Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853–July 29, 1890) was a Dutch painter, classified as a Post-Impressionist. His world-famous, immediately recognizable paintings show the objects, people and places in his life with bold, usually distorted, draughtsmanship and visible dotted or dashed brushmarks, which are intensely yet subtly coloured.

He is popularly known as much for his embodiment of the stereotype of the tortured romantic artist as he is for his work, which is seen as the visual expression of his life. Although his life is well-documented, there are several common false beliefs about him, including the myth that he cut off his ear (it was only the lobe), that he killed himself because no one recognized his talent (in the last six months of his life he received generous accolades which he found very disturbing), and that he painted as he did because he was mad (he painted during his lucid periods).

He produced all of his work—some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings—during the ten year period before he committed suicide. Most of his best-known work was produced in the final two years of his life. In the two months before his death he painted 90 pictures.

He was afflicted with increasingly recurrent periods of mental ill health, spending time in a psychiatric hospital. His state of mind was not helped by overwork (especially as he did much of it outside in the hot sun), bad dietary habits, and dependence on tobacco, coffee, and alcohol. There are many competing theories regarding his medical condition including bipolar disorder and temporal lobe epilepsy, possibly exacerbated by poisoning from excessive drinking of absinthe. His career was cut short too early for him to reap success during his lifetime; his fame then grew slowly, helped by the devoted promotion of it by his widowed sister-in-law. A major show of 71 paintings was held in Paris eleven years after his death.

Grouped by critics with the Post-Impressionists, a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism, Van Gogh has had an enormous influence on 20^th century art, especially in the early part of the century, when many paintings of the Fauves and German Expressionists, particularly Die Brücke are highly derivative. His energetic approach to the painted surface follows a lineage to the Abstract Expressionism of Willem de Kooning and beyond.

His brother Theo, an art dealer with the firm of Goupil & Cie, was a central part of Vincent's life, continually providing financial support. Their lifelong friendship is documented in the large collection of letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. These letters provide much insight into the life of the painter, and show him to be a talented writer with a keen mind. Theo is reported to have remarked that one day his brother would be to art what Beethoven was to music.Theo's comparison of Vincent and Beethoven was recounted by his son, another Vincent Willem van Gogh, in conversation with Ken Wilkie, see Wilkie, K. In Search of Van Gogh, 1991 (first published as The Van Gogh Assignment, 1978) page 16

In Dutch, the name Gogh is pronounced or , the latter especially in North Brabant, where he was born; however common pronunciations used in English include , , and . During his stay in England his name was sometimes mistakenly spelt 'van Gof'.Waldemar Januszczak: Vincent: The Full Story, (Producer: Mike Lerner); Part I. Writers do refer to him as "Vincent" with some justification, for he made that his signature.

Biography

Early life (1853 - 1869)

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in Zundert in the Province of North Brabant, in the southern Netherlands, the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, a Protestant minister. He was given the same name as his first brother, who had been born exactly one year before Vincent and had died within a few hours of birth. Some commentators have suggested that being given the same name as his dead elder brother might have had a deep psychological impact on the young Vincent, and that elements of his art, such as the portrayal of pairs of male figures, can be traced back to this. The practice of reusing a name in this way was not uncommon. The name 'Vincent' was often used in the Van Gogh family: the baby's grandfather was called Vincent van Gogh (1789-1874); he had received his degree of theology at the University of Leiden in 1811. Grandfather Vincent had six sons, three of whom became art dealers, including another Vincent, referred to in Van Gogh's letters as "Uncle Cent". Grandfather Vincent had perhaps been named after his own father's uncle, the successful sculptor Vincent van Gogh (1729-1802). Erickson, page 9. Art and religion were the two occupations that the Van Gogh family gravitated to.

Four years after Van Gogh was born, his brother Theodorus (Theo) was born on May 1, 1857. There was also another brother named Cor and three sisters, Elisabeth, Anna and Wil. As a child, Vincent was serious, silent and thoughtful. In 1860 he attended the Zundert village school, where 200 pupils had one teacher, a Catholic. From 1861 he and his sister Anna were taught at home by a governess, until October 1, 1864, when he went away to the elementary boarding school of Jan Provily in Zevenbergen, the Netherlands, about 20 miles away. He was distressed to leave his family home, and recalled this even in adulthood. On September 15, 1866, he went to the new middle school, "Rijks HBS Koning Willem II", in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Constantijn C. Huysmans, who had achieved a certain success himself in Paris, taught Van Gogh to draw at the school and advocated a systematic approach to the subject. In March 1868 Van Gogh abruptly left school and returned home. His comment on his early years was: "My youth was gloomy and cold and barren..."Letter to Theo, from Nuenen, c. 18 December 1883

