person looking up from below. The nephew for whom it was made founded the Van Gogh Museum 83 years later. See: Van Gogh Almond Blossom.

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 January 1890 for 400 French francs to the Belgian painter Anna Boch. This is the only painting Van Gogh is documented to have sold in his lifetime. He produced approximately 900 paintings in 10 years. Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. DeckArts from ~$140.

Was the Starry Night painted from an asylum?

Yes. The Starry Night was painted in June 1889 during Van Gogh’s voluntary residency at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. It is a view from (or inspired by the view from) his asylum room’s iron-barred window at night. It is now in the permanent collection of MoMA New York. DeckArts triptych from ~$310.

What was the Kolmogorov turbulence finding about Van Gogh?

In 2006, physicist José Luis Araúzo-Bravo’s team published a paper finding that the swirling sky patterns in the Starry Night conform to the Kolmogorov −5/3 turbulence power law — the mathematical structure of real turbulent fluid flow in the atmosphere. The finding: Van Gogh, during his psychotic-episode period (1888–1889), was perceiving and painting real atmospheric turbulence with mathematical accuracy that wasn’t formally described until Kolmogorov’s 1941 paper. MoMA New York. DeckArts from ~$310.

Related Guides

• Van Gogh Starry Night: Complete Guide
• Van Gogh Almond Blossom: Complete Guide
• Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704
• Dining Room Wall Art 2026
• Gallery Wall Ideas 2026: Van Gogh Complete Programme

About the Author

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