Van Gogh, as you have read, is about as famous an artist as the world have ever know - yet he died, broke, alone and virtually unknown. He's not the only artist to die unrecognized in their time, neither Herman Melville ('Moby Dick') or Emily Dickinson (one of America's great poets) where known before they died. Funny ol' worl, isn't it?
The question is why, why is genius often overlooked.