Art dealer and preacher (1869 - 1878)

In July 1869, at the age of 16, he obtained a position with the art dealer, Goupil & Cie in The Hague, through his Uncle "Cent", who had built up a good business which became a branch of the firm. After his training, Goupil transferred him, in June 1873, to London, where he lodged in Stockwell. This was a happy time for Vincent, he was successful at work, and was already, at the age of 20, earning more than his father.Theo's wife later remarked that this was the happiest year of Vincent's life. Wilkie, pages 34-36 He fell in love with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie LoyerWilkie, pages 38 - 52, but when he finally confessed his feeling to her she rejected him, saying that she was already secretly engaged to a previous lodger. Vincent became increasingly isolated and fervent about religion. His father and uncle despatched him to Paris, where he became resentful at treating art as a commodity and manifested this to the customers. On April 1, 1876, it was agreed that his employment should be terminated.

His religious emotion grew to the point where he felt he had found his true vocation in life, and he returned to England to do unpaid work, first as a supply teacher in a small boarding school overlooking the harbour in Ramsgate; he made some sketches of the view. The proprietor of the school relocated to Isleworth, Middlesex. Vincent decided to walk to the new location. This new position did not work out, and Vincent became a nearby Methodist minister's assistant in wanting to "preach the gospel everywhere".

At Christmas that year he returned home, and then worked in a bookshop in Dordrecht for six months, but he was not happy in this new position and spent most of his time in the back of the shop either doodling, or translating passages from the Bible into English, French, and German. Callow, page 54 His roommate from this time, a young teacher called Görlitz, later recalled that Vincent ate frugally, preferring to eat no meat."he would not eat meat, only a little morsel on Sundays, and then only after being urged by our landlady for a long time. Four potatoes with a suspicion of gravy and a mouthful of vegetables constituted his whole dinner" — from a letter to Frederik van Eeden, to help him with preparation for his article on Van Gogh in De Nieuwe Gids (issue 1 December, 1890), quoted in Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait; Letters Revealing His Life as a Painter, selected by W. H. Auden, New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, CT. 1961. See pages 37 – 39. In an effort to support his wish to become a pastor, his family sent him to Amsterdam in May 1877 where he lived with his uncle Jan van Gogh, a rear admiral in the navy.Erickson page 23 Vincent prepared for university, studying for the theology entrance exam with his uncle Johannes Stricker, a respected theologian who published the first "Life of Jesus" available in the Netherlands. Vincent failed at his studies and had to abandon them. He left uncle Jan's house in July 1878. He then studied, but failed, a three-month course at a Brussels missionary school, and returned home yet again in despair.

Borinage and Brussels (1878 - 1880)

In 1878 Van Gogh got a temporary post as a missionary in the village of Petit Wasmeshe lodged at 22 rue de Wilson, with Jean-Baptiste Denis, a baker, and his wife Esther. Wilkie, page 72 in the coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium, following his father's profession, but taking Christianity to a literal extreme, wishing to live like the poor and share their hardships to the extent of sleeping on straw in a small hut at the back of the baker's house where he was billeted;Wilkie page 75 the baker's wife used to hear Vincent sobbing all night in the little hut.Wilkie, page 77 His choice of squalid living conditions did not endear him to his flock, or to the appalled church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood". After this he walked to Brusselssee letter to Theo from their mother, 7 August 1879, and Callow, work cited, page 72, returned briefly to the Borinage, to the village of Cuesmes, but was acquiesced to pressure from his parents to come 'home' to Etten. He stayed there until around March the following yearthere are different views as to this period; Jan Hulsker in Vincent and Theo van Gogh, a dual biography, Fuller Publications, Ann Arbor, 1990. ISBN 0-940537-05-2 opts for a return to the Borinage and then back to Etten in this period; the forthcoming catalogue for the 2006 Budapest Van Gogh exhibition supports the line taken in this article, to the increasing concern and frustration of his parents. There was considerable conflict between Vincent and his father, and his father made enquiries about having his son committed to a lunatic asylumletter 158 at Geel.see Jan Hulsker's speech The Borinage Episode and the Misrepresentation of Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh Symposium, 10-11 May 1990, referenced in Erickson, pages 67-68 Vincent fled back to Cuesmes where he lodged with a miner named Charles Decrucqsee letter 134 dated 20 August 1880 from Cuesmes; also Wilkie, page 79 where he stayed until October. He became increasingly interested in the everyday people and scenes around him, which he recorded in drawings.

In 1880, Vincent followed the suggestion of his brother Theo and took up art in earnest. In autumn 1880, he went to Brussels, intending to follow Theo's recommendation to study with the prominent Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, who persuaded Van Gogh (despite his aversion to formal schools of art) to attend the Royal Academy of Art. There he not only studied anatomy, but the standard rules of modelling and perspective, all of which, he said, "you have to know just to be able to draw the least thing."

