Why is Van Gogh considered the greatest of artists?

He painted not for the fame or fortune, but because he had to paint. It was his religion. He rejected Christianity after seeing the hypocrisy he found in the church while he was an evangelical minister, he chose to worship God by painting nature. To Vincent God was not the ruthless judge taught by the Christian church, but a creator, a fellow artist. Painting allowed Vincent to relate to God, to worship him and became one with him. In many of his paintings heaven and earth met and melted together at the horizon.

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, “I see in him the image of death, in the sense that humanity might be the wheat he is reaping…but there’s nothing sad in this death” (Letter 604, van Gogh).

If one views art as a religion, then Vincent Van Gogh is the Christ figure. A life of devotion and suffering in the frail form of a man. Redemption and imortallity found in creation of art.

E. Styles