American Toby Jug Museum 

Vincent Van Gogh character jug modeled by David B. Biggs and produced by Royal Doulton of Burslem, England, between 2000-2002. The works of Vincent Willem Van Gogh (1853-1890) may be better known than those of any other post-impressionist painter. His work was represented during his lifetime only in two very small exhibitions and two larger ones. Only one of Van Gogh's paintings was sold while he lived. In his grim struggle through life filled with depression and despair, Vincent had one constant ally and supporter, his younger brother Theo. His early work consists of dark greenish-brown, heavily painted studies of peasants and miners, such as The Potato Eater. In Arles Van Gogh mutilated his left ear while suffering his first attack of dementia. His paintings from this period include the incomparable series of sunflowers. During his illness he was confined to the asylum at Saint-Remy, where, in 1889, he painted the swirling, climactic Starry Night. Van Gogh spent the last three months of his life painting frantically in Auvers, near Pissarro. One of his paintings, Wheat Field With Crows, betrays ominous overtones of his mental distress. In total despair he shot himself, dying two days later in Theo's arms. A pot of sunflowers forms the handle of the jug.