Etten (1881)

In April 1881, Van Gogh went to live in the countryside with his parents in Etten and continued drawing, using neighbours as subjects. Through the summer he spent much time walking and talking with his recently widowed cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker, the daughter of his mother's older sister, and Johannes Stricker. Stricker had earlier tutored Vincent in biblical criticism in his attempt to gain entrance to a university to study theology, and had shown real warmth towards his nephew.Erickson, page 5. Kee was seven years older than Vincent, and had an eight-year-old son. Vincent proposed marriage, but she flatly refused with the words: "No. Never. Never." (niet, nooit, nimmer)Letter to Theo dated 3 November 1881 At the end of November he wrote a strong letter to Uncle StrickerLetter to Theo 23 November 1881, and then almost straight away hurried to Amsterdam where he talked with Stricker more than onceLetter from Etten c.21 December 1881 describing the visit in more detail, but Kee refused even to see him; her parents said 'your persistence is disgusting.'Letter from Vincent to Theo, The Hague, 14 May 1882; he held his left hand in the flame of a lamp, saying: "Let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame"Letter from Vincent to Theo, The Hague, 14 May 1882. He did not clearly recall what happened next, but assumed that his uncle blew out the flame. Her father, 'Uncle Stricker' as Vincent refers to him in his letters to Theo, made it clear that there was no question of Vincent and Kee marrying, given Vincent's inability to support himself financially. Gayford, work cited, pages 130 – 131 The apparent hypocrisy of his uncle and former tutor affected Vincent deeply. At Christmas he quarrelled violently with his father, even refusing a gift of money.

The Hague and Drenthe (1881 - 1883)

In January 1882 he left for the Hague, where he called on his cousin-in-law, the painter Anton Mauve, who encouraged him towards painting. He soon fell out with Mauve however, perhaps over the issue of drawing from plaster casts, but Mauve appeared to go suddenly cold towards Vincent, not returning a couple of his letters. Vincent guessed that Mauve had learned of his new domestic relationship with the alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria Hoornik (born February 1850, The Hague;Callow, page 116, citing the work of Hulsker she was known as Sien) and her young daughter.Callow pages 123 - 124 Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January.Callow page 117 Sien had a five year-old daughter, and was pregnant. She had already had two other children who had died, although Vincent was unaware of this.Callow, page 116, citing the research of Jan Hulsker; the two dead children were born in 1874 and 1879. On 2 July, Sien gave birth to a baby boy, Willem.Wilkie, page 176. Forceps were used in the birth. Baby Willem was 3.42 kg and 53 cm at birth, suggesting conception occured late August or early September 1881 ... see Wilkie page 201. Vincent had visited The Hague briefly 23 – 26 August where he visited Anton Mauve and viewed the Panorama Mesdag When Vincent's father discovered the details of this relationship, considerable pressure was put on Vincent Callow, page 132 to abandon Sien and her children. Vincent was at first defiant in the face of his family's opposition.

His uncle Cornelis, an art dealer, commissioned 20 ink drawings of the city from him; they were completed by the end of Maypostcard (written in English) 30 May 1882. In June Vincent spent 3 weeks in hospital suffering gonorrhoealetter 8 or 9 June 1882. In the summer, he began to paint in oil.

In Autumn 1883, after a year with Sien, he adandoned her and the two children. Vincent had thought of moving the family away from the city, but in the end he made the break.Arnold, page 38 It is possible that lack of money had pushed Sien back to prostitution; the home had become a less happy one, and Vincent may have felt family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. When Vincent left, Sien gave her daughter to her mother, and baby Willem to her brother, and moved to Delft and then Antwerp.Wilkie, page 183 Willem remembered at around the age of 12 being taken to visit his mother in Rotterdam, where his uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry in order to legitimize the child. Willem remembered his mother saying: "But I know who the father is. He was an artist I lived with nearly 20 years ago in The Hague. His name was Van Gogh." She then turned to Willem and said "You are called after him."Wilkie, page 185 Willem believed himself to be Van Gogh's son, but the timing of the birth makes this unlikely.Wilkie, page 201 In 1904 Sien drowned herself in the river Scheldt.Wilkie, page 183

He moved to the Dutch province of Drenthe in the north of the Netherlands, and in December, driven by loneliness, to stay with his parents who were by then living in Nuenen, North Brabant, also in the Netherlands.

