 Van Gogh's grave | |
| Date | July 29, 1890; 134 years ago |
|---|---|
| Time | 1:30 am |
| Location | Auvers-sur-Oise, France |
| Cause | Presumed suicide |
| Motive | Mental illness |
The death of Vincent van Gogh occurred in the early morning of 29 July, 1890 in his room at the Auberge Ravoux, in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, after presumably shooting himself two days earlier.
As early as 1883, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: "... as to the time I still have ahead of me for work, I think I may safely presume that my body will hold up for a certain number of years... between 7-10, say", "... I should plan for a period of between 5 and 10 years..." [1] Van Gogh authority Ronald de Leeuw interprets this as van Gogh "voic[ing] the presentiment that he had at most another ten years of life in which to realize his ideals." [2]
In 1889, van Gogh experienced a deterioration in his mental health. Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cut off part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. As a result of incidents in Arles leading to a public petition, he was admitted to a hospital. His condition improved, and he was ready to be discharged by March 1889, coinciding with the wedding of his brother Theo to Johanna Bonger. However, at the last moment, his resolution failed him, and he confided to Frédéric Salles, who served as an unofficial chaplain to the hospital's Protestant patients, that he wanted to be confined to an asylum. [3] At Salles' suggestion van Gogh chose an asylum in nearby Saint-Rémy. [4] [5] Theo originally resisted this choice, even suggesting that Vincent rejoin Paul Gauguin in Pont Aven, but was eventually won over, agreeing to pay the asylum fees (requesting the cheapest third-class accommodation). Vincent entered the asylum in early May 1889. [6] [7] His mental condition remained stable for a while, and he was able to work en plein air , producing many of his most iconic paintings, such as The Starry Night , at this time. However at the end of July, following a trip to Arles, he suffered a serious relapse that lasted a month. He made a good recovery, only to suffer another relapse in late December 1889, and early the following January an acute relapse while delivering a portrait of Madame Ginoux to her in Arles. [8] [9] This last relapse, described by Jan Hulsker as his longest and saddest, lasted until March 1890. In May 1890 Vincent was discharged from the asylum (the last painting he produced at the asylum was At Eternity's Gate , an image of desolation and despair), [10] and after spending a few days with Theo and Jo in Paris, Vincent went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise, a commune north of Paris popular with artists. [11]
Shortly before leaving Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh told how he was suffering from his stay in the hospital: "The surroundings here are beginning to weigh me down more than I can say... I need some air, I feel overwhelmed by boredom and grief." [12]
On arriving at Auvers, van Gogh's health was still not very good. Writing on 21 May to Theo he comments: "I can do nothing about my illness. I am suffering a little just now—the thing is that after that long seclusion, the days seem like weeks to me." [13] But by 25 May, the artist was able to report to his mother that his health had improved and that the symptoms of his disease had disappeared. [14] His letters to his sister Wilhelmina on 5 June and to Theo and his wife, Jo, on about 10 June indicate a continued improvement, his nightmares almost having disappeared. [15] [16]
On about 12 June, he wrote to his friends Mr and Mrs Ginoux in Arles, telling them how his health had suffered at Saint-Rémy but had since improved: "But latterly I had contracted the other patients' disease to such an extent that I could not be cured of my own. The other patients' society had a bad influence on me, and in the end, I was unable to understand it. Then I felt I had better try a change, and for that matter, the pleasure of seeing my brother, his family and my painter friends again has done me a lot of good, and I am feeling completely calm and normal." [17]
Furthermore, an unsent letter to Paul Gauguin which van Gogh wrote around 17 June is quite positive about his plans for the future. After describing his recent colourful wheat studies, he explains: "I would like to paint some portraits against a very vivid yet tranquil background. There are greens of a different quality, but of the same value, to form a whole of green tones, which by its vibration will make you think of the gentle rustle of the ears swaying in the breeze: it is not at all easy as a colour scheme." [18] On 2 July, writing to his brother, van Gogh comments: "I am also trying to do as well as I can, but I will not conceal from you that I hardly dare count on always being in good health. And if my disease returns, you will forgive me. I still love art and life very much..." [19]
The first sign of new problems was revealed in a letter van Gogh wrote to Theo on 10 July. He first states, "I am very well, I am working hard, have painted four studies and two drawings," but then goes on to say, "I think that we must not count on Dr Gachet at all. First of all, he is sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much, so that's that... I don't know what to say. Certainly, my last attack, which was terrible, was in a large measure due to the influence of the other patients." Later in the letter he adds, "For myself, I can only say at the moment that I think we all need rest—I feel like - a failure (in French Je me sens - raté)." In an even more despairing tone, he adds: "And the prospect grows darker, I see no happy future at all." [20]
