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Vincent van Gogh

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   Vincent van Gogh
   Self-portrait (1887)
   Birth name   Vincent van Gogh
   Born         March 30, 1853
                Zundert, The Netherlands
   Died         July 29, 1890
                Auvers-sur-Oise, France
   Nationality  Dutch
   Field        Painter
   Famous works The Potato Eaters, Falling Autumn Leaves, The Starry
                Night, Portrait of Dr. Gachet

   Vincent van Gogh ([væn goʊ]; Dutch: [vɪnˈsɛnt vɑnˈxɔx] ) ( March 30,
   1853 in Zundert – July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise) was a Dutch
   draughtsman and painter, classified as a Post-Impressionist. His
   paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most
   popular, and most expensive pieces. He suffered from recurrent bouts of
   mental illness — about which there are many competing theories — and
   during one episode cut off a part of his ear.

   Van Gogh spent his early life as an art dealer, teacher and preacher,
   and he only embarked upon a career as an artist in 1880, at the age of
   27. Initially he worked in sombre colours, until an encounter in Paris
   with Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism accelerated his artistic
   development. He produced all of his works, some 900 paintings and 1100
   drawings, during the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known
   works were produced in the final two years of his life, and in the two
   months before his death he painted 90 pictures.

   The central figure in Vincent van Gogh's life was his brother Theo, an
   art dealer with the firm of Goupil & Cie, who continually and
   selflessly provided financial support. Their lifelong friendship is
   documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards,
   which were published in 1914, by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow,
   who generously supported most of the early Van Gogh exhibitions with
   loans from the artist's estate.

   Van Gogh has been acknowledged as a pioneer of what came to be known as
   Expressionism and has had an enormous influence on 20th century art,
   especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists, and with a line
   that continues through to the Abstract Expressionism of Willem de
   Kooning and the British painter Francis Bacon.

Biography

Early life (1853 – 1869)

   Van Gogh's parents, Theodorus and Anna Cornelia, and their children
   Vincent, Anna, Theo, Lies, Wil and Cor (from left to right)
   Enlarge
   Van Gogh's parents, Theodorus and Anna Cornelia, and their children
   Vincent, Anna, Theo, Lies, Wil and Cor (from left to right)

   Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in Groot-Zundert, a village close to
   Breda in the Province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands.
   Vincent was the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh,
   a minister of the Dutch reformed church. He was given the same name as
   his grandfather—and a first brother stillborn exactly one year before.
   It has been 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). Art and religion were the two occupations to which
   the Van Gogh family gravitated.

   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 the only teacher was Catholic and there were around 200 pupils.
   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, Willem II College 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...."

Art dealer and preacher (1869 – 1878)

   In July 1869, at the age of 15, he obtained a position with the art
   dealer, Goupil & Cie in The Hague, through his Uncle Vincent ("Cent"),
   who had built up a good business which became a branch of the firm.
   After his training, Goupil transferred him to London in June 1873,
   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. He fell in love with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie
   Loyer, 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 sent him to Paris, where he became resentful at how
   art was treated as a commodity, and he manifested this to the
   customers. On April 1, 1876, it was agreed that his employment should
   be terminated.
   The house where Van Gogh stayed in Cuesmes in 1880; it was while living
   here that he decided to become an artist.
   Enlarge
   The house where Van Gogh stayed in Cuesmes in 1880; it was while living
   here that he decided to become an artist.

   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.
   His roommate from this time, a young teacher called Görlitz, later
   recalled that Vincent ate frugally, preferring to eat no meat. 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. 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 the Protestant missionary school
   (Vlaamsche Opleidingsschool) in Laeken, near Brussels.