Nuenen (1883 - 1885)

In Nuenen, he devoted himself to drawing, paying boys to bring him birds' nestsJohannes de Looyer, Karel van Engeland, Hendricus Dekkers, and Piet van Hoorn all as old men recalled being paid 5, 10 or 50 cents per nest, depending on the type of bird. See Wilkie, pages 25-26, and Theos' son's note and rapidlyVincent's nephew noted some reminiscences of local residents in 1949, including the description of the speed of his drawing sketching the weavers in their cottages.

In Autumn 1884, a neighbour's daughter, Margot Begemann, ten years older than Vincent, accompanied him constantly on his painting forays and fell in love, which he reciprocated (though less enthusiastically). They agreed to marry, but were opposed by both families. Margot tried to kill herself with strychnine and Vincent rushed her to hospital.Wilkie, page 82

On March 26, 1885, Van Gogh's father died of a stroke. Van Gogh grieved deeply. For the first time there was interest from Paris in some of his work. In spring he painted what is now considered his first major work, The Potato Eaters (Dutch De Aardappeleters). In August his work was exhibited for the first time, in the windows of a paint dealer, Leurs, in the Hague. In September he was accused of making one of his young peasant sitters pregnantthe girl was Gordina de Groot, who died in 1927; she claimed the father was not Van Gogh, but a relative; see Wilkie page 26 and the Catholic village priest forbad villagers from modelling for him.

It should be noted that during this time Van Gogh's palette was of sombre earth tones, particularly dark brown, and as yet he had shown no sign of developing the vivid colouration which distinguishes his later, best known work. (When Vincent complained that Theo was not making enough effort to sell his paintings in Paris, Theo replied that they were too dark and not in line with the current style of bright Impressionist paintings.) During his two year stay in Nuenen, he had completed numerous drawings and watercolours, and nearly 200 oil paintings.

Antwerp (1885 - 1886)

In November 1885 he moved to Antwerp and rented a little room above a paint dealer's shop in the Rue des Images.Callow, page 181 He had little money and ate poorly, preferring to spend what money his brother Theo sent to him on painting materials and models. Bread, coffee, and tobacco were his staple intake. In February 1886 he wrote to Theo saying that he could only remember eating six hot meals since May of the previous year. His teeth became loose and caused him much pain.Callow, page 184 While in Antwerp he applied himself to the study of colour theory and spent time looking at work in museums, particularly the work of Peter Paul Rubens, gaining encouragement to broaden his palette to carmine, cobalt and emerald green. He also bought some Japanese woodblocks in the docklands. It was while he was living in Antwerp that Vincent began to drink absinthe heavily.Callow, page 253 He was treated by Dr Cavenaile whose surgery was near the docklandsVincent's doctor was Hubertus Amadeus Cavenaile; Wilkie, pages 143-146, possibly for syphilisArnold, page 77. The evidence for syphilis is thin, coming solely from interviews with the grandson of the doctor; see Tralbaut, M. E. Vincent van Gogh, New York, The Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1981, pages 177-178, and Wilkie, pages 143-146; the treatment of alum irrigations and sitz baths was jotted down by Vincent in one of his notebooks.van der Wolk, J. The Seven Sketchbooks of Vincent van Gogh: a facsimile edition, Harry Abrams Inc, New York, 1987, pages 104-105

In January 1886 he matriculated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, studying painting and drawing. Despite disagreements over his rejection of academic teaching, he nevertheless took the higher level admission exams. For most of February he was ill, run down by overwork and a poor diet (and excessive smoking).

Paris (1886 - 1888)

In March 1886 he moved to Paris, soon studying at Cormon's studio, where he met fellow students, Émile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Later he and Bernard exchanged paintings to commemorate this occasion.

In May 1886 his mother and sister Wil moved to Breda. 70 of Van Gogh's abandoned paintings were bought by a junk dealer, who burnt some and sold others at very low prices.

Theo introduced Vincent to the Impressionist circle, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Camille and son Lucien Pissarro (with both of whom he became friends), Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. Van Gogh liked Impressionism's use of light and color, more than its lack of social engagement (as he saw it).

He especially loved the technique known as pointillism (where many small dots are applied to the canvas that blend into different hues when seen from a distance). He was also strongly committed to the use of complementary colours in proximity—especially blue and orange—in order to enhance the brilliance of each. (He wrote in a letter: "I want to use colours that complement each other, that cause each other to shine brilliantly, that complete each other like a man and a woman.")

In June he took a flat with Theo at 54 Rue Lepic in Montmartre, and adopted the pointillist style to paint Paris scenes. He used the paint store run by Julien "Père" Tanguy, who introduced him to more artists.

In spring 1887 Tanguy commissioned two portraits of himself.

In November 1887 Theo and Vincent met and befriended Paul Gauguin, who had just arrived in Paris.D. Druick & P. Zegers, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, Thames & Hudson, 2001, page 81; Gayford, work cited, page 50 For a time Theo found shared life with Vincent "almost unbearable".

