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102-407: Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a post-impressionist Dutch painter. Van Gogh may also refer to: Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh ( Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ vɑŋ ˈɣɔx] ; 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over

204-550: A "cheerful and lively child," was permitted to further her education by studying English, and earning the equivalent of a college degree. She stayed some months in London, working in the British Museum library. As an adolescent, she came under the influence of the non-conformist writer Multatuli , author of the satirical, nineteenth-century anti-colonial novel Max Havelaar . From the age of 17, barring her marriage to Theo, she kept

306-765: A "fresh dimension to the understanding of Van Gogh's artistic achievement, an understanding granted to us by virtually no other painter". There are more than 600 letters from Vincent to Theo and around 40 from Theo to Vincent. There are 22 to his sister Wil , 58 to the painter Anthon van Rappard , 22 to Émile Bernard as well as individual letters to Paul Signac , Paul Gauguin , and the critic Albert Aurier . Some are illustrated with sketches . Many are undated, but art historians have been able to place most in chronological order. Problems in transcription and dating remain, mainly with those posted from Arles. While there, Vincent wrote around 200 letters in Dutch, French, and English. There

408-711: A Dutch painter ten years younger than she was. Born in Amsterdam, he studied art in Bussum and lived in Jo's boardinghouse. They were engaged for a year, and it was unclear whether they would marry. They did finally go ahead and wed, making a prenuptial agreement that the property they brought into the marriage would remain separate. Vincent's paintings inherited from Theo's estate remained hers, and those belonging to her son Vincent Willem were also separate. With her marriage, she ceased running her boarding house and moved with her new husband and son to

510-525: A March 1884 letter to Rappard he discusses one of Breton's poems that had inspired one of his paintings. In 1885 he describes Breton's famous work The Song of the Lark as being "fine". In March 1880, roughly midway between these letters, Van Gogh set out on an 80-kilometre trip on foot to meet Breton in the village of Courrières; he was intimidated by Breton's success and the high wall around his estate, and returned without making his presence known. It appears Breton

612-530: A confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed his left ear. Van Gogh spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy . After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet . His depression persisted, and on 29 July 1890 Van Gogh died from his injuries after shooting himself in

714-434: 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

816-543: A detailed diary, which later became an important source for how she helped create Vincent's posthumous fame, and highlighted the role of her late husband. At the age of 22 she became a teacher of English at a boarding school for girls at Elburg , later teaching at the High School for Girls at Utrecht . About this time while in Amsterdam she was introduced by her brother Andries to Theo van Gogh , brother of Vincent. One of

918-633: A gridded "perspective frame" and three of those works were shown at the annual exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants . In April, he was visited by the American artist Dodge MacKnight , who was living nearby at Fontvieille . On 1 May 1888, Van Gogh signed a lease for four rooms at 2 Place Lamartine, Arles, which he later painted in The Yellow House . The rooms cost 15 francs per month, unfurnished; they had been uninhabited for months. Because

1020-640: A heart attack. Van Gogh painted several groups of still lifes in 1885. During his two-year stay in Nuenen, he completed numerous drawings and watercolours and nearly 200 oil paintings. His palette consisted mainly of sombre earth tones, particularly dark brown, and showed no sign of the vivid colours that distinguished his later work. There was interest from a dealer in Paris early in 1885. Theo asked Vincent if he had paintings ready to exhibit. In May, Van Gogh responded with his first major work, The Potato Eaters , and

1122-521: A key role in the growth of Vincent van Gogh's posthumous fame. Johanna and Theo van Gogh's son Vincent (1890-1978), who was named after his uncle, founded the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Johanna (Jo) Gezina Bonger was born on 4 October 1862 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The daughter of Hendrik Christiaan Bonger (1828–1904), an insurance broker, and Hermine Louise Weissman (1831–1905), she

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1224-494: A miner until October. He became interested in the people and scenes around him, and he recorded them in drawings after Theo's suggestion that he take up art in earnest. He traveled to Brussels later in the year, to follow Theo's recommendation that he study with the Dutch artist Willem Roelofs , who persuaded him – in spite of his dislike of formal schools of art – to attend the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts . He registered at

1326-554: A minister of the Dutch Reformed Church , and his wife, Anna Cornelia Carbentus (1819–1907). Van Gogh was given the name of his grandfather and of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth. His grandfather, Vincent (1789–1874), was a prominent art dealer and a theology graduate from the University of Leiden in 1811. This Vincent had six sons, three of whom became art dealers, and may have been named after his great-uncle,

1428-581: A minister was modest, but the Church also supplied the family with a house, a maid, two cooks, a gardener, a carriage and horse; his mother Anna instilled in the children a duty to uphold the family's high social position. Van Gogh was a serious and thoughtful child. He was taught at home by his mother and a governess, and in 1860, was sent to the village school. In 1864, he was placed in a boarding school at Zevenbergen , where he felt abandoned, and he campaigned to come home. Instead, in 1866, his parents sent him to

