Perhaps the most legendary tragic figure in art history is Vincent van Gogh, who rounds out our list. Born into an upper-middle class family, van Gogh was a serious, quiet and unhappy child who took to art at an early age.
Vincent van Gogh is a popular example of the "tortured artist" — he painted “The Starry Night” during his stay at Saint-Paul Asylum. Editor's Note: This story includes mention of suicide. If you are struggling with suicide or your mental health, you are not alone.
Van Gogh, who struggled with poverty and mental illness for most of his life, is regarded as a famous example of the tortured artist.
The most famous sad painting in the world is Melancholy (1891), which was created by Edvard Munch.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) By far the most famous example of an artist with mental illness is the immensely popular Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh suffered from anxiety and depression throughout his short life, and he once wrote, “I put my heart and my soul into my work, and lost my mind in the process.”
Artists like Francisco de Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Frida Kahlo, and Mark Rothko likely suffered from mental health problems at some point in their lives. Their art uniquely reflects their struggle and psychological condition.
Popular Artists and Mental Illness
Plath and van Gogh were just two of a very long list of suffering artists. Edvard Munch, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Frida Kahlo are also said to have suffered from depression.
Van Gogh was said to have suffered from depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. In a fit of madness, he infamously cut off a piece of his own ear. He was belittled and ridiculed in his lifetime. Van Gogh's posthumously famous painting, Starry Night was created when he was incapacitated for his mental health.
The Spanish painter Francisco Goya was master of horror, as he decorated his own house in Manzanares near Madrid with the series of morbid paintings also known as Black Paintings.
Following Vincent van Gogh's death in 1890, numerous physicians have offered diagnostic opinions regarding his still unverified illness. The discovery that he had ingested leaded oil paints prompted research that revealed his exposure to additional sources of lead and other toxic substances for 13 years before death.
There are lots of actors, musicians, and other types of artists with ADHD. Some artists, like Black Eyed Peas founder will.i.am and Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu, even credit ADHD as a factor in their success. Having talent and having artistic success aren't the same thing, though.
Amedeo Modigliani. Italian-Jewish sculptor and painter Amedeo Modigliani achieved almost no success or recognition before he died in 1920 at 35. After his death, however, his work achieved stunning popularity that made his pieces some of the hottest commodities in the art world.
Vincent van Gogh: 1853 – 1890
Although there's been a lot of back forth about this particular diagnosis, another addition to our list of famous people in history with schizophrenia is Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist Dutch painter whose work is still celebrated and adored today.
Amedeo Modigliani
It is thought that there are over 1,000 fake Modiglianis on the market and no definitive catalogue raisonné, though many scholars have attempted to define one.
In 1606 Caravaggio's temper went a step too far. An argument with 'a very polite young man' described variously as over a woman, or a tennis match, escalated into a swordfight. Caravaggio stabbed his rival, and though he probably hadn't intended to kill him, the man died of his wound.
The American artist James Lee Byars would sometimes refer to himself ironically as the “World's Most Famous Unknown Artist,” a fitting title for a man who made of his whole life a performance and a play, but who so often remained just out of reach, inaccessible, a fleeting presence.
Likely the first image that pops into one's mind thinking of a scary painting is The Scream (1893) by Edvard Munch, one of the best-known examples of Expressionist art.
Edvard Munch, The Scream. Pastel on paper, 1893. CC BY 4 The Munch Museum. There are two paintings of The Scream (one at the Oslo National Gallery and one at the Munch Museum), two pastels and a number of prints.
The Scream is undoubtedly Edvard Munch's most well-known painting. Painted in Berlin and Åsgårdsstrand in the 1890's, it reflects Munch's feelings about the human condition and the new, modern century of the 1900s. Scroll on to learn the must-knows about Munch's famous work...
Munch suffered from anxiety, which he poured into his paintings such as "The Scream." Vincent van Gogh battled severe depression, and famously cut off his own ear. In spite -- or perhaps because -- of his troubles, he created legendary masterpieces, such as his "Sunflowers" series, pictured here.
Artists such as Vincent Van Gogh are thought to have suffered from extreme anxiety. Among other mental and physical health conditions, Vincent was diagnosed with a serious anxiety disorder during a stay in an asylum. He also wrote letters to friends that mentioned his 'fits of anxiety'.
A painting of Frida Kahlo with her famous pink flowers in Frida Kahlo's artistic style. However, upon boarding the bus, Kahlo realized she had lost her umbrella so the couple got off the bus to look for it. After some time they boarded a second bus, and it was on this vehicle that the accident occurred.
Age group: Young adults ages 18 to 25 in the U.S have the highest rate of experiencing mental health conditions (30.6%), followed by those ages 26 to 49 (25.3%) and adults ages 50 and over (14.5%).