The twists of fate and the tragic end of the 37-year-old outcast with an easel have added a unique value to his most cherished legacy in the world. After his death, the mentally troubled “missionary for the poor” became an auction brand for millionaires. In just ten years, the “mad Dutchman” created 2,100 works, with most of his 860 oil paintings completed in the last two years of his life, during which he searched for himself until the very end – the moment he shot himself in the heart.
“Irises” (1889)
Vincent… in Replacement
The biography of Vincent Willem van Gogh is filled with intriguing facts, starting from the very moment of his birth. The future reformer of painting was born into a family of a Reformed Church pastor on March 30, 1853, in the Dutch town of Groot Zundert. The red-haired boy was the eldest of six children, but not the first. A year before his arrival, his young parents lost their newborn firstborn, who “passed on” his name to the successor: both sons were named Vincent by the priest Theodor and his wife, Anna Cornelia, the daughter of a bookbinder. The second child also became Vincent – just like his deceased brother and two predecessors on his father’s side: his grandfather Vincent van Gogh was a theologian with a university degree, and his namesake great-grandfather was a successful sculptor. Three of the six sons of the grandfather-theologian, including another Vincent from this lineage, an uncle from The Hague, dealt in artworks. The van Gogh family, across generations, gravitated towards art and religion, which influenced Vincent Willem’s future choices in life: he would try his hand in both fields.
Perhaps the conflicting feelings, hasty decisions, mood swings, and constant search for identity stemmed from the notion that reflected on his childhood psyche, that he was a replacement for someone? It’s no coincidence that Vincent van Gogh’s paintings often featured pairs of male figures, which psychiatrists attributed to signs of duality or a split personality, possibly indicating a history of bipolar disorder. Is that why Vincent struggled to connect with people, was never satisfied, changed jobs and surroundings, yet always felt out of place, living someone else’s fate?
Vincent van Gogh at the age of 18
Willful and Vulnerable
From a young age, Vincent was different from his brothers and sisters. Among the three boys and three girls, the governess found this terrible brute the least pleasant. A troublemaker and instigator of disputes, he displayed conflict at every turn. His main traits were impulsiveness, willfulness, and alienation. He left his first school after just a year and similarly fled from two boarding schools. The departure to a place 20 kilometers from his home caused Vincent so much anguish that he felt that rejection in his soul for the rest of his life. At the next college, Willem II in Tilburg, van Gogh easily mastered three European languages (he constantly communicated in French) and received his first drawing lessons. But even here, his patience lasted only a year and a half: in the midst of his studies, the restless student left this institution as well. Vincent van Gogh described his childhood as “gloomy, cold, and empty.”
Putting an end to his formal education, in 1869, the fifteen-year-old teenager, with the help of his uncle Vincent nicknamed Cent, got a job as an art dealer at his firm Goupil & Cie: first in The Hague salon, then in London. While evaluating paintings, the young man also learned to paint during this period. Although he hadn’t yet considered a career as an artist, he already had personal opinions about the subject of his work. “Only one in ten paintings is created with the idea of art,” he wrote to his sister. Vincent was outraged by the treatment of artworks as mere products. He referred to such commerce as organized crime. “Art has no greater enemies than art dealers,” Vincent believed. He shared his thoughts with clients, and his views did not remain a secret to his employer. In 1876, the disloyal employee was dismissed.
“Wheat Field with Cypresses” (1889)
Failed Debut
His business failures coincided with the agony of unrequited love. The daughter of the landlady where young Vincent van Gogh rented a room did not reciprocate his feelings, and in despair, he turned to the Bible. Following in his father’s footsteps, the pastor’s son decided to dedicate himself to saving souls. He even intended to study theology in Amsterdam, studying the Gospel and translating the Scriptures into languages he knew. However, things did not work out with the university either. In his desire to help ordinary people, Vincent became a student at a Protestant missionary school near Brussels, but he couldn’t even endure the three-month course: he was expelled for his impulsiveness and untidiness.