1530-449: A missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted into ill-health and solitude. He was keenly aware of modernist trends in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in 1881. His younger brother, Theo , supported him financially, and the two of them maintained a long correspondence . Van Gogh's early works consist of mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers . In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of

1632-475: A nearby house, specially designed by the Dutch architect Wilhem Bauer . Her marriage to Cohen, a depressive who preferred solitude, was challenging, and Jo confided to others about its difficulties. Jo's good friend and sister-in-law Wil van Gogh was hospitalized for mental illness for what turned out to be the rest of her life. Jo visited her in the mental hospital and held Vincent's paintings owned by Wil in trust, selling some to pay for her hospitalization. She

1734-491: A northwestern suburb of Paris, where he got to know Signac. He adopted elements of Pointillism, a technique in which a multitude of small coloured dots are applied to the canvas so that when seen from a distance they create an optical blend of hues. The style stresses the ability of complementary colours – including blue and orange – to form vibrant contrasts. While in Asnières Van Gogh painted parks , restaurants and

1836-542: A painting. After seeing the portrait of Adolphe Monticelli at the Galerie Delareybarette, Van Gogh adopted a brighter palette and a bolder attack, particularly in paintings such as his Seascape at Saintes-Maries (1888). Two years later, Vincent and Theo paid for the publication of a book on Monticelli paintings, and Vincent bought some of Monticelli's works to add to his collection. Van Gogh learned about Fernand Cormon 's atelier from Theo. He worked at

1938-464: A play by Geoff Allen, who previously authored the play Vincent and Theo , was performed in 2012 at the University of Auckland, NZ, with a reviewer panning it as "Misplaced Pages for the stage," lacking in emotion and failing to convey why she spent a lifetime promoting Vincent's work. She also appeared as a major character in the pop-rock musical Starry by Dahan and D'Angelo. The musical is primarily based on

2040-636: A sculptor (1729–1802). Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague . His father was the youngest son of a minister. The two met when Anna's younger sister, Cornelia, married Theodorus's older brother Vincent (Cent). Van Gogh's parents married in May 1851 and moved to Zundert. His brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857. There was another brother, Cor, and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina (known as "Wil"). In later life, Van Gogh remained in touch only with Willemina and Theo. Theodorus's salary as

2142-433: A self-inflicted gunshot at age 37. During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard , was sold. Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs of mental instability . As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as

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2244-590: A series of " peasant character studies " which were the culmination of several years of work. When he complained that Theo was not making enough effort to sell his paintings in Paris, his brother responded that they were too dark and not in keeping with the bright style of Impressionism. In August his work was publicly exhibited for the first time, in the shop windows of the dealer Leurs in The Hague. One of his young peasant sitters became pregnant in September 1885; Van Gogh

2346-629: A show on Fifth Avenue. After World War I ended, in 1919 she returned to Amsterdam. She had been in ill-health for some time before her death, suffering from Parkinson's disease. Although ill, she continued right up to her death to manage the sales of Vincent's works. She died on 2 September 1925, at the age of 62, in her country home in Laren, Netherlands. At the time of her death, she was still engaged in translating 526 of Vincent's letters into English. In her obituary, De Proletarische Vrouw on 10 September 1925: ‘She always apologized for not being more active in

2448-494: A significant collection remained in family hands. Her son and grandson continued her work to shore up the legacy of his uncle Vincent and father Theo, resulting in the Dutch government's construction of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Vincent van Gogh as a subject in popular culture is well known, but recently Jo van Gogh-Bonger has also been a focus. Novels based on the life of van Gogh-Bonger include Johanna. A Novel of

2550-457: A student and introduced him to watercolour, which he worked on for the next month before returning home for Christmas. He quarrelled with his father, refusing to attend church, and left for The Hague. In January 1882, Mauve introduced him to painting in oil and lent him money to set up a studio. Within a month Van Gogh and Mauve fell out, possibly over the viability of drawing from plaster casts . Van Gogh could only afford to hire people from

2652-510: A studio in Antwerp. Meanwhile, other visitors to the hospital included Marie Ginoux and Roulin. Despite a pessimistic diagnosis, Van Gogh recovered and returned to the Yellow House on 7 January 1889. He spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and delusions of poisoning. In March, the police closed his house after a petition by 30 townspeople (including

2754-462: A studio of our own with Gauguin," he wrote in a letter to Theo, "I'd like to do a decoration for the studio. Nothing but large Sunflowers ." When Boch visited again, Van Gogh painted a portrait of him, as well as the study The Poet Against a Starry Sky. In preparation for Gauguin's visit, Van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin , whose portrait he painted. On 17 September, he spent his first night in

