AMSTERDAM -- Vincent van Gogh shot himself in 1890 after a short and tragic life and with his art recognized by almost nobody, reported Reuters.

Now, 150 years after his birth on March 30, 1853, Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, home to the biggest collection of his masterpieces, is marking the anniversary with special exhibitions and events throughout this year.

The village of Zundert in his native Netherlands, where he was born, has made 2003 "The Van Gogh Year" in his honor. Van Gogh, famous for his intense use of color and emphatic brush strokes, is considered the greatest Dutch artist after Rembrandt and the museum housing more than 200 of his paintings and 600 drawings attracts tourists from around the globe.

A post-impressionist, he started by painting somber Dutch peasant scenes such as "The Potato Eaters" (1885) but later developed a looser style on canvas splashed with intense color in paintings like his famous "Sunflowers" (1889).

The paintings on display at the museum, spanning the decade from 1880 to 1890, include famous works "The Yellow House" (1888) and "Wheatfield With Crows" (1890), filled with the light and color of his adopted home in Provence, France.

The museum is running special exhibitions, featuring letters and the works of art which played a formative role in shaping him. It has published a new exhibition catalogue in which experts look at the forces that shaped his unique work.

Although he sold only one painting during his short life, his masterpieces went on to fetch millions of dollars each at auction after his death at the age of 37. Van Gogh relied for much of his life on support from his favorite brother Theo, an art dealer who lived in Paris. "How rich art is," Van Gogh told Theo on November 15, 1878. "If one can only remember what one has seen, one is never without food for thought or truly lonely, never alone."