Letter From Vincent's Brother Theo to his fiancé Jo Bonger - 1889:
"That head of his has been occupied with contemporary society's insoluble problems for so long, and he is still battling on with his good-heartedness and boundless energy. His efforts have not been in vain, but he will probably not live to see them come to fruition, for by the time people understand what he is saying in his paintings it will be too late. He is one of the most advanced painters and it is difficult to understand him, even for me who knows him so intimately. His ideas cover so much ground, examining what is humane and how one should look at the world, that one must first free oneself from anything remotely linked to convention to understand what he was trying to say, but I am sure he will be understood later on. It is just hard to say when."
Stairway at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh - Photo by John Brody Photography / JohnBrody.com
Photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC by John Brody
Click image for Hi-Res Version and more van Gogh works
Vincent Van Gogh Biography
Vincent Willem Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, a village in the south of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border. He was the eldest son of Theodorus Van Gogh, a handsome preacher, and his kind-hearted wife, Anna Cornelia Carbentus. He was named Vincent Willem after his two grandfathers. He was followed by a sister, Anna, born in 1855, and in 1857, his brother, Theodorus (Theo), was born.
Vincent van Gogh - Olive Trees - John Brody Photography --- JohnBrody.com
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Vincent attended the village school until his parents, worried that the peasant children might make their son rough, hired a governess to teach their children at home. Vincent was only eleven when his parents sent him to boarding school. The separation from home made a deep impression on Vincent and was the beginning of a life lived in loneliness and isolation.
Eventually, at age 16, like many young men of his time, his parents decided that he'd had enough schooling and Vincent was apprenticed to learn a trade. Three of his uncles owned successful art galleries. Vincent was apprenticed to the most successful, Uncle Cent (Vincent) and began work in The Hague branch of Goupil, Cie.
After Vincent had been in The Hague three years, his brother Theo came to visit him. A brief note, thanking Theo for visiting, is the first surviving letter from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother. The letter is dated August 18, 1872.
Noon Rest by Vincent Van Gogh - I shot this at the d'Orsay Museum, Paris, France - John Brody Photography / JohnBrody.com
Vincent Van Gogh was doing well in his work at the art gallery when his brother, Theo, also began his apprenticeship with the firm. The director wrote to the Van Goghs expressing his confidence in Vincent and notifying them that he was to be transferred to the London office as a promotion. He noted that both the clients and painters enjoyed dealing with Vincent and expected him to have success.
The Mulberry Tree by Vincent van Gogh - Travel photo by John Brody Photography / JohnBrody.com / John Brody - Click image for Hi-Res Version
Vincent developed an affection for the daughter of the landlady of his boarding house, Eugenie. Eugenie was slim, dark-haired and charming. She was also engaged to be married. Shy, twenty-years-old with no experience with women, Vincent was brokenhearted. There was a sudden, dramatic change in Vincent's personality after this rejection. He turned silent, moody and difficult, and refused to go out. For the first time, people called him "eccentric".
Two years later, Goupil transferred Vincent to Paris, hoping the change of scenery would improve his outlook. Vincent did spend time in the Louvre and the Luxembourg Palace, but was not attracted to the lively Parisian nightlife. He began to attend church regularly, for the first time since he'd left his father's parish. Van Gogh began to read the Bible in all his spare time. He seemed to his family to be bordering on the fanatic. He even suggested to Theo that he burn all his books except his Bible.
Eventually, Goupil's art gallery had enough of Van Gogh's frequent absences, his rude treatment of clients and his strange choices in clothing. He was fired.
Van Gogh managed to land a job teaching young boys at a London boarding school for room and board. And then moved to another similar teaching job where he was given room and board plus a small salary. More interesting to Vincent, however, was the fact that in this second teaching job, he was allowed to preach. His letters home were full of religious aphorisms and meditations. His father didn't have any objection to his son becoming a preacher, but he wanted him to start the necessary studies rather than dabbling in such an unpractical way.
Mulberry Tree by Vincent van Gogh - Click image for Hi-Res Version
In the spring of 1889 van Gogh committed himself to an asylum at Saint-Rémy.During his lucid periods, between periodic attacks of what seems to have been epilepsy, he was constantly working, creating dazzling compositions of vigorous brushwork and energetic spontaneity. This painting was of particular interest to van Gogh, who wrote about it three times in letters to his brother and sister, commenting that he believed it was the best of his mulberry tree paintings.
When Van Gogh returned home that Christmas, Vincent's sister Elizabeth found him "groggy with piety." At the age of twenty-four, Vincent announced his intention to become a clergyman. In order to become a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church, Vincent would need to pass state entrance exams. Because he lacked a high-school diploma, this would mean at least two years of tutoring. Then, once he passed the exams, he would have to train for six expensive years at the theological seminary in Amsterdam. Without all this, Vincent would be unable to acquire a meaningful job in the church. The whole extended Van Gogh family pitched in to help Vincent with room and board and tutoring.
Vincent didn't enjoy his studies. He began to feel constantly anxious. He felt he was letting down his family. He began to punish himself by beating his back with a rope. Sometimes he locked himself out of his uncle's house and slept in the cold shed without even a blanket. After a year of struggling, Vincent gave up. He would never pass the entrance exams. As a compromise, Vincent and his father enrolled him in an evangelical course that took three years instead of six. Vincent was accepted on a trial basis. After six months, realizing even this trial was a failure, Vincent landed an assignment as an evangelist and left for the grim mining district in southwestern Belgium called the Borinage.
Vincent began trying to identify with the miners. He moved into a hovel where he slept on a straw mattress. He gave his warm clothes to the needy and stopped washing the coal dust from his face. Vincent's determination to follow Christ's example made people uncomfortable. The mission sponsors refused to renew his appointment. This began a period of time when Vincent was homeless and hungry. He lost touch with his family, refusing to write even to Theo for nine months.
