Insane Genius: Vincent can Gogh

The suicide note of Vincent Willem van Gogh
“My dear brother,
Thanks for your kind letter and for the 50-fr note in contained. There are many things I should like to write you about but I feel it useless. I hope you have found those worthy gentlemen favorably disposed towards you. Your reasurring me as to the peacefuless of your household was hardly worth the trouble, I think having seen the weal and woe of it myself. And I quite agree with you that rearing boy on the fourth floor is hell for you as well as Jo. Since the thing that matters most is going well why should I say more about things of less importance? My word, before we have a chance to talk buisness more collectedly, we shall probably have a long way to go, the other painters, whatever they think, instinctly keep themselves at a distance from discussions about the actual trade. Well, the truth is, we can only make our pictures speak. But yet, my dear brother, there is this that I have always told you, and I repeat it once more with all the earnestness that can be expressed by any effort on a mind diligently fixed on trying to do as well as possible - I tell you again that I shall always consider you to be something more than a simple dealer in Corots, that through my meditation you have your part in the actual production of some canvases, which will retain their calm even in the catastrope. For this is what we have to go to, and this is all or at least the main thing I can have to tell you at a moment of comparitive crisis. At a moment when things are very strained between dealers in pictures of dead artists and living artists. Well, my own work, I am risking my life for it and my reason has held foundered because of it - that’s all right - but you are not among dealers in men as far as I know, and you can still choose your side, I think, acting with humanity, but que veux-tu? (what do you want?) (Kimmelman 23)
End of note.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a post-impressionist painter of Dutch origin whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color, had a far reaching influence on 20th-century art. He is known widely today as one of the best artists of modern times, with 2,100 artworks, each of them being extremely valuable today,most expensive The Portrait of Dr.Gachet selling for 134.6 million. Vincent though, would have never thought this possible. During his life time he was a failure, or at least he thought he was, selling only one painting in his life and never being recognized for the genius he was, which all led to his suicide in 1890. Van Gogh was born the eldest child to Theodore van Gogh and Anna Cornelius Carbentus on March 30, 1853. Vincent had one older brother but he was stillborn. Coincedently he had been born on the same date one year prior to our Vincents birth. Some writers like to dwell strongly on this fact and call Vincent the “replacement child” but there is no evidence of this. Five children were to come after him, one of his brothers,Theo, being his favorite and also a devoted friend. Vincent was a moody child, self willed, and often annoying. He had no interest in arts during his childhood, but he had his eccentricities. He was a serious sensitive boy preferring solitude to company, he seemed to love nature, which shows in his later artwork, and spent alot of his time outdoors. He is remebered by his sister, Wil Jacoba, to “dress quite oddly” and have strange eating habits. When Vincent turned 16 his uncle invited him to work as a junior clerk at his art firm, the Hague. We can only assume he worked there for three undocumented years. The next place he showed up was in London, which we know from his first letter, of many, to his brother Theo. In this letter he tells of his move to London and his work there. Soon after he speaks of a great depression that happened to him because his long term infatutation turned him away. For months he remained gloomy and renounced social life. His thoughts began to turn towards religion, and he lost any interest that he had in his job. Instead he decided to become an Evangelist in a miserably poor mining district in Belgium. There he became greatly engrossed in his work, so much that he became poor himself. His coworkers though, thought he was getting much too involved with the poor people themselves and wrote to the head church telling them of Vincents actions. Soon thereafter he was dismissed from the Church. This dismissal caused him to fall in depression again and he abandoned all religious beliefs, becoming instead an artist at age 27. He began to throw himself into his work painting for hours with no breaks, yet still gained no recognition besides that from his brother. Theo really was his only fan, even supporting his work, he believed in the genius that only he saw within his brother. Vincent however was again suffering depression from another ill-fated infatuation and took to living with a prostitute for two years. Vincents father heard about his outrageous actions