What's the Van Gogh story and what does it teach us about selling art?

Van Gogh was a deeply troubled but talented and prolific artist. He would finish his work, write stories about each piece, and send them to his brother in Paris who tried to sell them. When his brother died, the widow attempted to sell Van Gogh’s entire collection through multiple gallery shows. Nothing sold—not Sunflowers, not Starry Night, nothing. People saw the paintings and didn’t buy. What changed everything was when the widow published a book of Van Gogh’s letters—his stories, thoughts, vulnerabilities, and who he was as a broken human being. After that book came out, everyone who had previously ignored the work immediately bought it. The lesson: it wasn’t the quality of the work that drove sales, it was people getting to know him and seeing the paintings with the story. This principle applies to artists today—you must tell your story.

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Asked by artists seeking historical proof that story matters · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2026-02-09