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Why Did Van Gogh Only Sell One Painting During His Lifetime?
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May 22, 2025
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous artists in the world, yet during his lifetime, he sold only a single painting. In this episode of 5 Minutes With Art, Anita explores why an artist with such immense talent was overlooked by the art world while he was alive. Learn how Van Gogh’s mental health, lack of connections, and unique style contributed to his lack of recognition. You can also read more about Why Did Van Gogh Only Sell One Painting in His Lifetime? by clicking here (https://anitalouiseart.com/why-did-van-gogh-only-sell-one-painting-in-his-lifetime/) . #5MinutesWithArt #VanGoghFacts #ArtHistoryPodcast #VincentVanGogh #FamousArtists #ArtWorldInsights #PodcastForArtLovers #VanGoghLife Support the show (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1939491/support)
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[Music]
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hi this is Anita from Five Minutes with
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Art You know one of the stories that's
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often told about the painter Vincent Van
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Gogh is that he only sold one paint in
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his lifetime Vincent Van Go did die
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broke and he died without really seeing
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how popular he is today He really only
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sold one painting though there has been
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a record showing of another one of his
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paintings going to London and I don't
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know if that was before or after he
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passed away But the art world you know
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generally believes that he just sold one
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painting He gave us starry night He gave
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us sunflowers He gave us a bedroom Died
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thinking he was a failure You know think
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about that for a moment Here's one of
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the greatest artists that's ever lived
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And if you if I mentioned several times
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if you do a search on Google if you did
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a search on Google trends of you know
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popular artists Vincent go usually
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always comes up in the top you know one
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or two or three artists you know So but
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he really only sold one painting the red
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vineyard and even then he sold it to a
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friend So it wasn't even sold to
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somebody walked off the street and said
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"I love your artwork I want to buy it."
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It basically was sold to a friend
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another artist a Belgium artist on a
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book that she uh was the one who bought
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his painting She bought it for 400
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Franks about a,000 to$2,000 US in
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today's money Think about that for a
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moment So she bought it but it was you
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know not a very expensive painting And
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she more or less almost like she was
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doing him a favor I'm going to buy one
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of your paintings And this is now
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displayed in a museum in Moscow
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There's some debate that Vincent Ming go
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he did trade some of his paintings for
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other people's paintings There was some
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debate about that But really when it
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comes to like earning money on it
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probably more more was just one painting
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that was actually sold Why did he sell
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so little well there's a couple reasons
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why One he was very much ahead of his
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time you know in in the art world If he
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had lived longer maybe he would have
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seen success later in his life
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He was constantly moving He was moving
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to different places He was you know
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lived in Netherlands Belgium Paris
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Ariles you know he he was moving all
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over France And so you know he was
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constantly moving He didn't really have
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a you know stable place so much He was
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you know in an asylum half the time
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painting So you know he wasn't really
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out there He had no real commercial
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representation even though his brother
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Theo did represent him Um he didn't have
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dealers actively seeking his work His
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brother Theo an art dealer in Paris
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tried to promote him But it was tough It
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was you know very hard for Theo to
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promote him But Theo believed in him and
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kept helping him with finances but he
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harder for him to sell his work and to
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promote it Vince Go was very socially
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isolated He had mental illness He didn't
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have many stable relationships He you
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know he alienated people He was probably
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one of these sort of odd ducks that
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people thought who is this guy in the
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neighborhood you know we don't want to
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be around him And then on top of that he
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cut off his ear and handed his ear to a
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a prostitute in a brothel and they had
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to call the police on him So you know
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people were probably saying "Who's this
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weirdo that cut off his own ear?" He had
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a very short-lived career He started
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painting seriously at 27 and he died by
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37 So he only really was painting
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seriously for 10 years Vincent Go felt
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like he was being overlooked He felt
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like people didn't appreciate his art
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but he kept painting anyway And that's
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one reason what I really love about
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Vincent Van Gogh is if any of you out
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there are artists you know maybe you
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feel that way People don't appreciate
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your art They don't understand you Or
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maybe there's something else in your
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life that they don't understand or you
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feel like you're just not understood If
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you can remember the story of Vincent
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Van Gogh I think we can all learn from
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this story that here's a man that was
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very very misunderstood in his world
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that he you know they people just didn't
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understand him They didn't know who he
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was He was kind of the weirdo um you
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know down the street But yet he turned
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out to be one of the greatest artist who
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ever lived and today has a museum in
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Amsterdam dedicated to him But not only
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that is I think everyone knows his name
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I remember when I grew up and the one of
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the sunflower paintings my mother had a
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copy of it that was you know hanging in
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our kitchen It was a you know very
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popular painting during that time and I
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think a lot of people loved his art They
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saw his art They felt something when
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they saw his art I love Vincent Van Go
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He's definitely one of my favorite
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painters if not my most favorite painter
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And the more I get to know him and his
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story the more I learned to appreciate
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him and just all he endured and all he
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went through in his life We hope that if
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you're interested in this we will put in
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our description a link to our blog post
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entitled "Why did Van Gogh only sell one
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painting in his lifetime?" And this
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might give you a couple ideas as to why
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he only sold one painting in his
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lifetime and maybe give you some food
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for thought for yourself and your own
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life And what does this mean for you
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because really art is not just about
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viewing the paintings It's about making
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art be part of who you are And it's
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maybe in seeing yourself and the world
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and those around you in a different way
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as you view art That is the power of art
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We've hope you've enjoyed this podcast
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Thank you so much for listening That you
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will subscribe and join and be part of
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our community where we talk about art
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where we study about art where we learn
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about art Because art like I said it can
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help you see the world in a different
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way Thank you so much for listening
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[Music]
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