2856-602: A three-month course at a Protestant missionary school in Laken , near Brussels. In January 1879, he took up a post as a missionary at Petit-Wasmes in the working class, coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium. To show support for his impoverished congregation, he gave up his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to a homeless person and moved to a small hut, where he slept on straw. His humble living conditions did not endear him to church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining

2958-419: A visit. He was thrilled and took long walks with her. Kee was seven years older than he was and had an eight-year-old son. Van Gogh surprised everyone by declaring his love to her and proposing marriage. She refused with the words "No, nay, never" (" nooit, neen, nimmer "). After Kee returned to Amsterdam, Van Gogh went to The Hague to try to sell paintings and to meet with his second cousin, Anton Mauve . Mauve

3060-410: A woman at a brothel Van Gogh and Gauguin both frequented. Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital, where he was treated by Félix Rey, a young doctor still in training. The ear was brought to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it as too much time had passed. Van Gogh researcher and art historian Bernadette Murphy discovered the true identity of

3162-692: Is Memory of the Garden at Etten . Their first joint outdoor venture was at the Alyscamps , when they produced the pendants Les Alyscamps . The single painting Gauguin completed during his visit was his portrait of Van Gogh. Van Gogh and Gauguin visited Montpellier in December 1888, where they saw works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Musée Fabre . Their relationship began to deteriorate; Van Gogh admired Gauguin and wanted to be treated as his equal, but Gauguin

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3264-435: Is disgusting ". In despair, he held his left hand in the flame of a lamp, with the words: "Let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame." He did not recall the event well, but later assumed that his uncle had blown out the flame. Kee's father made it clear that her refusal should be heeded and that the two would not marry, largely because of Van Gogh's inability to support himself. Mauve took Van Gogh on as

3366-508: Is a gap in the record when he lived in Paris as the brothers lived together and had no need to correspond. The highly paid contemporary artist Jules Breton was frequently mentioned in Vincent's letters. In 1875 letters to Theo, Vincent mentions he saw Breton, discusses the Breton paintings he saw at a Salon , and discusses sending one of Breton's books but only on condition that it be returned. In

3468-419: Is adopting a strictly critical attitude. It is schoolgirlish twaddle, nothing more. [...] The work that Mrs Van Gogh would like best is the one that was the most bombastic and sentimental, the one that made her shed the most tears; she forgets that her sorrow is turning Vincent into a god." Despite the dismissal by the establishment of the art world, she worked tirelessly and successfully to bring art critics and

3570-413: Is uncorroborated; Gauguin was almost certainly absent from the Yellow House that night, most likely staying in a hotel. After an altercation on the evening of 23 December 1888, Van Gogh returned to his room where he seemingly heard voices and either wholly or in part severed his left ear with a razor causing severe bleeding. He bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper and delivered the package to

3672-448: The Fauves and German Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the tortured artist . Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings ever sold . His legacy is celebrated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds

3774-576: The Seine , including Bridges across the Seine at Asnières . In November 1887, Theo and Vincent befriended Paul Gauguin who had just arrived in Paris. Towards the end of the year, Vincent arranged an exhibition alongside Bernard, Anquetin, and probably Toulouse-Lautrec, at the Grand-Bouillon Restaurant du Chalet, 43 avenue de Clichy, Montmartre. In a contemporary account, Bernard wrote that the exhibition

3876-461: The Seine . In 1885 in Antwerp he had become interested in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints and had used them to decorate the walls of his studio; while in Paris he collected hundreds of them. He tried his hand at Japonaiserie , tracing a figure from a reproduction on the cover of the magazine Paris Illustre , The Courtesan or Oiran (1887), after Keisai Eisen , which he then graphically enlarged in

3978-567: The Académie in November 1880, where he studied anatomy and the standard rules of modelling and perspective . Van Gogh returned to Etten in April 1881 for an extended stay with his parents. He continued to draw, often using his neighbours as subjects. In August 1881, his recently widowed cousin, Cornelia "Kee" Vos-Stricker, daughter of his mother's older sister Willemina and Johannes Stricker , arrived for

4080-498: The Antwerp Academy on 18 January 1886. He quickly got into trouble with Charles Verlat , the director of the academy and teacher of a painting class, because of his unconventional painting style. Van Gogh had also clashed with the instructor of the drawing class Franz Vinck . Van Gogh finally started to attend the drawing classes after antique plaster models given by Eugène Siberdt . Soon Siberdt and Van Gogh came into conflict when

4182-598: The Ginoux family) who described him as le fou roux "the redheaded madman"; Van Gogh returned to hospital. Paul Signac visited him twice in March; in April, Van Gogh moved into rooms owned by Rey after floods damaged paintings in his own home. Two months later, he left Arles and voluntarily entered an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence . Around this time, he wrote, "Sometimes moods of indescribable anguish, sometimes moments when