Borinage and Brussels (1879 – 1880)

   In January 1879 Van Gogh got a temporary post as a missionary in the
   village of Petit Wasmes in the coal-mining district of Borinage in
   Belgium, following his father's profession, but taking Christianity to
   an 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; the baker's wife used to hear
   Vincent sobbing all night in the little hut. His choice of squalid
   living conditions did not endear him to the appalled church
   authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the
   priesthood." After this he walked to Brussels, returned briefly to the
   Borinage, to the village of Cuesmes, but acquiesced to pressure from
   his parents to come "home" to Etten. He stayed there until around March
   the following year, 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 asylum at Geel. Vincent fled back to Cuesmes where he lodged
   with a miner named Charles Decrucq, with whom 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)

   Still-Life, arranged by Anton Mauve and executed by Van Gogh, December
   1881
   Enlarge
   Still-Life, arranged by Anton Mauve and executed by Van Gogh, December
   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. 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). At the end of
   November he wrote a strong letter to Uncle Stricker, and then, very
   soon after, hurried to Amsterdam where he talked with Stricker again on
   several occasions, but Kee refused to see him at all. Her parents told
   him "Your persistence is disgusting". In desperation 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." 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 letters to Theo, made it clear
   that there was no question of Vincent and Kee marrying, given Vincent's
   inability to support himself financially. What he saw as the hypocrisy
   of his uncle and former tutor affected Vincent deeply. At Christmas he
   quarrelled violently with his father, even refusing a gift of money,
   and immediately left for The Hague.

Drenthe and The Hague (1881 – 1883)

   In January 1882 he settled in 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; she was known as Sien) and her young daughter. Van Gogh had met
   Sien towards the end of January. 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. On 2 July, Sien gave birth to a
   baby boy, Willem. When Vincent's father discovered the details of this
   relationship, considerable pressure was put on Vincent to abandon Sien
   and her children. Vincent was at first defiant in the face of his
   family's opposition.
   Vincent van Gogh: View from his atelier in The Hague, watercolour
   Enlarge
   Vincent van Gogh: View from his atelier in The Hague, watercolour

   His uncle Cornelis, an art dealer, commissioned 20 ink drawings of the
   city from him; they were completed by the end of May. In June Vincent
   spent 3 weeks in hospital suffering gonorrhoea. In the summer, he began
   to paint in oil.

   In autumn 1883, after a year with Sien, he abandoned her and the two
   children. Vincent had thought of moving the family away from the city,
   but in the end he made the break. 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. Willem remembered being taken to visit his mother in Rotterdam
   at around the age of 12, 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." Willem believed
   himself to be Van Gogh's son, but the timing of the birth makes this
   unlikely. In 1904 Sien drowned herself in the river Scheldt.

   Van Gogh 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)

   The Potato Eaters (1885)
   Enlarge
   The Potato Eaters (1885)

   In Nuenen, he devoted himself to drawing, paying boys to bring him
   birds' nests and rapidly 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 the hospital.

   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 pregnant, and the Catholic village priest forbade
   villagers from modelling for him.

   During his time in Nuenen Van Gogh's palette was of sombre earth tones,
   particularly dark brown, and he showed no sign of developing the vivid
   coloration that 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 completed numerous drawings and watercolours, and
   nearly 200 oil paintings.

Antwerp (1885 – 1886)

   Backyards in Antwerp, 1885, by Vincent van Gogh
   Enlarge
   Backyards in Antwerp, 1885, by Vincent van Gogh

   In November 1885 he moved to Antwerp and rented a little room above a
   paint dealer's shop in the Rue des Images. 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. 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 Ukiyo-e woodcuts in the docklands,
   which he imitated and incorporated into the background of some of his
   paintings. It was while he was living in Antwerp that Vincent began to
   drink absinthe heavily. He was treated by Dr Cavenaile whose surgery
   was near the docklands, possibly for syphilis; the treatment of alum
   irrigations and sitz baths was jotted down by Vincent in one of his
   notebooks.

