Now one of the world's favourite artists, with curiosity about his life at an all time high, the story of van Gogh starts in his birthplace, the town of Zundert in the Netherlands. Today's floral processions celebrating the artist contrast starkly with the conflict within the quiet Protestant family as they tried to find gainful employment for their son. His birth on 30 March 1853 to the pastor Theodorus van Gogh and his wife Anna, was the first of six to the couple. He was named after his uncle, an art dealer, Vincent Willem van Gogh. After a lonely and awkward childhood at boarding school in Tilburg then at secondary school, Vincent was despatched to The Hague to join his namesake at Goupil & Co. In 1873 he was promoted and sent to London, home of four million people. During a daily walk from his lodgings in Brixton to Covent Garden, his eyes were opened to the realities of poverty and wretched living conditions. It was here too that he suffered his first painful rebuff in love, from his landlady's daughter Eugenie. Always religious, his found solace in the bible, and after being transferred then removed from his gallery job in Paris, he taught in Ramsgate and Isleworth before setting his sights on missionary work among the poor. After 15 months of futile attempts to enter university in Amsterdam, Vincent, now aged 27, was finally sent on trial to the impoverished Borinage coal mining area in France, where the living conditions horrified him and soaked into his growing art work. In echoes of The Pilgrim's Progress, he walked to Brussels in his quest to become an artist, learning largely from textbooks. Returning to his parents' house in Etten, van Gogh met and fell in love with his recently widowed cousin Cornelia Kee. Upset by her rejection and by his father's condemnation, Vincent left for The Hague and immediately moved in with a prostitute, Sien.

Supported by an allowance from his brother Theo, Vincent settled for a year in The Hague, spending days at the beach painting the sea. However, when his father discovered Vincent's relationship with Sien, he tried to have him committed. Abandoning Sien, van Gogh was on the move again, to Drenthe, and back to the grim, melancholy landscapes that had inspired his earlier paintings. With no money forcing a move back to the family in Nuenen in 1883, he again saw beauty in the lowly weavers and labourers, painting his masterpiece, Potato Eaters, in 1885, at the age of 32. But when his peasant model became pregnant, the Catholic priest banned the locals from posing for him. Impulsive and impassioned, Vincent left Holland for good. In the rough Belgian port city of Antwerp, café girls were his models, although the seedy lifestyle took its toll on his health. Without funds, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Art where he could paint nudes, but his teachers felt he had little talent. In 1886, Vincent insisted on joining Theo in Paris, who arranged for him to become a pupil at the studio of Cormon. Although the dry, academic style was not to his taste, Vincent became friends with his lead pupil, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and was soon immersed in the twilight world of prostitutes and absinthe. While in Paris, the Impressionists held sway and Vincent was exposed to a huge variety of influences from Paul Gauguin, Degas, Camille and Lucien Pissarro, Signac and Seurat. His own artistic output was prolific, with 230 paintings in two years. His wandering style reached a defining moment when he discovered Japanese prints, and the use of brighter colours was to endure. In 1888, rows with Theo led to another abrupt departure, to Arles.

In Arles, Vincent was set on a downward path. Renting four rooms in the famous Yellow House to use as a studio, he begged Gauguin to join him. The strong, bright colours of the Mediterranean gave him the confidence to experiment more boldly with colours leading to the series of sunflower paintings intended as a decoration for Gauguin's room. Bribed by Theo's offer of money, Gauguin arrived, but the 63 days together were marked by growing tensions. Becoming ever more sexually impotent as a result of drink and mentally unstable, Vincent's thoughts turned to early death. He found inspiration in the night sky, producing the first of his paintings of stars, and immortalising The Night Café run by Joseph and Marie Ginoux at 30 Place Lamartine. Van Gogh's behaviour was becoming more erratic and the two artists' rivalry more intense, and after a regular visit to the town's famous bullfights, van Gogh cut off part of his left ear as a sign of defeat like the bull. He was found in the morning, having almost bled to death, and was taken to hospital. Gauguin left the next day. The ear incident was the final straw for the citizens of Arles, already exasperated by his drinking and sexual excesses. They signed a petition to have him sent away. Spending a year at the progressive asylum of St Remy, Vincent continued to paint at a frantic pace, diagnosed as epileptic and therefore allowed wider freedom. However, continuing mindstorms seemed to coincide with feelings of rejection, brought on first by Theo's marriage and then the birth of his child. Even the sale of his first picture to huge acclaim failed to lift him. He became desperately homesick for the gloomy Dutch landscapes. Released from the asylum as 'cured', Vincent went to Paris before making what was to be his final home at Auvers, under the dubious care of a Dr Gachet. In the last 69 days of his life he created 80 paintings, before Theo's change of plan to visit finally sent Vincent over the edge. On 27 Jul