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4284-421: The Netherlands for treatment, but exigent circumstances made that impossible. She did persuade a Dutch physician, Frederik van Eeden, to come to Paris to attempt treatment using hypnosis. While there Van Eeden viewed Vincent's paintings in Jo and Theo's apartment and wrote glowingly about them. In return, Jo gifted him a version of The Sower , which he showed to friends and wrote about. "Jo had successfully planted

4386-530: The Rhone (1888), and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (1888), all intended for the decoration for the Yellow House . Van Gogh wrote that with The Night Café he tried "to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime". When he visited Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in June, he gave lessons to a Zouave second lieutenant – Paul-Eugène Milliet – and painted boats on

4488-524: The Van Gogh Family (1995) by Claire Cooperstein, The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar and La viuda de los Van Gogh [The widow of the Van Goghs] by Camilo Sánchez A fictionalized account of her life is found in volume 2, "Mrs. Van Gogh", of the doctoral dissertation of Caroline Smailes. A biography focusing on Jo's life, Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman who Made Vincent Famous by Hans Luijten

4590-547: The Van Gogh sisters described her as "smart and tender". Theo became preoccupied with Johanna, and the following year paid a visit to Amsterdam to declare his love. Surprised and annoyed that a man she hardly knew should wish to marry her, she initially rejected him. She accepted his proposal the following year, and they were married in Amsterdam on 17 April 1889. Leaving home in the Netherlands with her parents and siblings and moving to Paris to take up life with her art dealer husband

4692-660: The Yellow House had to be furnished before he could fully move in, Van Gogh moved from the Hôtel Carrel to the Café de la Gare on 7 May 1888. He had befriended the Yellow House's proprietors, Joseph and Marie Ginoux , and was able to use it as a studio. Van Gogh wanted a gallery to display his work and started a series of paintings that eventually included Van Gogh's Chair (1888), Bedroom in Arles (1888), The Night Café (1888), Café Terrace at Night (September 1888), Starry Night Over

4794-606: The [Socialist] movement. She would say that bringing her son up properly was also a good thing to do for society. “So that has been my main work.”’ Following her death, her son Vincent Willem van Gogh inherited the collection of some 200 paintings, many drawings, and the Van Gogh brothers' letters, and the voluminous documentation of Jo's business dealings. The inventory of her estate shows that in addition to Van Gogh's paintings and letters, she also had works by her late second husband, Johan Cohen Gosschalk. Her strategy of retaining his best works and controlled selling of others meant that

4896-858: The artistic avant-garde , including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin , who were seeking new paths beyond Impressionism . Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, in February 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France to establish an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, his paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local olive groves , wheat fields and sunflowers . Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in late 1888. Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions . He worried about his mental stability, and often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after

4998-407: The baby's birth, helping the new mother. The two had become friends when Jo and Theo were engaged and continued after Vincent's and Theo's deaths. After Vincent's death, Theo organized an exhibition of his brother's paintings in their Montmartre apartment in Paris. Theo's health collapsed after Vincent's death, which was attributed at the time to his profound grief. Jo attempted to have Theo moved to

5100-431: The chest with a revolver . Van Gogh's work began to attract critical artistic attention in the last year of his life. After his death, his art and life story captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger . His bold use of colour, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-garde artistic groups like

5202-661: The child. He believed Van Gogh was his father, but the timing of his birth makes this unlikely. Sien drowned herself in the River Scheldt in 1904. In September 1883, Van Gogh moved to Drenthe in the northern Netherlands. In December driven by loneliness, he went to live with his parents, then in Nuenen , North Brabant. In Nuenen, Van Gogh focused on painting and drawing. Working outside and very quickly, he completed sketches and paintings of weavers and their cottages . Van Gogh also completed The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen , which

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5304-457: The conflict, criticizing Jo for publishing letters with such intimate details and family secrets and accusing Jo of betraying the memory of the brothers for financial gain. In a letter, Lise van Gogh referred to Jo as "Mrs. Cohen Gosschalk", using Jo's name following her second marriage, seemingly an attempt to undermine Jo's standing as an advocate for the Van Gogh brothers. Jo's son Vincent Willem conveyed to Lise's children his mother's regret about

5406-517: The contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincent's letters to him; but Vincent kept only a few of the letters he received. After both had died, Theo's widow Jo Bonger-van Gogh arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913; the majority were published in 1914. Vincent's letters are eloquent and expressive, have been described as having a "diary-like intimacy", and read in parts like autobiography. Translator Arnold Pomerans wrote that their publication adds