In another letter to Theo on about 10 July, van Gogh explains: "I try to be fairly good-humoured in general, but my life too is threatened at its very root, and my step is unsteady too." He then comments on his current work: "I have painted three more large canvases. They are vast stretches of corn under troubled skies, and I did not have to go out of my way very much in order to try to express sadness and extreme loneliness." But he adds, "I'm fairly sure that these canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words, that is, how healthy and invigorating I find the countryside." [21]
In a letter to his mother and sister written around 12 July, van Gogh again appears to be in a far more positive frame of mind: "I myself am quite absorbed in that immense plain with wheat fields up as far as the hills, boundless as the ocean, delicate yellow, delicate soft green, the delicate purple of a tilled and weeded piece of ground, with the regular speckle of the green of flowering potato plants, everything under a sky of delicate tones of blue, white, pink and violet. I am in a mood of almost too much calm, just the mood needed for painting this." [23]
Theo recognised that Vincent was experiencing problems. In a letter dated 22 July 1890, he wrote, "I hope, my dear Vincent, that your health is good, and since you say that you write with difficulty, and don't talk about your work I am a little afraid that there is something troubling you or not going right." He went on to suggest that he consult his physician, Paul Gachet. [24]
On 23 July, van Gogh wrote to his brother, stressing his renewed involvement in painting: "I am giving my canvases my undivided attention. I am trying to do as well as certain painters whom I have greatly loved and admired... Perhaps you will take a look at this sketch of Daubigny's garden—it is one of my most carefully thought-out canvases. I am adding a sketch of some old thatched roofs and the sketches of two size 30 canvases representing vast fields of wheat after the rain." [25]
He returned to some of his earlier roots and subjects and did many renditions of cottages.
Adeline Ravoux, [26] the innkeeper's daughter who was only 13 at the time, clearly recalled the incidents of July 1890. In an account written when she was 76, reinforced by her father's repeated reminders, she explains how on 27 July, Van Gogh left the inn after breakfast. When he had not returned by dusk, given the artist's regular habits, the family got worried. He finally arrived after nightfall, probably around 9 pm, holding his stomach. Adeline's mother asked whether there was a problem. Van Gogh started to answer with difficulty, "No, but I have..." as he climbed the stairs up to his room. Her father thought he could hear groans and found Van Gogh curled up in bed. When he asked whether he was ill, Van Gogh showed him a wound near his heart, admitting that during the night, he had set out for the wheat field where he had recently been painting and attempted suicide by shooting himself.
Adeline goes on to explain how her father sent Anton Hirschig, also a Dutch artist staying in the inn, to alert the local physician, who proved to be absent. He then called on Gachet, van Gogh's friend and physician, who dressed the wound but left immediately, considering it a hopeless case. Her father and Hirschig spent the night at van Gogh's bedside. The artist sometimes smoked, and sometimes groaned but remained silent almost all night long, dozing off from time to time. The following morning, two gendarmes visited the inn, questioning van Gogh about his attempted suicide. In response, he simply replied: "My body is mine and I am free to do what I want with it. Do not accuse anybody, it is I that wished to commit suicide." [27]
As soon as the post office opened on Monday morning, Adeline's father sent a telegram to van Gogh's brother, Theo, who arrived by train during the afternoon. Adeline Ravoux explains how the two of them watched over van Gogh who fell into a coma and died at about one o'clock in the morning; [27] his death certificate records the time of death as 1:30 am. [28] In a letter to his sister Lies, Theo told of his brother's feelings just before his death: "He himself wanted to die. When I sat at his bedside and said that we would try to get him better and that we hoped that he would then be spared this kind of despair, he said, "La tristesse durera toujours" (The sadness will last forever). I understood what he wanted to say with those words." [29]
In her memoir of December 1913, Theo's wife Johanna refers first to a letter from her husband after he arrives at Vincent's bedside: "He was glad that I came and we are together all the time... Poor fellow, very little happiness fell to his share, and no illusions are left him. The burden grows too heavy at times, he feels so alone..." And after his death, he wrote: "One of his last words was, 'I wish I could pass away like this,' and his wish was fulfilled. A few moments and all was over. He had found the rest he could not find on earth..." [28]
