Why Van Gogh sold only one painting is a myth
AI-generated symbolic cover. An invented late nineteenth-century collector studies a red vineyard painting; symbolic scene, not Anna Boch or the actual work.
The story that Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime oversimplifies his biography. The Van Gogh Museum explicitly says the exact number of sales is unknown, but there was more than one. The Red Vineyard, bought by artist Anna Boch, is a famous example rather than evidence that no other transactions occurred.
Paintings and drawings reached other people through different routes: sales, commissions and exchanges for materials or other works. These forms should not be mechanically added into a single exact figure. Limited lifetime earnings do not mean nobody noticed his art or that every work remained unsold.