5508-628: The dignity of the priesthood". He then walked the 75 kilometres (47 mi) to Brussels, returned briefly to Cuesmes in the Borinage, but he gave in to pressure from his parents to return home to Etten. He stayed there until around March 1880, which caused concern and frustration for his parents. His father was especially frustrated and advised that his son be committed to the lunatic asylum in Geel . Van Gogh returned to Cuesmes in August 1880, where he lodged with

5610-399: The end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant. She had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this. On 2 July, she gave birth to a baby boy, Willem. When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children. Vincent at first defied him, and considered moving

5712-404: The end of the women's friendship. In 1914, Jo moved Theo's remains from Utrecht to Auvers-sur-Oise , interring them next to Vincent's grave with matching tombstones. Her son Vincent Willem and his fiancée were present at the reburial. A sprig of ivy taken from the garden of Dr Paul Gachet carpets both graves to this day. The graves became a pilgrimage site shortly thereafter. Understanding

5814-439: The family out of the city, but in late 1883, he left Sien and the children. Poverty may have pushed Sien back into prostitution; the home became less happy and Van Gogh may have felt family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. Sien gave her daughter to her mother and baby Willem to her brother. Willem remembered visiting Rotterdam when he was about 12, when an uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry to legitimise

5916-450: The first Van Gogh seed in the Netherlands". With her husband's death six months after Vincent's, Van Gogh-Bonger was determined to carry on her husband's efforts to establish Vincent's importance as an artist, but she also worked to demonstrate her husband's crucial role in supporting Vincent's life as an artist. Following Theo's death in January 1891 only a few months after Vincent's, Johanna

6018-422: The first time and bringing attention to Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Theo kept a stock of Impressionist paintings in his gallery on boulevard Montmartre, but Van Gogh was slow to acknowledge the new developments in art. Conflicts arose between the brothers. At the end of 1886 Theo found living with Vincent to be "almost unbearable". By early 1887, they were again at peace, and Vincent had moved to Asnières ,

6120-469: The first volume of the Letters to Theo . Publication of the letters helped spread the compelling mystique of Vincent van Gogh, the intense and dedicated painter who suffered for his art and died young. Jo's life revolved around promoting Vincent's posthumous importance. Her sister-in-law Lies published a personal remembrance of Vincent in 1910, which was translated into English, French, and German, indicating

6222-434: The impressions of things, particularly nature or common objects. Van Gogh's profound unhappiness seems to have overshadowed the lessons, which had little effect. In March 1868, he abruptly returned home. He later wrote that his youth was "austere and cold, and sterile". In July 1869, Van Gogh's uncle Cent obtained a position for him at the art dealers Goupil & Cie in The Hague. After completing his training in 1873, he

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6324-458: The latter did not comply with Siberdt's requirement that drawings express the contour and concentrate on the line. When Van Gogh was required to draw the Venus de Milo during a drawing class, he produced the limbless, naked torso of a Flemish peasant woman. Siberdt regarded this as defiance against his artistic guidance and made corrections to Van Gogh's drawing with his crayon so vigorously that he tore

6426-416: The legacy of Vincent and her late husband Theo. Early in her widowhood, she began a systematic effort to bring attention to Vincent's art and life. For her the letters and the paintings were a unified package and that the way to persuade critics who might dismiss his work was through the letters. In them, Vincent laid out his artistic vision by which those seeing the paintings could better understand them. For

6528-612: The long-suffering artist began to spread in the years after his death, first in the Netherlands, and Germany and then throughout Europe. His deep connection with his younger brother Theo was documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. Van Gogh-Bonger published the letters in three volumes in 1914. She initially worked closely with German art dealers and publishers Paul Cassirer and his cousin Bruno to organize exhibitions of Van Gogh's paintings in Berlin and in 1914 to publish

6630-455: The men of the art world, she seemed an uninformed and obsessed woman connected by marriage to the relatively unknown Vincent and Theo van Gogh. In 1892, while organizing an exhibition of Vincent's works, she was harshly criticized by artist Richard Roland Holst : "Mrs Van Gogh is a charming little woman, but it irritates me when someone gushes fanatically on a subject she knows nothing about, and although blinded by sentimentality still thinks she

6732-472: The middle school in Tilburg , where he was also deeply unhappy. His interest in art began at a young age. He was encouraged to draw as a child by his mother, and his early drawings are expressive, but do not approach the intensity of his later work. Constant Cornelis Huijsmans , who had been a successful artist in Paris, taught the students at Tilburg. His philosophy was to reject technique in favour of capturing

6834-547: The necessity of winning Americans' appreciation of Vincent's art, Jo saw translating the letters to English and actively cultivating attention to his talents in the New York as important. She spent three years in New York, living on the Upper West Side and Queens from 1915 to 1919, where she began the work of translating Vincent's letters into English. She was successful in attracting favorable attention for Vincent's work, mounting

