Vincent van Gogh was an artist who lived long ago in Europe, over one hundred years in the past. He is famous for painting with bright, bold colors and thick, swirly strokes that seem to move across the canvas.

One of his most famous paintings is called The Starry Night. In it, the night sky spins and swirls with glowing yellow stars and a big golden moon above a quiet little town. Once you see it, you never forget it.

Van Gogh did not just paint the sky smoothly. He squeezed thick globs of paint onto the canvas so you can almost feel the bumps. This thick, textured way of painting makes his art look alive and full of feeling.

Here is something surprising: van Gogh sold almost no paintings while he was alive. He was often sad and lonely, and his brother Theo helped take care of him. Today his paintings hang in the greatest museums and are worth more than almost any others in the world.

Van Gogh teaches us that art does not have to look perfectly real to be wonderful. He painted the way things felt to him, not just the way they looked, and that made him one of the most loved artists ever.