Vincent Willem van Gogh
And his tragic and beautiful story.
Vincent van Gogh was a post-Impressionist painter whose work — notable for its beauty, emotion and color — highly influenced 20th-century art. He struggled with mental illness and remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. Vincent van Gogh was dealt a poor hand in life, but that did not stop him from doing what he loved, which was notably, his art.
His early life:
At the age of 15, Van Gogh’s family was struggling financially, so he was forced to drop out of school and work. He got a job at his uncle Cornelis’ art dealership, Goupil & Cie., in The Hague.
In June 1873, van Gogh was transferred to London’s Groupil Gallery. There, he fell in love with the English culture. In his spare time, he visited art galleries and developed an interest in the works of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.
He also fell in love with Eugenie Loyer, the daughter of his landlady. When she turned down his marriage proposal, van Gogh had a breakdown. He threw away all of his books except the Bible and dedicated his life to God. He became enraged at work, warning customers not to buy “worthless art,” and was eventually fired.
please play this audio while reading (i am unable to put this into medium as i am unsure as of how to do so)
Vincent, the Preacher
Van Gogh then taught at a Methodist boys’ school and preached to the congregation. Despite growing up in a religious family, it wasn’t until this point that he seriously considered dedicating his life to the church.
He prepared to take the entrance exam to Amsterdam’s School of Theology in the hopes of becoming a minister. After a year of diligent study, he refused to take the Latin exams, referring to Latin as a “dead language” of the poor, and was thus denied entrance.
The evangelical committees were not as happy. They disagreed with van Gogh’s lifestyle, which had begun to resemble martyrdom. They refused to renew van Gogh’s contract, forcing him to seek another occupation.
Finding peace in his paintings
In the fall of 1880, van Gogh made the decision to relocate to Brussels and pursue his artistic career. Despite having no professional art training, Van Gogh’s brother Theo volunteered to financially support him.
He began taking classes on his own, studying literature such as Jean-François Millet’s Travaux des champs and Charles Bargue’s Cours de dessin.
Van Gogh’s paintings helped him maintain emotional balance. In 1885, he began work on what is regarded as his first masterwork, “Potato Eaters.” Theo, who was residing in Paris at the time, feared the picture would not be well received in the French city, where Impressionism had become popular.
Nonetheless, van Gogh decided to move to Paris, and showed up at Theo’s house uninvited. In the March of 1886, Theo welcomed his brother into his small apartment. It was in Paris, where he first saw Impressionist art, where he was fascinated with its color and light, that he began studying it.
The Arles
Van Gogh was captivated by Japanese art and started studying Eastern philosophy to improve his art and life. He wished to travel there, but Toulouse-Lautrec informed him that the light in Arles was identical to that in Japan.
In February 1888, van Gogh took a train to southern France. He moved into a well-known “yellow house” and spent his money on paint rather than food.
Vincent van Gogh created more than 2,100 works, including 860 oil paintings and over 1,300 watercolors, drawings, and sketches.
Several of his works are currently among the most expensive in the world, including “Irises,” which sold for a record $53.9 million, and “Portrait of Dr. Gachet,” which sold for $82.5 million. Some of Van Gogh’s most famous artworks include:
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Ear
In December of 1888, van Gogh was living on coffee, bread, and absinthe, where he soon felt sickly and strange. Soon, it became clear that, in addition to his physical illness, his mental health was deteriorating.
On the night of Dec. 23, 1888, in the throes of a mental breakdown, Vincent van Gogh cut off part of his own ear. Hours later, van Gogh went to the local brothel and paid for a prostitute named Rachel. With blood pouring from his hand, he offered her his ear, asking her to “keep this object carefully.”
He was found in his room the following morning by authorities, admitting him to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital.
On Christmas Day, Theo arrived to see Vincent, who was suffering from blood loss and violent seizures.
The doctors assured Theo that his brother would live and be well cared for, and Van Gogh was released from the hospital on January 7, 1889.
He remained alone and depressed, though. Seeking solace, he turned to painting and nature, but he could not find peace and was eventually hospitalized once more. He painted at the yellow house during the day and returned to the hospital at night.
(please use this to immerse yourself, you are able to inspect the paintings to look at the details even closer!)
Danger, and Asylum
Van Gogh decided to relocate to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence after Arles residents signed a petition declaring him dangerous.
On the 8th of May, 1889, he started painting in the hospital gardens. In November 1889, he was invited to show his paintings in Brussels. He submitted six paintings, including “Irises” and “Starry Night.”
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His end
On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh went out to paint in the morning with a loaded pistol and shot himself in the chest, but the bullet did not kill him. He was discovered bleeding in his room. He shot himself because he felt doomed about his future after his brother told him that his finances needed to be more strict. Van Gogh took this to mean that Theo no longer wanted to sell his artwork.
Van Gogh was admitted to a nearby hospital, where his doctors called Theo, who discovered his Vincent sitting up in bed and smoking a pipe. They spent the next few days talking together before Vincent asked Theo to bring him home.
On July 29, 1890, Vincent van Gogh died in the arms of his brother Theo. He was only 37 years old.
This was his story that I decided to share, as I experienced the Van Gogh exhibit in Singapore. I did not think a mans story could be this interesting, and thus, I decided to share it.
