a tall plant that has blue, yellow, or white flowers and long, narrow leaves

Iris

​a plant, usually having a very tall stem and a single large, round, flat, yellow flower, with many long, thin, narrowpetals close together

​​Sunflower

a tree with bright rose flowers when it blossoms

​​Almond

Vincent van Gogh

Born in 1853, Vincent van Gogh was a 19th century Dutch painter. Dutch is the word for people from the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a small country in Western Europe. When he was a young man, van Gogh traveled to France, England, and Belgium, but near the end of his life, he moved to France.

Although van Gogh began to draw when he was a child, he did not start painting until he was in his late twenties and many of his best paintings were only done in the last two years of his life, before his death at the age of 37.

His work is very famous now, but while he was alive most people didn't want to buy his paintings.

Vincent van Gogh made over 900 paintings while he was alive, but we only know about one that someone wanted to buy. His first really good paintings were dark and serious. At the time, people were looking for brighter, more colorful art. 

When he moved to France, van Gogh saw new kinds of art, with new, brighter colors. He liked what he saw so much that he started to paint with brighter colors himself right away. Later, he moved to the south of France, where the sunlight was very strong and bright. The beauty and color of the place he lived inspired him to paint it, and his artwork got even brighter and more colorful - full of new intensity, and also full of emotion. People started to become interested in his new, bright paintings. If he had lived longer, van Gogh might have sold many pieces of art, and could have become a very famous painter, but unfortunately, he died in 1890.

Vincent van Gogh's distinctive style makes it easy to recognize his paintings. His art was something new, a new way to see the world, and a new way to paint. Because of his paintings, a new form of art, called Expressionism, was invented, and his work still influences artists today.

He did not live to see it, but today Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous painters in history. The paintings that no one wanted to buy are now worth millions of dollars; some of the most expensive paintings in the world, and some of the most famous.