In 1888, when city life and living with his brother proved too much, Van Gogh left Paris, having painted over 200 paintings during his two years in the city.

Arles (February 1888 - May 1889)

He arrived on 21 February, 1888, at the Hotel Carrel in Arles. He had ideas of founding a Utopian art colony. His companion for two months was the Danish artist, Christian Mourier-Petersen. In March, he painted local landscapes, using a gridded "perspective frame". Three of his pictures were shown at the Paris Salon des Artistes Indépendents. In April he was visited by the American painter, Dodge MacKnight, who was resident in Fontvieille nearby.

On May 1, he signed a lease for 15 francs a month to rent the four rooms in the right hand side of the "Yellow House" (so called because its outside walls were yellow) at No. 2 Place Lamartine. The house was unfurnished and had been uninhabited for some time so he was not able to move in straight away. He had been staying at the Hôtel Restaurant Carrel in the Rue de la Cavalerie, just inside the medieval gate to the city, with the old Roman Arena in view. The rate charged by the hotel was 5 francs a week, which Van Gogh regarded as excessive. He disputed the price, and took the case to the local arbitrator who awarded him a twelve franc reduction on his total billAlfred Nemeczek, Van Gogh in Arles, Prestel Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2230-3, pages 59 – 61. (the weekly rate being reduced from five francs to four). On May 7 he moved out of the Hôtel Carrel, and moved into the Café de la GareGayford, The Yellow House, page 16. He became friends with the proprietors, Joseph and Marie Ginoux. Although the Yellow House had to be furnished before he could fully move in, Van Gogh was able to use it as a studio.Callow, p 219

In June he visited Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. He gave drawing lessons to a Zouave second lieutenant, Paul-Eugène Milliet, who also became a companion. MacKnight introduced him to Eugène Boch, a Belgian painter, who stayed at times in Fontvieille (they exchanged visits in July). Gauguin agreed to join him in Arles. In August he painted sunflowers; Boch visited again.

On September 8, upon advice from his friend the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin, he bought two bedsGayford, page 18, and he finally spent the first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House on September 17.Nemeczek, page 61

On 23 October Gauguin eventually arrived in Arles, after repeated requests from Van Gogh. During November they painted together. Uncharacteristically, Van Gogh painted some pictures from memory, deferring to Gauguin's ideas in this. Their first joint outdoor painting exercise was conducted at the picturesque Alyscamps.Martin Gayford, The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles, Fig Tree, Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-670-91497-5. See page 61. It was in November that Van Gogh painted The Red Vineyard.

In December the two artists visited Montpellier and viewed works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Museé Fabre. However, their relationship was deteriorating badly. They quarrelled fiercely about art. Van Gogh felt an increasing fear that Gauguin was going to desert him, and what he described as a situation of "excessive tension" reached a crisis point on December 23, 1888, when Van Gogh stalked Gauguin with a razor and then cut off the lower part of his own left ear, which he wrapped in newspaper and gave to a prostitute called Rachel in the local brothel, asking her to "keep this object carefully". Gauguin left Arles and did not speak to Van Gogh again. Van Gogh was hospitalised and in a critical state for a few days. He was immediately visited by Theo (whom Gauguin had notified), as well as Madame Ginoux and frequently by Roulin.

In January 1889 Van Gogh returned to the "Yellow House", but spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and paranoia that he was being poisoned. In March the police closed his house, after a petition by thirty townspeople, who called him fou roux ("the redheaded madman"). Signac visited him in hospital and Van Gogh was allowed home in his company. In April he moved into rooms owned by Dr. Rey, after floods damaged paintings in his own home. On April 17, Theo married Johanna Bonger in Amsterdam.

Saint-Rémy (May 1889 - May 1890)

On May 8, 1889, Van Gogh, accompanied by a carer, the Reverend Salles, was admitted to the mental hospital of Saint-Paul-de Mausole in a former monastery in Saint Rémy de Provence, a little less than 20 miles from Arles. The monastery was a mile and a half out of the town and was in an area of cornfields, vineyards, and olive trees. The hospital was run by a former naval doctor, Dr Théophile Peyron, who had no specialist qualifications. Theo van Gogh arranged for his brother to have two small rooms, one for use as a studio, although in reality they were simply adjoining cells with barred windows.Callow, page 246 During his stay there, the clinic and its garden became his main subject. At this time some of his work was characterised by swirls, as in one of his best-known paintings, The Starry Night. He took some short supervised walks, which gave rise to images of cypresses and olive trees, but because of the shortage of subject matter due to his limited access to the outside world, he painted interpretations of Millet's paintings, as well as his own earlier work. In September 1889 he painted two new versions of the Bedroom in Arles, and in February 1890 he painted four portraits of L'Arlésienne (Madame Ginoux), based directly on a charcoal sketch Gauguin had produced when Madame Ginoux had sat for both artists at the beginning of November 1888. One of these four portraits sold at auction in May 2006 for more than $40 million.