His first missionary experience in a Belgian mining village also ended in failure. In Borinage, Vincent van Gogh planned to spend six months to gain experience for admission to the Evangelical school and continue his education. He preached to the impoverished and illiterate people, taught their children, and visited the sick, while earning money by drawing topographical maps at night. The Evangelical Society assigned the missionary a salary of 50 francs, which the defender of the downtrodden shared with the local community. In 1879, the novice preacher became so engrossed in the hardships of mining work that he began giving away his food and clothing to the locals. On behalf of the miners, Vincent van Gogh demanded better working conditions from the mine management, and he himself refused to pursue an education, seeing it as a form of discrimination. His fervent activities led to a decision by the synodal committee of the Protestant Church of Belgium to remove him from his position.
“The Church at Auvers” (1890)
Salvation in Creativity
Painting became Vincent’s remedy for depression. “If you’re going to learn from someone, learn from an artist!” van Gogh decided, and with financial support from his younger brother Theo, who was four years his junior, he moved to Brussels in 1880. There, Vincent attended classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, but after a year, he left school and continued to paint on his own. While staying at his parents’ house, he experienced a new romantic infatuation – with his own cousin (at that time, a widow of a relative was visiting their home with her son). The relative did not appreciate his inappropriate advances – Vincent was rejected once again. This latest shock led the artist to decide to move to The Hague and never again attempt to settle his personal life.
“The Potato Eaters” (1885)
Taking lessons from a representative of the Hague School of painting and his distant relative Anton Mauve, van Gogh experimented with techniques and colors. Depicting urban neighborhoods on canvas, in one work he combined sepia, chalk, pen, and watercolor. The early works of the future post-impressionist were painted in a realistic style and focused on working people. Vincent van Gogh’s paintings “Peasant Woman” and “The Potato Eaters” are executed in dark tones that convey a sense of oppression. The later predominance of yellow in the author of “Sunflowers,” according to scholars, was caused by the medication he took for the epilepsy he suffered from. Foxglove in the composition of the anticonvulsant could cause such a defect in color perception.
“Sunflowers” (1888)
The Misunderstood Outcast
The more Vincent van Gogh immersed himself in painting, the less interest he had in religion. Over time, he completely cooled to preaching and held a contemptuous view of clergymen. In particular, he called his own father a hypocrite after Pastor Theodor disapproved of his son’s relationship with a prostitute from The Hague. After meeting a pregnant sex worker named Christine on the street, Vincent felt compassion for her situation and invited her to live with him along with her children. This act was condemned by friends and relatives, with whom Vincent did not hesitate to quarrel. But the priest was supposed to support his decision, the benefactor believed, as his goal was to save a person from vice and poverty.
Unfortunately, nothing good came from this “noble experiment”: the artist’s family life with the prostitute did not work out. Vincent van Gogh moved to the province of Drenthe in northern Netherlands, where he settled in a cabin-studio and began painting the beauty of the local nature and peasants. However, even there, he was destined to become an outcast. The artist had to leave his refuge due to a conflict with the local pastor. The holy father forbade the villagers to pose for the painter, accusing him of immorality. So once again, Vincent sought refuge from the unwelcoming world in his beloved activity. In Antwerp, the artist began attending painting classes at the Academy of Arts, and in February 1886, he traveled to Paris to join his brother Theo, who was selling paintings there.
“Portrait of a Woman in Blue” (Antwerp, 1885)
Parisian Inspiration
The most productive phase of Vincent van Gogh’s creative biography began, and it was also the richest in events. Among artists, he was finally appreciated. Those who still doubted the talent of the student from the prestigious private art studio of the European-renowned teacher Fernand Cormon were convinced by gallery owner Theo that they would soon hear his brother’s name. He always believed in Vincent and happily acknowledged his talent. Success was furthered by his acquaintance with Japanese prints and the synthetic works of Paul Gauguin. The artist’s style changed beyond recognition. The new paintings were created in Vincent van Gogh’s unique technique – impasto (expressive and dynamic brushwork).
“Shoes” (1886)
During his Paris period, the artist created 230 paintings. Among the series of still lifes and self-portraits, six works from 1887 stand out under the common title “Shoes.” The first pair of worn and tattered shoes depicted in this series was purchased by van Gogh at a flea market. This series of canvases featuring such an unusual subject symbolizes the artist’s difficult life journey. Van Gogh walked many kilometers. He imagined himself a pilgrim when, on one occasion, he walked for three days to Aylworth, where he was hired as a schoolteacher. Three years later, Vincent walked from Borinage to Brussels: this was his way of punishing himself for the failure of his missionary work.