   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)

   54, Rue Lepic , Paris
   Enlarge
   54, Rue Lepic , Paris

   In March 1886 he moved to Paris to study at Cormon's studio, and in May
   1886 his mother and sister Wil moved to Breda. The brothers first
   shared Theo's apartment Rue Laval on Montmartre. In June they took a
   larger flat at 54 Rue Lepic, further uphill. As there was no longer the
   need to communicate by letters, less is known about Van Gogh's time in
   Paris than earlier or later periods of his life.

   For some months Vincent worked at Cormon's studio where he frequented
   the circle of the British-Australian artist John Peter Russell, and met
   fellow students like Émile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who
   used to meet at the paint store run by Julien "Père" Tanguy, which was
   at that time the only place to view works by Paul Cézanne.
   Vincent van Gogh, pastel drawing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
   Enlarge
   Vincent van Gogh, pastel drawing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

   It was not difficult to see and study Impressionist works in Paris at
   this time. In 1886, for example, two large vanguard exhibitions were
   staged, the 8th and final exhibition of the Impressionists and an
   exhibition of the Artistes Indépendants. In both exhibitions
   Neo-Impressionism manifested for the first time, works of Georges
   Seurat and Paul Signac were the talk of the town. Though Theo, too,
   kept a stock of Impressionist paintings in his gallery on Boulevard
   Montmarte, by artists including Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Edgar
   Degas and Camille Pissarro, Vincent evidently had problems
   acknowledging these recent ways to see and paint. Conflicts arose, and
   at the turn of 1886 to 1887 Theo found shared life with Vincent "almost
   unbearable," but in spring 1887 they made peace. Then Vincent set out
   for a campaign in Asnières, where he became personally acquainted with
   Paul Signac. Vincent and his friend Emile Bernard, who lived with
   parents in Asnières, adopted elements of the "pointillé" (pointillism)
   style, where many small dots are applied to the canvas, resulting in an
   optical blend of hues, when seen from a distance. The theory behind
   this also stresses the value of complementary colours in proximity—for
   example, blue and orange—as such pairings enhance the brilliance of
   each colour by a physical effect on the receptors in the eye.

   In November 1887, Theo and Vincent met and befriended Paul Gauguin, who
   had just arrived in Paris. Towards the end of the year, Vincent
   arranged an exhibition of paintings by himself, Bernard, Anquetin and
   (probably) Toulouse-Lautrec in the Restaurant du Chalet, on Montmartre.
   There, Bernard and Anquetin sold their first painting, and Vincent
   exchanged work with Gauguin, who soon departed to Pont-Aven. But the
   discussions on art, artists and their social situation started during
   this exhibition continued, and expanded to visitors of the show like
   Pissarro and his son, Signac and Seurat. Finally in February 1888, when
   Vincent felt worn out from life in Paris, he left the city, having
   painted over 200 paintings during his two years there. Only hours
   before his departure, accompanied by Theo, he paid his first and only
   visit to Seurat in his atelier.

Arles (February 1888 – May 1889)

   Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, August 1888 (Neue Pinakothek,
   Munich).
   Enlarge
   Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, August 1888 (Neue Pinakothek,
   Munich).

   Van Gogh arrived on 21 February, 1888, at the railroad station in
   Arles, crossed Place Lamartine, entered the city through the Porte de
   la Cavalerie, and took quarters a few steps further, at the
   Hôtel-Restaurant Carrel, 30 Rue Cavalerie. 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 annual exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants. In
   April he was visited by the American painter, Dodge MacKnight, who was
   resident in Fontvieille nearby.
   The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, September
   1888.
   Enlarge
   The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, September
   1888.

   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 bill (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 Gare. 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. His major project at this time was a series of paintings
   intended to form the décoration for the Yellow House.

   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 beds, and he finally spent the
   first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House on September
   17.
   The Red Vineyard (November 1888), Pushkin Museum, Moscow). Sold to Anna
   Boch, 1890.
   Enlarge
   The Red Vineyard (November 1888), Pushkin Museum, Moscow). Sold to Anna
   Boch, 1890.

   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. 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 see 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)

   The Starry Night, June 1889 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
   Enlarge
   The Starry Night, June 1889 ( The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

   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. 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.

