An imagined portrait1853–1890
Van Gogh, who decided at 27 to become a painter
I always draw what I can't do yet.Game 9 · Reconstruction; paraphrase; Letter 528 (1885); the idea of working twice as hard after starting late is from letter 312 (February 1883)
Vincent van Gogh was a painter born in the Netherlands in 1853. After working as an art dealer's clerk, an assistant teacher, a bookshop assistant and a lay preacher, he decided at twenty-seven to become a painter. Record
He lived as a painter for about ten years. The Van Gogh Museum counts more than 850 paintings and nearly 1,300 works on paper by him. Record
In Paris he collected and copied Japanese prints, and in Arles and Saint-Rémy in the south of France he painted the Sunflowers and The Starry Night. Record
He wrote many letters to his brother Theo and to other family and friends. Of the letters he wrote, 820 survive. Record
He died in July 1890, aged thirty-seven, at Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. It was just when reviews and exhibitions were beginning to make his paintings known. Record
On 30 March he was born in Zundert, a village in Dutch Brabant, the son of the minister Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Carbentus. Exactly one year earlier, on the same day, a brother with the same name had been stillborn. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Early Years' · birth registration, West Brabant Archives (Open Archieven, 'Vincent Willem van Gogh, 30 maart 1853, Zundert')
At sixteen he joined the Hague branch of the international art dealers Goupil & Cie as an apprentice clerk. His uncle had arranged the post. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Early Years' · vangoghletters.org chronology (30 July 1869, apprentice at the Hague branch)
He moved to work at Goupil's London branch (1873) and then its Paris branch (1875), and was dismissed with effect from 1 April 1876. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Search for His Purpose in Life' · vangoghletters.org chronology (London, May 1873; notice of dismissal on 4 January 1876 — letter 65)
He worked as an assistant teacher at a boarding school in England and as a bookshop assistant in Dordrecht, and in Amsterdam he studied for the entrance examination in theology but gave it up. He then worked as a lay preacher in the Borinage, a coal-mining region of Belgium, but his contract was not renewed. Record · Paraphrase
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Search for His Purpose in Life' · Van Gogh Museum FAQ, 'Why Did Van Gogh Become an Artist?' · vangoghletters.org chronology (Ramsgate 1876; Dordrecht and Amsterdam 1877; Borinage, December 1878)
In a letter to Theo of 24 September he wrote that he would take up again the pencil he had put down in his deep discouragement, and go back to drawing. In October he moved to Brussels and began to study art. The Van Gogh Museum explains that he decided at twenty-seven to become an artist. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 158 (Cuesmes, 24 September 1880, to Theo) · Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Search for His Purpose in Life' · vangoghletters.org chronology (in August 1880 he decided to become an artist, 'probably at Theo's urging'; Brussels in October — letters 156 and 159)
He learned to draw and paint at his parents' home in Etten and in The Hague. In The Hague the painter Anton Mauve, the husband of his cousin, taught him the basics of watercolour and oil painting. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's First Steps as an Artist' · vangoghletters.org chronology
In February he wrote to Theo that he felt he had to work twice as hard to make up for starting late. In August he wrote that he had started drawing relatively late, and estimated the time his body would hold out at, say, six to ten years. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 312 (The Hague, 11 February 1883, to Theo) · letter 371 (The Hague, on or about 7 August 1883, to Theo) — original text at vangoghletters.org
In December he moved to his parents' home in Nuenen and painted peasants and weavers. After his father died at the end of March 1885, he painted The Potato Eaters. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh as a Peasant Painter' · vangoghletters.org chronology (Nuenen, December 1883; lithograph of The Potato Eaters sent in May–June 1885)
In August he wrote to his friend, the painter Anthon van Rappard, that he always does what he cannot do yet, in order to learn to do it. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 528 (Nuenen, on or about 18 August 1885, to Van Rappard) — original text at vangoghletters.org
In November he went to Antwerp and attended the art academy, then at the end of February 1886 he came without warning to Theo's home in Paris. He never went back to the Netherlands. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh as a Peasant Painter' (quoting the letter of 28 February 1886) · vangoghletters.org chronology (Antwerp, 24 November 1885; Paris, on or about 28 February 1886)
In Paris he attended Fernand Cormon's studio and befriended Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and others, and his painting changed from dark colours to light ones. He collected Japanese prints with Theo, and in 1887 painted Flowering Plum Orchard and Bridge in the Rain after prints by Hiroshige. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Style: From Dark to Light' · Van Gogh Museum, 'Inspiration from Japan' · Van Gogh Museum collection s0115V1962 and s0114V1962 · vangoghletters.org chronology (Cormon's studio, March–June 1886)