“The Artist on the Way to Work” (1888)
The Face of Madness
Vincent van Gogh tortured himself with sleepless nights, excessive smoking, a passion for absinthe, and venereal diseases. By the age of 30, the artist had ruined his body to the state of an old man: he had destroyed his stomach and lost most of his teeth due to poor nutrition, became impotent at an early age, and severely damaged his mental health. Among the thirty versions of his diagnosis are affective (manic-depressive) organic psychosis, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and chronic depression. With such a “bouquet” of ailments, he drank strong coffee by the liter while working on the “Sunflowers” series, as he claimed that only in extreme excitement could he reach the “height of yellow paint” necessary for his creativity. And perhaps he experienced the peak of madness precisely in the “Yellow House” – during Paul Gauguin’s visit.
“The Yellow House” (1888)
Vincent van Gogh assigned the most important role to his friend in the idea of creating a “unified painting” and his future “Studio of the South” – a brotherhood of like-minded artists who would work for new generations. As always, his unwavering brother Theo agreed to finance the project. He also covered the costs of Vincent’s friend’s visit to Arles. When Paul Gauguin arrived on October 25, 1888, witnesses reported that van Gogh “looked like a mortal sin.” A local resident described the visitor to her father’s shop as “poorly dressed, dirty, and unfriendly.” According to a neighbor, the creator reeked of alcohol, and he himself had a “disgusting temperament.” It’s no wonder that quarrels erupted between the artists.
“Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin” (1888)
Why Did Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear?
The full truth about that fateful conflict on Christmas Eve, December 23, remains unknown to this day. During another attack of mental disorder, van Gogh, in a fit of rage, lunged at his friend (even while he was sleeping) with a razor in hand. Gauguin managed to wake up in time and stop the attack. He then immediately left, and van Gogh, according to the popular version, in remorse cut off his earlobe that same night (and allegedly even brought this piece of flesh to a local bar to show the prostitutes). According to another version, van Gogh was wounded by the skilled fencer Gauguin in self-defense, and the weapon was thrown into the river during his hasty departure. It is known that the next day, Vincent was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where no one was allowed to visit him in the locked ward.
“Self-Portrait with Cut Off Ear and Pipe” (1889)
During periods of remission, Vincent van Gogh was allowed to work in the workshop, but the townspeople signed a petition to the mayor demanding to isolate the scandalous artist from them. A place for the outcast was found in a psychiatric facility in the neighboring town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, near Arles. From May 1889, the man who would influence 20th-century painting lived for a year in a ward for the mentally ill. He created his famous “Starry Night” there from memory. The paintings produced in those conditions are characterized by high emotional tension.
“Starry Night” (1889)
At the end of July 1890, Vincent van Gogh painted the haunting “Wheat Field with Crows” in a single day. This followed a visit from Vincent to Theo a month after he and his wife and child had visited his brother. In Paris, the brothers had a falling out over money and the conditions for storing van Gogh’s paintings. Vincent felt like a burden for the first time and returned to Auvers-sur-Oise that same day. On July 27, after going out to paint with brushes and paints, the artist shot himself in the chest with a bird-scarer’s rifle.
“Wheat Field with Crows” (1890)
La tristesse durera pour toujours
…Only because the bullet struck below the heart was the artist able to make it back to his hotel room. The doctor called Theo, who arrived immediately and stayed by his brother’s side until his death, which resulted from blood loss. Van Gogh’s heart stopped beating at 1:30 AM on July 29, 1890 – 29 hours after the injury. During those one and a half days, Vincent smoked incessantly while Theo tried to give him hope for recovery. “Why save me?” the dying artist asked. “Sadness will last forever.”
Theo did not manage to organize a posthumous exhibition of Vincent’s works: falling ill with a nervous disorder, he himself died six months later. Today, the brothers are buried together. Critics ponder why Vincent van Gogh’s last unfinished painting was “The Roots of Trees,” created just hours before his suicide attempt. Perhaps this work was meant to express what he lacked within himself?
“Portrait of Dr. Gachet” (1890)
P.S. “Self-Portrait with Cut Off Ear and Pipe” was sold in the 1990s for $90 million, “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” for $82.5 million, “Wheat Field and Reaper” for $81.3 million, and “Wheat Field with Cypresses” for $57 million. In today’s equivalent, “Irises” and “Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin” are valued at over $100 million.