   In January 1890, his work was praised by Albert Aurier in the Mercure
   de France, and he was called a genius. In February, invited by Les XX,
   a society of avant-garde painters in Brussels, he participated in their
   annual exhibition. When, at the opening dinner, Henry de Groux, a
   member of Les XX, insulted Van Gogh's works, Toulouse-Lautrec demanded
   satisfaction, and Signac declared, he would continue to fight for Van
   Gogh's honour, if Lautrec should be surrendered. Later, when Van Gogh's
   exhibit was on display with the Artistes Indépendants in Paris, Monet
   said that his work was the best in the show.

Auvers-sur-Oise (May – July 1890)

   Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million, whereabouts now
   unknown
   Enlarge
   Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million, whereabouts now
   unknown

   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. Van Gogh's first impression was that Gachet was "sicker than I
   am, I think, or shall we say just as much." Later Van Gogh did two
   portraits of Gachet in oils, as well as a third—his only etching, and
   in all three emphasis is on Gachet's melancholic disposition.

   In his last weeks at Saint-Rémy Van Gogh's thoughts had been returning
   to his "memories of the North", and several of the approximately 70
   oils he painted during his 70 days in Auvers-sur-Oise—such as The
   Church at Auvers—are reminiscent of northern scenes.

   Wheat Field with Crows—an example of the unusual double square
   canvas-size he used in the last weeks of his life—with its turbulent
   intensity is often, but mistakenly, thought to be Van Gogh's last work
   (Jan Hulsker lists seven paintings after it). Daubigny's Garden 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 realizing 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"). Vincent 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.

Medical records

   Vincent and Theo van Gogh's graves at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.
   Enlarge
   Vincent and Theo van Gogh's graves at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.

   Van Gogh cut off part of his ear during some sort of seizure in
   December 1888. Mental problems afflicted him, particularly in the last
   few years of his life. During some of these periods he did not paint,
   or was not allowed to. 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.
   Still Life with Absinthe (1887)
   Enlarge
   Still Life with Absinthe (1887)

   Diagnoses which have been put forward include schizophrenia, bipolar
   disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe
   epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been
   the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia,
   and a fondness for alcohol, and absinthe in particular.

   Medical theories have even been proposed to explain Van Gogh's use of
   the color yellow. One theory holds that Van Gogh's colour vision might
   have been affected by his love of absinthe, a liquor that contains a
   neurotoxin called thujone. High doses of thujone can cause xanthopsia:
   seeing objects in yellow. However, a 1991 study indicated that an
   absinthe drinker would become unconscious from the alcohol content long
   before consuming enough thujone to develop yellow vision. Another
   theory suggests that Dr. Gachet might have prescribed digitalis to Van
   Gogh as a treatment for epilepsy. There is no direct evidence that he
   ever took digitalis, but he did paint Gachet with some cut flower
   stalks of Common Foxglove, the plant from which the drug is derived.
   Those who take large doses of digitalis often report yellow-tinted
   vision or yellow spots surrounded by coronas, like those in the The
   Starry Night.

   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 could have caused the halo effect seen
   in many of Van Gogh's works.

Work

   Van Gogh drew and painted water-colours, while he went to school,
   though very few of these works survive, and his authorship is
   challenged for many claimed to be from this period.

   When Van Gogh committed himself to art as an adult (1880), he started
   at the elementary level by copying the "Cours de dessin," edited by
   Charles Bargue and published by Goupil & Cie. Within his first two
   years he began to seek commissions, and in spring 1882, his uncle,
   Cornelis Marinus (owner of a renowned gallery of contemporary art in
   Amsterdam) asked him to provide drawings of the Hague; Van Gogh's work
   did not prove up to his uncle's expectations. Despite this, Uncle Cor
   (or "C.M." as he was referred to by his nephews) offered a second
   commission, specifying the subject matter in detail, but he was once
   again disappointed with the result.

