Painting Through Illness

In barely a decade of work, Van Gogh produced hundreds of paintings — most of them in his final, hardest years. That sheer output undercuts the romantic image of an artist frozen by his suffering.

His last years brought real crisis: psychotic episodes, hospital stays, and self-harm. Yet alongside the pain came masterpiece after masterpiece. Suffering did not simply cause his art, and it did not stop it. The honest answer is that the two ran side by side.