Auvers-sur-Oise (May - July 1890)

In May 1890, Vincent left the clinic and went to the physician Dr. Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, where he was closer to his brother Theo. Dr. Gachet had been recommended to him by Pissarro, as he had previously treated several artists and was an amateur artist himself. Here Van Gogh created his only etching, a portrait of the melancholic Doctor Gachet. As it turned out the doctor was as much in need of help as his patient: Van Gogh commented that Gachet was "sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much". ^*

Wheat Field with Crows with its turbulent intensity is often, but mistakenly, thought to be Van Gogh's last work (Jan Hulsker lists seven paintings after it). Image:Vincent Willem van Gogh 021.jpg is a more likely candidate. There are also seemingly unfinished paintings, such as Thatched Cottages by a Hill.

Van Gogh's depression deepened, and on July 27, 1890, at the age of 37, he walked into the fields and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realising that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn, where he died in his bed two days later. Theo hastened to be at his side and reported his last words as "La tristesse durera toujours" (French for "the sadness will last forever"). He was buried at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.

Theo had contracted syphilis (though this was not admitted by the family for many years) and, not long after Vincent's death, was himself admitted to hospital. He was not able to come to terms with the grief of his brother's absence, and died six months later on 25 January at Utrecht. In 1914 Theo's body was exhumed and re-buried beside Vincent's.

Posthumous Fame

During his life time, Van Gogh contributed works of his own only on a few and minor occasions which mainly passed unnoted by critics and public, for example a display of Japanese woodcuts in the Restaurant "Le Tambourin", for which Van Gogh probably interpreted three famous prints by Eisen and Hiroshige. Towards the end of this year, he organized another exhibition at the "Restaurant du Chalet" on Montmartre to which his friends Emile Bernard, Louis Anquetin and perhaps Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec contributed. Van Gogh considered the first one a disaster, while he was prepared to take the second one as a success: Bernard and Anquetin sold paintings, and he himself had exchanged works with Paul Gauguin. http://www.vggallery.com/letters/621_V-T_510.pdf

In 1888, Van Gogh joined the "Société des Artistes Indépendants", so three of his paintings were on show in their annual Salon in Paris, and two in the year following (due to restrictions caused by the Exposition Universelle de 1889). In 1890, their annual exhibition comprised paintings by Vincent, and their retrospective of Van Gogh's work in 1891 contained ten paintings; part of them had been shown before by the society "Les XX" in Brussels, there completed by a dozen of drawings (some of them only on view "by demand"). According to several letters from his brother Theo, his contributions to these few exhibitions established his renown amongst French vanguard painters like Monet and Signac.

Early exhibitions

There were retrospectives in Brussels and Paris in 1891. During the 1890s, Van Gogh exhibitions were staged in several Dutch and Belgian towns. In 1893, Julien Leclercq brought together a first exhibition featuring Van Gogh, Gauguin and other "modernists" touring Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Berlin. In 1895 and in 1896 Ambroise Vollard mounted Van Gogh retrospectives in his galleries Rue Lafitte; other minor dealers in Paris had works by Van Gogh continuously on display. In 1901, Leclercq arranged a Van Gogh Exhibition at the Galeries Bernheim Jeune in Paris .

In 1901, the German Secessionists entered the scene, accompanied by the art dealers Bruno Cassirer and especially his cousin Paul, who set the pace for the years to come. Paul Cassirer first established a market for Van Gogh, and then, with the assistance of Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, controlled market prices for him. However, Johanna was keen to maintain her independence, and contributed important loans to Roger Fry's 1910 London exhibition, as well as to the Sonderbund exhibition of 1912 in Cologne. This was organized by an independent committee of artists, collectors and museum profesionals, but in fact dependent on loans arranged by Cassirer, Bernheim Jeune and other art dealers.

The first major exhibition from the artist's estate was shown in 1892 in the Amsterdam 'Panorama' Building, the next in 1905 in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, followed in 1914 by a display concentrating on Van Gogh's drawings.

In the "Winter Season 1927/1928" a problem began that has overshadowed Van Gogh-research ever since — the emergence of forgeries. Otto Wacker staged an extensive exhibition of drawings by Van Gogh, catalogued and annotated by Julius Meier-Graefe. Then in January 1928, Paul Cassirer opened a large retrospective of paintings, from which two were removed just before the opening, as their authenticity had been questioned. The suspect paintings had been provided by Otto Wacker, and a scandal ensued.