On 20 February he arrived in Arles in the south of France. Dreaming of a 'studio of the South' where painters would work together, on 1 May he rented four rooms in the Yellow House on Place Lamartine. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'From Dark to Light' and 'Vincent van Gogh in the South of France' · vangoghletters.org chronology (Arles, 20 February 1888) · letter 602 (1 May 1888)
In August he painted the Sunflowers series to decorate the studio he would share with Gauguin. The Sunflowers in the National Gallery, London, is the work he called in his letters the 'fourth picture': fourteen flowers on a yellow background. Record
Letters 666 (21–22 August 1888) and 668 (23–24 August 1888, note 2) · National Gallery, London, NG3863 commentary
In September, after Theo wrote of Hokusai's waves in a letter, 'these waves are claws, the ship is caught in them', Van Gogh copied the words into his reply. The scholars of the letters edition take Theo to have meant Under the Wave off Kanagawa. Record · identifying the print is interpretation
Letter 676 (Arles, 8 September 1888), original "ces vagues sont des griffes, le vaisseau est pris là-dedans" · note 16 to the same letter ("Theo must have written about … The great wave")
On 23 October Gauguin came to the Yellow House. On 23 December, during an attack, Van Gogh cut off his own left ear, and the next day he was taken to hospital. Later he could remember almost nothing of it. Record
Van Gogh Museum FAQ, 'Why Did Vincent van Gogh Cut off His Ear?' · Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh in the South of France' · vangoghletters.org chronology (Gauguin's arrival, 23 October 1888; first attack, 23 December — letter 728)
On 8 May, at his own wish, he entered the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy. Despite repeated attacks he painted about 150 works in a year, and in June he painted The Starry Night. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Hospitalization' · vangoghletters.org chronology (8 May 1889, letter 769) · letter 760 (21 April 1889), note 4 · MoMA 472.1941 (June 1889)
In January the critic Albert Aurier published an article on him alone in the Mercure de France. Around the same time six of his paintings were shown at the exhibition of Les XX in Brussels, and the painter Anna Boch bought one of them, The Red Vineyard. In March ten of his works were shown at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Hospitalization' · vangoghletters.org chronology (Les XX, 28 January–23 February 1890, six works; bought by Anna Boch — letter 855) · letter 845, note 2 (Aurier, January 1890)
On 20 May he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and painted almost one work a day. On 27 July he shot himself in the chest in a field, and on 29 July he died with Theo at his side. On 30 July he was buried at Auvers. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Final Months' and 'Van Gogh's Death' · vangoghletters.org chronology (20 May, 27 July, 29 July and 30 July 1890)
Theo died in Utrecht on 25 January 1891. Theo's wife, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, took charge of the paintings and lent them to exhibitions, and in 1914 she first published Vincent's letters to Theo as a book. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'What Happened After Vincent Van Gogh's Death?' · vangoghletters.org chronology (25 January 1891)
On 2 June the Van Gogh Museum opened in Amsterdam, built on the collection that his nephew Vincent Willem van Gogh had handed over to a foundation. Record
Van Gogh Museum, 'What Happened After Vincent Van Gogh's Death?' · Van Gogh Museum, 'Without Family, No Museum'
At about thirty, Van Gogh wrote to his brother that he had to work twice as hard to make up for starting late, and that the feeling of being behind others of his age gave him no rest. In the summer of the same year he calmly estimated the time he had left, and wrote that he would do his work within that time. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 312 (11 February 1883) · letter 371 (on or about 7 August 1883)
He wrote to his friend the painter Van Rappard that there were things in drawing and painting he had firmly grasped, but that he always does what he cannot do yet, in order to learn to do it. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 528 (on or about 18 August 1885, to Van Rappard)
Van Gogh wrote that if we study Japanese art, we see a wise man who studies a single blade of grass. From that blade of grass he goes on to all the plants, to the seasons and landscapes, to animals and people, and life is too short to do it all, he said. The Van Gogh Museum explains that Japanese prints taught him a new way of looking at the world. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 686 (Arles, 23–24 September 1888) · Van Gogh Museum, 'Inspiration from Japan'
From Arles he wrote to his brother that he could do nothing about his paintings not selling, but that the day would come when people would see that they were worth more than the cost of the paint and the meagre living spent on them. Record · Paraphrase
Letter 712 (Arles, on or about 25 October 1888, to Theo) · Van Gogh Museum, 'What Happened After Vincent Van Gogh's Death?' (quotes the same passage)
I have the feeling that I have to work twice as hard to make up for starting late, and it’s the very sense that I’m behind others in my age that gives me no rest.
ik voel het zoo dat ik om in te halen wat ik laat begonnen ben, dubbel moet werken en ’t is juist het gevoel dat wat mijn leeftijd betreft ik bij anderen ten achter ben dat mij geen rust laat.
Not only did I start drawing relatively late, but on top of that I can’t count on living for a great many years, relatively speaking.