6936-418: The paper. Van Gogh then flew into a violent rage and shouted at Siberdt: 'You clearly do not know what a young woman is like, God damn it! A woman must have hips, buttocks, a pelvis in which she can carry a baby!' According to some accounts, this was the last time Van Gogh attended classes at the academy and he left later for Paris. On 31 March 1886, which was about a month after the confrontation with Siberdt,

7038-402: The perceived demand for information about Vincent's life. Writing from memory, Lies did not get all the facts straight. Jo had reservations about Lise's memoir; its publication just before Jo's planned publication of her edition of Vincent's letters to Theo caused a rift between the two women. When Jo's edition of the letters was published in 1914, all mentions of Lies were eliminated. Lies renewed

7140-435: The previous May. His teeth became loose and painful. In Antwerp he applied himself to the study of colour theory and spent time in museums—particularly studying the work of Peter Paul Rubens —and broadened his palette to include carmine , cobalt blue and emerald green . Van Gogh bought Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts in the docklands, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings. He

7242-758: The proprietor moved to Isleworth in Middlesex, Van Gogh went with him. The arrangement was not successful; he left to become a Methodist minister's assistant. His parents had meanwhile moved to Etten ; in 1876 he returned home at Christmas for six months and took work at a bookshop in Dordrecht . He was unhappy in the position, and spent his time doodling or translating passages from the Bible into English, French, and German. He immersed himself in Christianity and became increasingly pious and monastic. According to his flatmate of

7344-840: The public to her view of Vincent as a suffering artistic genius both in painting and in literature through his letters. She even won over Holst eventually and he designed the cover of the catalogue to a major exhibition of Vincent's works. She edited the brothers' correspondence, publishing the first volume in Dutch in 1914. She also played a key role in the growth of Vincent's fame and reputation through her strategic lending some of Vincent's work to various early retrospective exhibitions, while retaining ownership. She stayed in contact with Vincent van Gogh's friend Eugène Boch , to whom she offered his portrait in July 1891. She also stayed in touch with Émile Bernard , who helped her to promote Vincent van Gogh's paintings. The legacy and renown of Vincent van Gogh

7446-451: The return trip to Paris. During the first days of his treatment, Van Gogh repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for Gauguin, who asked a policeman attending the case to "be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him." Gauguin fled Arles, never to see Van Gogh again. They continued to correspond, and in 1890, Gauguin proposed they form

7548-670: The scene of the lively art world of the Impressionists and post-Impressionists, whose work her late husband had promoted. In the Netherlands she opened a boarding house in Bussum , a village 25 km from Amsterdam, and began to re-establish her artistic contacts. During her short but fruitful marriage to Theo, she had not kept her diary, but resumed it, intending that her son should read it someday. To earn extra income, she translated short stories from French and English into Dutch. In August 1901, she married Johan Cohen Gosschalk (1873–1912),

7650-473: The sea and the village . MacKnight introduced Van Gogh to Eugène Boch , a Belgian painter who sometimes stayed in Fontvieille, and the two exchanged visits in July. When Gauguin agreed to visit Arles in 1888, Van Gogh hoped for friendship and to realise his idea of an artists' collective. Van Gogh prepared for Gauguin's arrival by painting four versions of Sunflowers in one week. "In the hope of living in

7752-645: The still sparsely furnished Yellow House. When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, Van Gogh started to work on the Décoration for the Yellow House , probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook. He completed two chair paintings: Van Gogh's Chair and Gauguin's Chair. After much pleading from Van Gogh, Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October and, in November, the two painted together. Gauguin depicted Van Gogh in his The Painter of Sunflowers ; Van Gogh painted pictures from memory, following Gauguin's suggestion. Among these "imaginative" paintings

7854-703: The street as models, a practice of which Mauve seems to have disapproved. In June, Van Gogh suffered a bout of gonorrhoea and spent three weeks in hospital. Soon after, he first painted in oils, bought with money borrowed from Theo. He liked the medium, and he spread the paint liberally, scraping from the canvas and working back with the brush. He wrote that he was surprised at how good the results were. By March 1882, Mauve appeared to have gone cold towards Van Gogh, and stopped replying to his letters. He had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik (1850–1904), and her young daughter. Van Gogh had met Sien towards

7956-587: The studio in April and May 1886, where he frequented the circle of the Australian artist John Russell , who painted his portrait in 1886. Van Gogh also met fellow students Émile Bernard , Louis Anquetin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec  – who painted a portrait of him in pastel. They met at Julien "Père" Tanguy 's paint shop, (which was, at that time, the only place where Paul Cézanne 's paintings were displayed). In 1886, two large exhibitions were staged there, showing Pointillism and Neo-impressionism for

