Vincent van Gogh, Red Vineyards near Arles, 1888

This is the only painting that Van Gogh is confirmed to have sold during his lifetime. Van Gogh experimented with a focus on color to find out its capacity for subconscious communication. The Post Impressionists were free to create any kind of work they were interested in because the Impressionists had made “art for art’s sake” a reasonable rationale for art experimentation.