Niet alleen ben ik laat begonnen betrekkelijk met teekenen doch daar kon nog wel bijkomen dat ik betrekkelijk op zoo heel veel jaren leven niet mag rekenen.
But I keep on making what I can’t do yet in order to learn to be able to do it.
Maar ik maak steeds wat ik nog niet kan om het te leeren kunnen.
If we study Japanese art, then we see a man, undoubtedly wise and a philosopher and intelligent, who spends his time — on what? — studying the distance from the earth to the moon? — no; studying Bismarck’s politics? — no, he studies a single blade of grass.
Si on etudie l’art japonais alors on voit un homme incontestablement sage et philosophe et intelligent qui passe son temps – à quoi – à étudier la distance de la terre à la lune – non, à étudier la politique de Bismarck – non, il etudie un seul brin d’herbe.
I can do nothing about it if my paintings don’t sell. The day will come, though, when people will see that they’re worth more than the cost of the paint and my subsistence, very meagre in fact, that we put into them.
Je n’y puis rien que mes tableaux ne se vendent pas. Le jour viendra cependant où l’on verra que cela vaut plus que le prix de la couleur et de ma vie en somme très maigre que nous y mettons.
In the 1880s, when Van Gogh became a painter, the generation of painters after Impressionism was making new experiments with colour and brushwork in Europe. After Japan opened its doors to trade in 1859, Japanese prints and crafts poured into Europe, and a taste for things Japanese (Japonisme) became fashionable in Paris. Van Gogh could devote himself to painting thanks to the money for living sent by his brother Theo, who managed a gallery in Paris, and in return he sent Theo the paintings he made.
After his death, as Theo's wife Jo lent his paintings to exhibitions and published his letters, his name spread widely. Tate explains that Fauvism and Expressionism took cues from his painting. The Van Gogh Museum, opened in 1973, looks after his and Theo's collection, and anyone can read his letters, in the original with notes, in the online edition produced jointly by the Van Gogh Museum and the Huygens Institute.
MythVan Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime.
FactThe Van Gogh Museum explains that the exact number is not known, but that it was in any case more than one or two. He first sold a painting to the Paris dealer Tanguy, Theo sold one to a gallery in London, and Anna Boch bought The Red Vineyard. His uncle Cor also once commissioned drawings of views of The Hague.
Van Gogh Museum FAQ, 'How Many Paintings Did Vincent Sell during His Lifetime?' · vangoghletters.org chronology (bought by Anna Boch, 1890)MythVan Gogh received no recognition at all in his lifetime.
FactIn his last two years he showed paintings at exhibitions in Paris and Brussels, and in January 1890 an article on him alone appeared. The Van Gogh Museum explains that his work was then beginning to be recognized. His name spread widely only after his death.
Van Gogh Museum, 'Vincent van Gogh's Hospitalization' · Van Gogh Museum FAQ, 'How Did Vincent van Gogh Become Famous after His Death?'MythGauguin cut off Van Gogh's ear with a blade.
FactThe German art historians Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans put forward this claim in a book published in 2008, and it was widely reported in the English-language press in 2009. The Van Gogh Museum holds to the account that Van Gogh cut off his own ear during an attack. As to how much he cut, a drawing made in 1930 by Félix Rey, the doctor who treated him, shows the ear cut off almost entirely, leaving only the lobe.
Hans Kaufmann · Rita Wildegans, Van Goghs Ohr: Paul Gauguin und der Pakt des Schweigens (Osburg, Berlin, 2008, ISBN 9783940731142) · Mail & Guardian (reprinting a Guardian article), 5 May 2009, 'Art historians claim Van Gogh's ear "cut off by Gauguin"' · Van Gogh Museum FAQ, 'Why Did Vincent van Gogh Cut off His Ear?' · UC Berkeley News, 12 July 2016 (Rey's letter and drawing of 18 August 1930, held by the Bancroft Library)MythVan Gogh did not shoot himself; he was hit by a shot fired by a local boy.
FactThe American writers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith put forward this claim in their 2011 biography. Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp, researchers at the Van Gogh Museum, published a rebuttal in The Burlington Magazine in 2013 and concluded that he shot himself, as had been understood until then.
The Art Newspaper, 7 September 2018 (Martin Bailey) · Van Gogh Museum, 'Van Gogh's Death' and 'Vincent van Gogh's Final Months' · The Burlington Magazine 155 (July 2013), pp. 456–462 (bibliographic details only checked)MythThe name of Van Gogh's illness is already known.
FactThere are many hypotheses, but the Van Gogh Museum states that there is still no diagnosis that explains all the symptoms. The doctor at the asylum in Saint-Rémy wrote 'epileptic attacks' when he was admitted, but that was the opinion of one doctor at the time.
Van Gogh Museum FAQ, 'Why Did Vincent van Gogh Cut off His Ear?' · letter 772, note 2 (Dr Peyron's admission record of 9 May 1889)