Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in the heart of Europe. He was born outside Vinci, which lies high up on Mount Albano, near the city of Florence. He was the son of Ser Pierro da Vinci, who was a legal specialist, and a peasant girl named Caterina. He was considered an “illegitimate” son because they were not married.
At age 17, he went to become an apprentice of painting under the instruction of Andrea del Verrochio, in Florence.
Leonardo was, and is, renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time.
www.leonardo-da-vinci.ch/biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a painter of Dutch origin whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness,he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found. His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. In his life time he only sold one painting no wonder he was depressed.
Van Gogh began to draw as a child, and he continued to draw throughout the years that led up to his decision to become an artist. He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. His work included self portraits, landscapes, still life's, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.
He was a great artist sadly only appreciated after he passed away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/biography.html
Largely self-taught, Van Gogh gained his...