Émile Bernard, an artist and friend of van Gogh, who arrived in Auvers on 30 July for the funeral, tells a slightly different story, explaining that van Gogh went out into the countryside on a Sunday evening, "left his easel against a haystack and went behind the château and fired a revolver shot at himself." He tells how van Gogh had carried out these acts deliberately and with absolute lucidity. When Dr Gachet told him that he still hoped to save his life, van Gogh replied, 'Then I'll have to do it over again.'" [30]
In addition to the account given by Adeline Ravoux, Émile Bernard's letter to Albert Aurier provides details of the funeral which was held in the afternoon of 30 July 1890. Van Gogh's body was set out in "the painter's room" where it was surrounded by the "halo" of his last canvases and masses of yellow flowers including dahlias, and sunflowers. His easel, folding stool and brushes stood before the coffin. Among those who arrived in the room were artists Lucien Pissarro and Auguste Lauzet. The coffin was carried to the hearse at three o'clock. The company climbed the hill outside Auvers in hot sunshine, with Theo "sobbing pitifully." It was "a small new cemetery strewn with new tombstones... on the little hill above the fields that were ripe for harvest." Dr. Gachet, trying to suppress his tears, could only say a few words of praise, expressing his admiration for an "honest man and a great artist... who had only two aims, art and humanity." [27] [30]
In 2011, authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith published a biography, Van Gogh: The Life, in which they challenged the conventional account of the artist's death. In the book, Naifeh and Smith argue that it was unlikely for van Gogh to have killed himself, noting the upbeat disposition of the paintings he created immediately preceding his death; furthermore, in private correspondence, van Gogh described suicide as sinful and immoral. The authors also question how van Gogh could have travelled the mile-long (about 2 km) distance between the wheat field and the inn after sustaining the fatal stomach wound, how van Gogh could have possibly obtained a gun despite his well-known mental health problems, and why van Gogh's painting gear was never found by the police. [31]
Naifeh and Smith developed an alternative hypothesis in which van Gogh did not commit suicide but rather was a possible victim of accidental manslaughter or foul play. [32] Naifeh and Smith point out that the bullet entered van Gogh's abdomen at an oblique angle, not straight as might be expected from a suicide. They claim that van Gogh was acquainted with the boys who may have shot him, one of whom was in the habit of wearing a cowboy suit, and had gone drinking with them. Naifeh said: "So you have a couple of teenagers who have a malfunctioning gun, you have a boy who likes to play cowboy, and you have three people probably all of whom had too much to drink." Naifeh concluded that "accidental homicide" was "far more likely". [33] The authors contend that art historian John Rewald visited Auvers in the 1930s, and recorded the version of events that is widely believed. The authors postulate that after he was fatally wounded, van Gogh welcomed death and believed the boys had done him a favour, hence his widely quoted deathbed remark: "Do not accuse anyone... it is I who wanted to kill myself." [33]
On 16 October 2011, an episode of the TV news magazine 60 Minutes aired a report exploring the contention of Naifeh and Smith's biography. [31] Some credence has been given to the theory by van Gogh experts, who cite an interview with French businessman René Secrétan recorded in 1956, in which he admitted to tormenting—but not shooting—the artist. Nonetheless, this new biographical account has been greeted with some scepticism. [34]
Sceptic Joe Nickell also was not convinced and offered alternative explanations. [35] [36] In the July 2013 issue of the Burlington Magazine , [37] two of the research specialists from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp, present a theory that at the time of his death, van Gogh was in a troubled state and in danger of suicide. They also present alternative explanations to the theories presented by Naifeh and Smith. [38]
In 2014, at Smith and Naifeh's request, a chief medical examiner Vincent Di Maio reviewed the forensic evidence surrounding van Gogh's shooting. Di Maio noted that to shoot himself in the left abdomen van Gogh would have had to have held the gun at a very awkward angle and that there would have been black powder burns on his hands and tattooing and other marks on the skin around the wound, none of which is noted in the contemporary report. Di Maio gave his conclusion that
"It is my opinion that, in all medical probability, the wound incurred by van Gogh was not self-inflicted. In other words, he did not shoot himself." [39]
and to which Nickell responded, unconvinced. Nickell emphasized that van Gogh’s declining mental state made him more prone to attempt suicide and that the awkward nature of the gun was probably due to van Gogh being uncertain about what to do. In addition, any gunpowder residue may have been lost due to van Gogh using his hands to search for the gun on the ground. He also stated that Di Maio may have been influenced by the two biographers to come to his conclusion and that confirmation bias may have played a role in the three men's thought process. [40]
The 2017 film Loving Vincent drew heavily on Smith and Naifeh's theory; it is also the account presented in the 2018 film At Eternity's Gate .
