The Portrait of a Painter 星夜下的藝術大師 —— 梵谷 照片來源：IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous artists to have ever lived. His paintings hang in the world's best art galleries, and people line up for hours to look at one of them for a few seconds. When his paintings are bought and sold, they sell for millions upon millions of US dollars. His most expensive painting, called Portrait of Dr. Gachet, actually sold for US$148 million in 1990. With such a huge amount of cash for a portrait of a doctor, it may surprise you to find out that Van Gogh was never famous when he was alive. In fact, he never even made a living as an artist and only managed to sell one of his 900 paintings. It was called The Red Vineyard, for which he received 400 Francs, which is about US$1,000 today. Statues of Vincent van Gogh now stand in many of the Dutch towns where he painted. Several songs have been written about him, and his face appears on his home country's postage stamps. So, why is it that a genius lived most of his life in poverty and remained completely unknown? To find out, let's take a closer look at the incredible life of this incredible man.
portrait n. 畫像；相片 Grandpa brings along his family portrait wherever he goes. 爺爺不管去哪都會帶上他的全家福照片。
millions upon millions of... 上億的…… Millions upon millions of people follow the World Cup because they are all crazy about soccer. 上億人關注著世界盃，因為他們都對足球比賽很著迷。
a huge / large amount of + 不可數名詞 大量的…… The tourists left a large amount of trash behind when the festival ended. 觀光客在嘉年華會結束後留下了大量的垃圾。
alive a. 活（著）的；仍然存在的 Hugh Jackman is considered to be the sexiest man alive by People magazine. 休•傑克曼被《時人》雜誌認定是現今世上最性感的男人。
postage stamp n. 郵票（正式用法） Some people collect postage stamps, while others simply use them for mailing letters. 有些人會收集郵票，但是其他人只是用它們來寄信。
remain vi. 保持，仍是 The weather remained hot throughout the month of November. 一整個十一月的天氣都還是很炎熱。
completely adv. 完全地，徹底地 When my grandmother got to the top of the stairs, she was completely out of breath. 我奶奶爬到階梯頂層時，她完全喘不過氣來。
incredible a. 令人難以置信的，驚人的 It's incredible that the old car still works. 這台老爺車還能跑真令人難以置信。
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