a straw hat, smoking a pipe and painting intently, and not responding to anyones attempts to communicate with him." He would sit on the roadside for hours doing this. This old man saw Vincent when he was about ten years old painting landscapes. (Voyager)In many letters, it was clear that Van Gogh was aware of his depressive tendencies, and that he had experienced them most of his life. After one of his mental crises he wrote "Well, even in that deep misery I felt my energy revive, and I said to myself: in spite of everything I shall rise again, I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing, and from that moment everything has seemed transformed in me." He used is high spirits as a source of energy in his paintings. (Encyclopedia of Arts)When Van Gogh was 33, he went to Paris a hung around Lautrec, Seurat, Gauguin, and other famous painters back in that time. He was influenced by these painters with there use of colors and less sentimental subject matter. His paintings changed from the dark color and the heavy subjects in the painting to brighter colors to make it look like it wasn't so heavy. After being friends with Gauguin for about two years, they got in to a argument, because Van Gogh started to have problems again. He ended up cutting part of his own ear off and then wrapping it in paper and giving it to a prostitute that he was friends with at one time. When his brother found out about this, he institutionalized Vincent for two weeks and this was followed by several more after this accident. (Encyclopedia of Arts)Psychologists say that Van Gogh's history of mental problems have been thought of being that each mental crisis was after a deep attachment he felt for a loved one. A couple of other breakdowns he's had were when he heard that Theo was getting engaged and when Theo got married. (Encyclopedia.com) A month before he committed suicide, Vincent painted "The Undergrow...