Van Gogh was particularly productive during his last few weeks in Auvers, completing over 70 paintings as well as several drawings and sketches. They cover landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Some of them appear to reflect his increasing loneliness while many others, with their bright colours, convey a more positive attitude. The letters he wrote during his last two months offer a considerable amount of background on van Gogh's relentless will to paint coupled with frequent periods of despondency.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37. During his lifetime, only one of van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold.
Theodorus van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer and the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh. Known as Theo, his support of his older brother's artistic ambitions and well-being allowed Vincent to devote himself entirely to painting. As an art dealer, Theo van Gogh played a crucial role in introducing contemporary French art to the public.
The Church at Auvers is an oil painting created by Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh in June 1890 which now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France.
Auvers-sur-Oise is a commune in the department of Val-d'Oise, on the northwestern outskirts of Paris, France. It is located 27.2 km (16.9 mi) from the centre of Paris. It is associated with several famous artists, the most prominent being Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). This was the place where van Gogh died and where he and his brother, Theo, were buried.
Vincent van Gogh lived during the Impressionist era. With the development of photography, painters and artists turned to conveying the feeling and ideas behind people, places, and things rather than trying to imitate their physical forms. Impressionist artists did this by emphasizing certain hues, using vigorous brushstrokes, and paying attention to highlighting. Vincent van Gogh implemented this ideology to pursue his goal of depicting his own feelings toward and involvement with his subjects. Van Gogh's portraiture focuses on color and brushstrokes to demonstrate their inner qualities and Van Gogh's own relationship with them.
Daubigny's Garden, painted three times by Vincent van Gogh, depicts the enclosed garden of Charles-François Daubigny, a painter whom Van Gogh admired throughout his life.
Johanna Gezina van Gogh-Bonger was a multilingual Dutch editor who translated the hundreds of letters of her first husband, art dealer Theo van Gogh, and Vincent van Gogh.
Antonius (Anton) Matthias Hirschig, also known as Tony or Tom, was a Dutch artist who, as a young man, lodged with Vincent van Gogh at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise at the time of Van Gogh's death in 1890.
The Auberge Ravoux is a French historic landmark located in the heart of the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. It is known as the House of Van Gogh because the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh spent the last 70 days of his life as a lodger at the auberge. During his stay at Auvers, Van Gogh created more than 80 paintings and 64 sketches before shooting himself in the chest on 27 July 1890 and dying two days later on 29 July 1890. The auberge (inn) has been restored as a museum and tourist attraction. The room where Van Gogh lived and died has been restored and can be viewed by the public.
Girl in White was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, during the last months of his life. Girl in White has been part of the Chester Dale Collection in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. since 1963.
Vincent van Gogh enjoyed making Paintings of Children. He once said that it's the only thing that "excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else." Painting children, in particular represented rebirth and the infinite. Over his career Van Gogh did not make many paintings of children, but those he completed were special to him. During the ten years of Van Gogh's career as a painter, from 1881 to 1890, his work changed and grew richer, particularly in how he used color and techniques symbolically or evocatively.
Dr. Gachet's Garden in Auvers and Marguerite Gachet in the Garden were both painted in 1890 by Vincent van Gogh in the gardens of his homeopathic physician, Dr. Paul Gachet. Both paintings reside at the Musée d'Orsay.
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh is a collection of 903 surviving letters written (820) or received (83) by Vincent van Gogh. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo. The collection also includes letters van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil and other relatives, as well as between artists such as Paul Gauguin, Anthon van Rappard, and Émile Bernard.
Thatched Cottages at Cordeville, 1890 or Chaumes de Cordeville à Auvers-sur-Oise is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in May 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman is a watercolour painting by Vincent van Gogh that he made in May 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
Tree Roots is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.
Landscape with a Carriage and a Train is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in June 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
Houses at Auvers is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. It was created towards the end of May or beginning of June 1890, shortly after he had moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town northwest of Paris, France.
Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds is an 1890 oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. The painting measures 50.4 cm × 101.3 cm. It depicts a relatively flat and featureless landscape with fields of green wheat, under a foreboding dark blue sky with a few heavy white clouds. The horizon divides the work almost into two, with shades of green and yellow below and shades of blue and white above. Since 1973 it has been on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Poppy Field is an 1890 painting by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, painted around a month before his death during his stay in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. It has been described as "a composition that verges on the abstract" and shows marked difference from a 1888 painting of the same subject that now is in the Van Gogh Museum, in Amsterdam. Spending many years in Germany, the painting now hangs in the Kunstmuseum, in The Hague.