and talked about putting him in an insane asylum, Theo told his brother about their fathers plans and to be ready to flee in case. But before his father could carry out his threat he passed away on his doorstep after returning home from a walk. Vincent remained devoted greatly to his art work, and moved to Paris to study with other artists. While there he began to suffer from minor paroxyms, but even though he was becoming ill, Vincent remained alcoholic and continued to smoke regularly. He was also known to be untidy, quarrellsome, and generally not easy to get along with. In a letter, Theo argues that Vincent is a harm to himself and is his own enemy. By 1888, van Gogh was an accomplished artist although not recognized and still dependent on Theo for financial support. Then ,while in Arles, Vincent’s illness evolved and reached physchotic dimensions for the first time. “I was surely about to suffer a stroke when I left Paris, it affected me a quite a bit when I had to stop drinking and smoking, as I began to think instead of knocking the thoughts out of my head,” (Dietrich 3) said Vincent in a letter to Theo. I’m sure these words - indicating self harm- disturbed his brother quite a bit. Vincent continued to have fits of anxiety, depression, emptiness, violence and fatigue. Of course his illness which was of the body as well of the mind made him very unhapppy and he admitted in another letter to his brother “I have a terrible need - shall I dare say it? - yes, of religion” This terribly unhappy man wanted something to help fill the hole within him and had tried a host of different things to help fill it, yet still, as he himself said on his death bed, “La tristesse durea toujours” (The sadness will last forever) and for him it definately did. In the winter of 1888, Vincent convinced his old assistant and fellow artist, Gaugin, to join him and establish an art studio. Vincent was very lonely and no doubt badly wanted company, so thought this arrangement was for the best. But the two artists quarreled endlessly about a multitude of things and on Christmas Eve, Gaugin announced he was going to move out. At this van Gogh fell into a fit of anger and threw a glass bottle at Gaugin’s face. Vincent then followed him into the night and approached him with a razor, suddenly he realized his actions and became repelled with himself, went home, and cut off part of his earlobe, which he then presented to his favorite prositute, Rachel, after the manner of the bullfight ritual. (the champion of a bullfight, would present the earlobe of the bull he killed to the lady of his choice). The next morning the police were alerted and he was brought to the hospital where his ear was bandaged. This is when he painted the portrait, Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe. After this incident he was in and out of the hospital with constant fits. He experienced extreme terrifying hallucinations and severe agitation. Van gogh, obviously thinking he was going insane, admitted himself into an asylum. There he continued his artwork producing about 300 pieces. While there he painted his most famous work Starry Night in June, 1889. Van Gogh was discharged from the asylum in May 1890 and judged cured. He spent the last ten weeks of his life in Auvers, Paris. He had finally sold a painting and his art was starting to gain recognition. Vincent contiuned to work at a furious pace as if trying to prove something. Earlier that summer there had been a fall-out between him and Theo, and he believed himself to be a great burden. His depression is shown in one of his last paintings, Wheat Field with Crows, where he pictures a starless sky with black birds, and three paths that lead no where. Before painting this, he borrowed a gun from one of his neighbours to “scare the crows away” he had said. Three days later he shot himself in the lower chest in a field outside Auvers after sending his suicide note to Theo. He died two days later with Theo by his side. “I couldn’t take it any longer so I shot myself” (Dietrich 4) he told a friend. It has been assumed that his last work Field with Stacks of Wheat, a bright picture of grain harvested and sheaved, may have been a symbol of work completed. “An anaylis of van Gogh’s illness must not obscure the fact that he had great strengths” Tralbault commented on Starry Night, “The fire that smoldered within him and broke out in halluciantions of the senses, has here been set down on canvases in a most striking fashion, with that painting he seems to be telling us ‘This is where I come from, this is where I am now, and here is my universe of overpowering storms’” (Dietrich 5) Epilogue: Theo died from a kidney disease only 6 months after Vincent, (cause of death also said to be from sadness). His widow, Johanna van Gogh, made sure the treasure of art Theo had collected from Vincent was passed on to posterity. Within a few years of Vincent van Gogh’s death, he was recognized and acknowledged as one of the best and most famous artists of modern times.