Little attention was paid at this time to the considerable number of Van Gogh masterpieces already held by the Museum of Modern Art New York (established in 1929), along with the Tate Gallery in London and other British and American galleries.

Early promoters

The first article on Van Gogh's work was written by Theo's friend, the painter Joseph Jacob Isaacson; it appeared in the 17 August 1889 issue of the Amsterdam weekly De Portefeuille.

Albert Aurier was an important early promotor of Van Gogh's work. His article 'Les Isolés' appeared in the Mercure de France, January 1890. Another voice was that of Octave Mirbeau who's article 'Vincent van Gogh' in L'Echo de Paris on 1 March 1891. Later that year Van Gogh's friend Émile Bernard contributed short pieces on Van Gogh for La Plume and Les Hommes d’aujourd’hui.

Julius Meier-Graefe wrote influentially of Van Gogh, his publications incuding: Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst (Stuttgart, 1904 and later Munich 1927), Über Vincent van Gogh', Sozialistische Monatshefte (February 1906), Vincent van Gogh (Munich 1912) and Van Gogh der Zeichner'' (Berlin, 1928, published by Otto Wacker).

Myths

Legend has grown up about Van Gogh. One of the myths is that no one recognised his work. In fact it was praised in Le Mercure de France and he was called a genius. He was invited to participate in Les Vingt, an exhibition of avant-garde painters in Belgium and Monet said that his work was the best in the show. Toulouse-Lautrec challenged someone to a duel for an insult to Van Gogh's work.Walther, Ingo F. and Metzger, Rainer

Another famous myth is that he cut off his ear, and although he did cut his ear, it was not the whole ear but part of it, at least the lobe and probably a little more with a diagonal cut. Van Gogh is sometimes thought of as the mad painter, but he could not paint during his disturbed episodes, only the time in between .

Sometimes it is said that Van Gogh did not sell any work, or only one painting in his lifetime. However The Red Vineyard was sold for 400 francs (€800-850 today) during an exposition of the Salon des XX. It was bought by the Belgian Impressionist painter Anna Boch, who was the sister of his friend Eugen Boch. Van Gogh also worked for commissions and traded paintings for meals and medical treatmenthe paid Dr Cavenaile for his treatment with a portrait; Wilkie, page 202, both of which can be seen as another form of payment.

Legacy

Art

Van Gogh's fame grew steadily after his death. Large exhibitions were organized in Paris (1901), Amsterdam (1905), Cologne (1912), New York City (1913) and Berlin (1914). These had a great influence over a new generation of artists. The French Fauves, including Henri Matisse, extended both his use of colour and freedom of applying it, as did German Expressionists in the Die Brücke group. 1950s Abstract Expressionism is seen as benefiting from the exploration Van Gogh started with gestural marks. In 1957, English artist Francis Bacon did several paintings based on reproductions of Van Gogh's The Painter on his Way to Work (which had been destroyed in World War II).

Roger Fry

In the English-speaking world, the Bloomsbury art critics Roger Fry and Clive Bell were his first champions. Fry, in a 1924 essay, "Vincent Van Gogh," reported that after Van Gogh's death, he "disappeared" and "scarcely any picture dealer in Bond Street gave him another thought" until the 1910 show titled "Post Impressionist Exhibition" in which "his works dazzled, astonished and infuriated all cultured England." Fry's essay canonized Van Gogh as "a saint" of art, "the victim of the terrible intensity of his convictions—his conviction that somewhere one might lay hold of spiritual values compared with which all other values were of no account." His works gave "an expression in paint for the desperate violence of his spiritual hunger...."Transformations, NY: Doubleday, 1956, pp 235-236. That set the agenda for much subsequent Van Gogh studies, which are predominantly biographical to this day. Van Gogh fits modern culture's attempt to find secular substitutes for a religion it no longer believed in, as M.H. Abrams describes in "Natural Supernaturalism" (1970).

Other

Van Gogh's letters, most of them to Theo, were published in 1914.

The artist's life forms the basis for Irving Stone's biographical novel Lust for Life. This was later turned into a multiple Oscar Award-winning film with the same name starring Kirk Douglas.

In 1972 in honour of Van Gogh, singer Don McLean wrote the ballad Vincent — also known as "Starry Starry Night", the song's opening words, which refer to the painting The Starry Night. It was also sung by Josh Groban in 2002 and the punk band NOFX did a version on a rarities and b-sides double album.

In 1986-87, the composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote an opera, Vincent, based on several events in Van Gogh's life, and later used some of the same themes in his 6th symphony, Vincentiana.

Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa paid homage to Vincent in the 1990 film "Yume" (Dreams). The film was based upon Kurosawa's own dreams and included a vignette entitled "Crows", which starred Martin Scorsese as Vincent.