   Nevertheless, Van Gogh persevered with his work. He improved the
   lighting of his atelier (studio) by installing variable shutters, and
   experimented with a variety of drawing materials. For more than a year
   he worked hard on single figures—highly elaborated studied in "black
   and white," which at the time gained him only criticism. Nowadays they
   are appreciated as his first masterpieces. In spring 1883, he embarked
   on multi-figure compositions, based on the drawings. He had some of
   them photographed, but when his brother commented that they lack
   liveliness and freshness, Vincent destroyed them and turned to oil
   painting.

   Already in autumn 1882, Theo had enabled him to do his first paintings,
   but the amount Theo could supply was soon spent. Then, in spring 1883,
   Vincent turned to renowned Hague School artists like Weissenbruch and
   Blommers, and received technical support from them, as well as from
   painters like De Bock and Van der Weele, both Hague School artists of
   the second generation. When he moved to Nuenen, after the intermezzo in
   Drenthe, he started various large size paintings, but he destroyed most
   of them himself. The Potato Eaters and its companion pieces, The Old
   Tower on the Nuenen cemetery and The Cottage, are the only ones that
   have survived. After a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Vincent
   was aware that many faults of his paintings were due to a lack of
   technical experience. So he went to Antwerp, and later to Paris to
   improve his technical skill.
   This piece from the Hermitage Museum was painted six weeks before the
   artist's death, at around eight o'clock on 16 June 1890, as astronomers
   determined by Venus's position in the painting [1].
   Enlarge
   This piece from the Hermitage Museum was painted six weeks before the
   artist's death, at around eight o'clock on 16 June 1890, as astronomers
   determined by Venus's position in the painting .

   More or less acquainted to impressionist and neo-impressionist
   techniques and theories, Van Gogh went to Arles to develop these new
   possibilities. But within a short time, older ideas on art and work
   reappeared: ideas like doing series on related or contrasting subject
   matter, which would reflect the purpose of art. Already in 1884 in
   Nuenen he had worked on a series that was to decorate the dining room
   of a friend in Eindhoven. Similarly in Arles, in spring 1888 he
   arranged his Flowering Orchards into triptychs, set out for a series of
   figures which found its end in The Roulin Family, and finally, when
   Gauguin had consented to work and live in Arles side by side with
   Vincent, he started to work on the The Décoration for the Yellow House,
   probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook. Most of his later
   work is elaborating or revising its fundamental settings.

   The paintings from the Saint-Rémy period are often characterized by
   swirls and spirals. The patterns of luminosity in these images have
   been shown to conform to Kolmogorov's statistical model of turbulence.

   At various times in his life Van Gogh painted the view from his window;
   this culminated in the great series of paintings of the wheat field he
   could see from his adjoining cells in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.

Notable works

   Many of Van Gogh's paintings, such as The Starry Night (1889) have
   become iconic. Some have established auction record prices, such as his
   Portrait of Dr. Gachet, sold for USD $82.5 million at Christie's, on
   May 15, 1990.

   The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the estate of Vincent and Theo
   van Gogh; it is, by the number of its holdings, the largest Van Gogh
   collection in the world. Considering the quality of its holdings, the
   Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (also in the Netherlands)—with some
   270 works, the second-largest Van Gogh collection—is thought by many to
   house the more important collection.

Legacy

   Since his first exhibits in the late 1880s, Van Gogh's fame grew
   steadily, among his colleagues and among art critics, dealers and
   collectors. After his death, memorial exhibitions were mounted in
   Brussels, Paris, The Hague and Antwerp. After the turn of the century,
   they were followed by vast retrospectives in Paris (1901 and 1905),
   Amsterdam (1905), Cologne (1912), New York City (1913) and Berlin
   (1914). These prompted an impact over a new generation of artists. The
   French Fauves, including Henri Matisse, extended both his use of colour
   and freedom in 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 based several paintings on reproductions of Van
   Gogh's The Painter on his Way to Work (which had been destroyed in
   World War II).

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