8058-664: The teachers of the academy decided that 17 students, including Van Gogh, had to repeat a year. The story that Van Gogh was expelled from the academy by Siberdt is therefore unfounded. Van Gogh moved to Paris in March 1886 where he shared Theo's rue Laval apartment in Montmartre and studied at Fernand Cormon 's studio. In June the brothers took a larger flat at 54 rue Lepic . In Paris, Vincent painted portraits of friends and acquaintances , still life paintings , views of Le Moulin de la Galette , scenes in Montmartre , Asnières and along

8160-430: The time, Paulus van Görlitz, Van Gogh ate frugally, avoiding meat. To support his religious conviction and his desire to become a pastor, in 1877, the family sent him to live with his uncle Johannes Stricker , a respected theologian, in Amsterdam. Van Gogh prepared for the University of Amsterdam theology entrance examination; he failed the exam and left his uncle's house in July 1878. He undertook, but also failed,

8262-484: The veil of time and fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant." Van Gogh gave his 1889 Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey to Rey. The doctor was not fond of the painting and used it to repair a chicken coop, then gave it away. In 2016, the portrait was housed at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and estimated to be worth over $ 50 million. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Van Gogh-Bonger played

8364-452: The woman named Gabrielle Berlatier, who died in Arles at the age of 80 in 1952, and whose descendants still lived (as of 2020) just outside Arles. Gabrielle, known in her youth as "Gaby," was a 17-year-old cleaning girl at the brothel and other local establishments at the time Van Gogh presented her with his ear. Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he may have suffered an acute mental breakdown. The hospital diagnosis

8466-482: The world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings. The most comprehensive primary source on Van Gogh is his correspondence with his younger brother, Theo . Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts and theories of art, are recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from 1872 until 1890. Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support as well as access to influential people on

8568-449: Was "acute mania with generalised delirium", and within a few days, the local police ordered that he be placed in hospital care. Gauguin immediately notified Theo, who, on 24 December, had proposed marriage to his old friend Andries Bonger 's sister Johanna. That evening, Theo rushed to the station to board a night train to Arles. He arrived on Christmas Day and comforted Vincent, who seemed to be semi-lucid. That evening, he left Arles for

8670-519: Was a major change for her. The couple exchanged many letters prior to their marriage, published as Brief Happiness: The Correspondence of Theo Van Gogh and Jo Bonger , where they got to know each other better. Going into the marriage, Jo knew that the relationship between her future husband and his brother Vincent was strong, so that in marrying Theo, she was also in essence marrying Vincent as well. For years her husband Theo had supported Vincent's work as an artist, financially and in all other ways. Theo

8772-488: Was accused of forcing himself upon her, and the village priest forbade parishioners to model for him. He moved to Antwerp that November and rented a room above a paint dealer's shop in the rue des Images ( Lange Beeldekensstraat ). He lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend the money Theo sent on painting materials and models. Bread, coffee and tobacco became his staple diet. In February 1886, he wrote to Theo that he could only remember eating six hot meals since

8874-845: Was ahead of anything else in Paris. There, Bernard and Anquetin sold their first paintings, and Van Gogh exchanged work with Gauguin. Discussions on art, artists, and their social situations started during this exhibition, continued and expanded to include visitors to the show, like Camille Pissarro and his son Lucien , Signac and Seurat. In February 1888, feeling worn out from life in Paris, Van Gogh left, having painted more than 200 paintings during his two years there. Hours before his departure, accompanied by Theo, he paid his only visit to Seurat in his studio. Ill from drink and suffering from smoker's cough, in February 1888, Van Gogh sought refuge in Arles . He seems to have moved with thoughts of founding an art colony . The Danish artist Christian Mourier-Petersen

8976-473: Was arrogant and domineering, which frustrated Van Gogh. They often quarrelled; Van Gogh increasingly feared that Gauguin was going to desert him, and the situation, which Van Gogh described as one of "excessive tension", rapidly headed towards crisis point. The exact sequence that led to the mutilation of Van Gogh's ear is not known. Gauguin said, fifteen years later, that the night followed several instances of physically threatening behaviour. Their relationship

9078-414: Was complex and Theo may have owed money to Gauguin, who suspected the brothers were exploiting him financially. It seems likely that Vincent realised that Gauguin was planning to leave. The following days saw heavy rain, leading to the two men being shut in the Yellow House. Gauguin recalled that Van Gogh followed him after he left for a walk and "rushed towards me, an open razor in his hand." This account

9180-532: Was drinking heavily again, and was hospitalised between February and March 1886, when he was possibly also treated for syphilis . After his recovery, despite his antipathy towards academic teaching, he took the higher-level admission exams at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and, in January 1886, matriculated in painting and drawing. He became ill and run down by overwork, poor diet and excessive smoking. He started to attend drawing classes after plaster models at