Anne Sexton wrote the poem 'Starry Starry Night' based on a quote from one of Van Gogh's letters to his brother, regarding his need to paint the stars. The poem refers to a painting of the same name.

Trivia

In 2004 he was nominated for the title De Grootste Nederlander (The Greatest Dutchman) and ended 10th place.

Reaction

There has also been a reaction against the image of Van Gogh as saint. John Rewald was one of the first to attempt an anti-hagiography; books pointing to Van Gogh's neuroticism have continued since. Counter-claims, particularly based on Van Gogh's three volumes of letters, often masterpieces of prose, support Roger Fry's praise.New York: Bulfinch imprint of Little, Brown, 1958, 1978, 1991

Notable works

(1885) The Potato Eaters
(1888) Bedroom in Arles
(1888) Cafe Terrace at Night
(1888) The Red Vineyard
(1888) The Night Cafe
(1888) Starry Night Over the Rhone
(1889) The Starry Night
(1889) Irises †
(1889) Vase with Twelve Sunflowers
(1889) Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe †
(1890) Portrait of Dr. Gachet †
(1890) Wheat Field with Crows
(1890) Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat

† Denotes paintings which are recent recordholders for the highest price paid for a painting at an auction: see list of most expensive paintings. On March 30, 1987, Irises was sold for a record dollar|US$" target="_blank" >^*53.9 million at Sotheby's; on May 15, 1990, his Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record (which was exceeded in 2004 by a Picasso painting).

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (also in the Netherlands), has another considerable collection of his paintings.

Influences on Van Gogh

(see also above)

The Hague School.
Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), painter who also focused on peasant life.
Emile Zola (1840–1902), writer whose novels Van Gogh admired.
Japonisme, especially Japanese woodblock prints.
Adolphe Monticelli 1824–1886, French painter, whom Van Gogh considered one of the greats.
Impressionism.
Pointillism as practised by Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Paul Signac (1863–1935).
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903).
Anton Mauve (1838–1888), gave Vincent advice early on; his wife was Van Gogh's cousin.

Illness

Debate has raged over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's mental illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label his illness, and some 30 different diagnoses have been suggested.Blumer, Dietrich (2002)"The Illness of Vincent van Gogh" American Journal of Psychiatry Some of the theories which have been suggested include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, and temporal lobe epilepsy. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, a fondness for the alcoholic beverage absinthe, and insomnia. Some people have argued, in the case of temporal lobe epilepsy, that the disease may have led to his prolific body of work. (TLE cases tend to show symptoms of hypergraphia and hyperreligiosity and it has been suspected by some as being sources of religious visions and creativity.)

In the November 2005 issue of Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Paul L. Wolf, M.D., presented his analysis of how disease, drugs, and chemicals might have influenced the retinal vision of Van Gogh. Wolf speculates that the Yellow Color Vision defect in Van Gogh developed as a side effect of his love of a type of liquor known as absinthe, containing a neurotoxin called thujone found in wormwood oil.

Another recently proposed illness is lead poisoning. The paints used at the time were lead-based, and one of the symptoms of lead poisoning is a swelling of the retinas which would have caused the halo effect seen in many of Van Gogh's works.Ross King. The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism. New York: Waller & Company, 2006 ISBN 0802714668. See page 61.

Spelling

When the surname is written without the first name the 'v' is usually capitalized in English: 'Van Gogh'. However, both upper and lower case usages can be found in books. Use of lowercase is common in Dutch in this case.

Footnotes

References

Callow, Philip Vincent Van Gogh: A Life, 1990, Ivan R. Dee, ISBN 1-56663-134-3
Erickson, Kathleen Powers At Eternity's Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh, 1998, ISBN 0-8028-4978-4.
Beaujean, Dieter (1999), "Vincent van Gogh: Life and Work", Könemann ISBN 3829029381
Walther, Ingo F. and Metzger, Rainer (1997), Van Gogh: the Complete Paintings, Benedikt Taschen, ISBN 3822882658
Wilkie, K. In Search of Van Gogh, 1991 ISBN 1-55958-101-8 (first published as The Van Gogh Assignment, 1978)

External links

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., United States — A virtual tour of the Van Gogh's Van Goghs exhibition.
Vincent van Gogh Gallery. The complete works and letters of Vincent van Gogh.
Van Gogh's Letters, unabridged and annotated.
Photographs of locations in Auvers-sur-Oise painted by Van Gogh.
'Drama at Arles new light on Van Gogh's self-mutilation' from Apollo, September 2005 by Martin Bailey
Van Gogh painted perfect turbulence - mathematical analysis of Van Gogh's works reveals that the stormy patterns in many of his paintings are uncannily like real turbulence of fluids.

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