9282-434: Was energised by the local countryside and light; his works from this period are rich in yellow, ultramarine and mauve . They include harvests, wheat fields and general rural landmarks from the area, including The Old Mill (1888), one of seven canvases sent to Pont-Aven on 4 October 1888 in an exchange of works with Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, Charles Laval and others. In March 1888, Van Gogh created landscapes using

9384-510: Was his companion for two months and at first, Arles appeared exotic to Van Gogh. In a letter, he described it as a foreign country: "The Zouaves , the brothels, the adorable little Arlésienne going to her First Communion, the priest in his surplice, who looks like a dangerous rhinoceros, the people drinking absinthe , all seem to me creatures from another world." The time in Arles was one of Van Gogh's more prolific periods: he completed 200 paintings and more than 100 drawings and watercolours. He

9486-646: Was infected with syphilis prior to his marriage through visits to prostitutes, but he did not infect Jo or their son Vincent Willem, born on 31 January 1890, nine months after the marriage. They asked Vincent if he would be the baby's godfather, strengthening the bond amongst them all. Shortly after the baby's birth, Vincent visited the family in Paris and he met his namesake. The brothers exchanged hundreds of letters, with those from Vincent preserved by Theo. A letter from Johanna to Vincent survives, written during her extended labor with baby Vincent Willem. Theo's younger sister Wil stayed with Jo during her pregnancy and after

9588-512: Was left a widow with her infant son to support. She was left with only an apartment in Paris filled with a few items of furniture and about 200 then-valueless works of her brother-in-law Vincent. Although advised to leave the paintings in Paris, a center of the art world, instead she moved back to the Netherlands with the canvasses and hundreds of sketches, as well as the large cache of letters from Vincent to her late husband. Although not trained in art herself, during her short marriage she had been on

9690-478: Was published in Dutch in 2019. An English translation by Lynne Richards was later published in 2022. As of 2024, an adaptation in English of Camilo Sánchez's Spanish-language novel is being developed by Cinema7. Jo van Gogh-Bonger has also been the subject of a number of theatrical productions. A one-woman show by actress Muriel Nussbaum, Van Gogh and Jo was performed at Fairfield University in 2005. Mrs. Van Gogh ,

9792-460: Was secretly engaged to a former lodger. He grew more isolated and religiously fervent. His father and uncle arranged a transfer to Paris in 1875, where he became resentful of issues such as the degree to which the art dealers commodified art, and he was dismissed a year later. In April 1876, he returned to England to take unpaid work as a supply teacher in a small boarding school in Ramsgate . When

9894-505: Was stolen from the Singer Laren in March 2020. From August 1884, Margot Begemann, a neighbour's daughter ten years his senior, joined him on his forays; she fell in love and he reciprocated, though less enthusiastically. They wanted to marry, but neither side of their families approved. Margot was distraught and took an overdose of strychnine , but survived after Van Gogh rushed her to a nearby hospital. On 26 March 1885, his father died of

9996-458: Was the fifth of seven children. She was especially close to her older brother Andries Bonger (1861–1936). Andries moved to Paris in 1879, and the two regularly exchanged letters. Her youngest brother, Willem Adriaan Bonger (1876–1940), became an important criminologist. The family was musical, holding evening performances of quartets, and Jo (also called "Net") became an accomplished pianist . Unlike her elder sisters, who did household duties, Jo,

10098-449: Was the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be. Mauve invited him to return in a few months and suggested he spend the intervening time working in charcoal and pastels ; Van Gogh returned to Etten and followed this advice. Late in November 1881, Van Gogh wrote a letter to Johannes Stricker, one which he described to Theo as an attack. Within days he left for Amsterdam. Kee would not meet him, and her parents wrote that his "persistence

10200-448: Was transferred to Goupil's London branch on Southampton Street , and took lodgings at 87 Hackford Road , Stockwell . This was a happy time for Van Gogh; he was successful at work and, at 20, was earning more than his father. Theo's wife, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, later remarked that this was the best year of Vincent's life. He became infatuated with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, but she rejected him after he confessed his feelings; she

10302-492: Was unaware of Van Gogh or his attempted visit. There are no known letters between the two artists and Van Gogh is not one of the contemporary artists discussed by Breton in his 1891 autobiography Life of an Artist . Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert , in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh (1822–1885),

10404-577: Was widowed again in 1912 and never remarried. She became involved in feminist causes in this period of her life. She wrote book reviews for feminist publications and became a good friend of feminist journalist Henriëtte van der Meij . She was one of the founding members of a women's socialist movement, the Amsterdam Social-Democratic Women's Propaganda Club, "which set out to improve working-class education and women's working conditions." She devoted her life to continuing to establish

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