Photo taken at the d'Orsay Museum in Paris - Vincent van Gogh - Thatched Cottages at Cordeville - Oil on Canvas - Auvers-sur-Oise June 1890 - Paris: Musée d'Orsay or d'Orsay Museum Paris --- JohnBrody.com - John Brody Photography
Click image for Hi-Res Version
During the summer of 1879, Vincent wrote to his first boss at Goupil to request some watercolors, a sketchbook and two manuals on learning how to draw. Vincent began trying to sketch the miners and peasants. He made slow progress but persisted. Eventually, hungry, tired, and desperate, he went home.
His earlier desire to help his fellow man as a clergyman gradually developed into an urge (as he later wrote) to leave "some memento in the form of drawings or paintings—not made to please any particular movement, but to express a sincere human feeling." His parents, however, did not support this plan and financial responsibility for Vincent passed to his brother, Theo. Throughout Van Gogh's life, Theo provided material and emotional support. Finally, Van Gogh came to regard his work as a kind of a collaboration with Theo, based on the support and kindness Theo offered him.
When Vincent van Gogh decided to become an artist, no one, not even Vincent himself, suspected that he had extraordinary gifts. He progressed rapidly from inept novice to a truly original master. His work was eventually characterized by bold, harmonious colors and simple but memorable compositions.
Van Gogh went to Brussels to study at the academy to prepare for his new career. He left after only nine months. In April 1881, he went to live with his parents and taught himself how to draw. Extracts from two letters at this time below:
I think all the fellows in the drawing class all work badly and in an absolutely wrong way... it is correct, it is whatever you like, but it is dead." --- Letter to Theo
I still remember telling you... that I would sooner be with a bad whore than be alone." --- Letter to Theo
THE HAGUE
Van Gogh moved to The Hague to learn drawing from his cousin, Anton Mauve. However, in addition to Van Gogh's prickly personality, Mauve and the rest of Vincent's family disapproved of Vincent's relationship with Sien Hoornik, a prostitute pregnant with her second illegitimate child. For Van Gogh, this was a brief idyllic period, when he had a little family and access to a live model. Eventually, Van Gogh broke off the relationship with Sien and ended up living with his parents again, this time in Nuenen.
In Nuenen, Van Gogh began painting in the style of one of the artists he most admired, Jean-Francois Millet. Millet was famous at the time for his scenes of the harsh life of peasants and this theme struck a resonant chord with Vincent. Van Gogh painted and drew a major series of heads and peasant hands in preparation for The Potato Eaters, which he completed in 1884. It took Van Gogh a while to convince the peasants to pose for him as they worked, they wanted to wear their best and sit stiffly for portraits. Not too long after, however, a rumor that Van Gogh had fathered a peasant girl's illegitimate child caused the local priest to forbid his parishioners to pose for Vincent. Undaunted, Van Gogh turned to landscapes instead.
In 1885, Van Gogh decided he would try formal schooling again and enrolled at the academy in Antwerp. He reveled in the museums but found the lessons tedious. It was here that he discovered the work of Rubens and also discovered Japanese prints.
Van Gogh went to live with Theo in 1886 in Paris. He was at last confronted with the full impact of modern art and the work of contemporary painters, both Impressionists and post-Impressionists.
Impressed with the brighter palette of the Impressionists he continued to experiment with Impressionist styles, post-Impressionist, and Japanese-influenced painting. By the end of the two years spent in Paris, Vincent van Gogh had forged his own highly personal style.
ARLES
In early 1888 Van Gogh moved south to Arles, in Provence. He was attracted to the area because he believed the stronger light would enable him to paint more truthfully. His hope was to create a working community of artists who would revolutionize color.
Van Gogh was enchanted by the landscape around Arles and began to make a personal contribution to modern art with his daring, exaggerated color combinations. It was typical of his confidence in his work that Van Gogh chose not to try to sell any work until he had thirty top-class pictures with which to announce himself to the world.
His ambition for an artist's colony seemed to take a promising turn when Gauguin arrived to live with him in October 1888. By the end of the year, however, his hopes were shattered when the first signs of his illness appeared. Diagnosed as a kind of epilepsy, it was characterized by delusions and psychotic attacks. During these episodes, Van Gogh ate paint or dirt. He saw things. It was during one of these seizures that Van Gogh cut off his earlobe. Gauguin quickly moved out.
Vincent Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles - D'OrsayMuseum Paris - The painting shown here is actually one five versions he did: three oil on canvas and two letter sketches --- JohnBrody.com - John Brody Photography / JohnBrody.com
Final note from John: The photo below is one of my favorite works of van Gogh's. I was able to visit this site and was amazed that absolutely nothing had changed - The stairway was still there, the walls, the houses, the windows, everything. Other than a few repaired roofs and tree growth as will happen in 125 years, it was all the same. Standing in the same spot where VVG had to have been standing when it was painted, it was a strange and sad feeling since 20 feet to my right was the attic bedroom where Vincent last lived and also died. Walking to the right of the stairway and up a winding small town hillside road, you reach another location full of mixed feelings. It's the field where Wheatfield with Crows was painted, and also the field where, if the stories I read and also heard from the townsfolk were true, the field where he shot himself. He has buried next to his brother Theo in a peaceful countryside graveyard next to the wheat field. The end of a brief but memorable life.
SAINT-RÉMY
Van Gogh, hounded by the villagers in Arles for his illness, decided to move to nearby Saint-Rémy and check himself into the asylum as a voluntary patient. Thanks once more to Theo's continued support, the asylum wasn't so bad. Vincent had a bedroom and a room for a studio. The only treatment was "hydrotherapy" which consisted of two-hour long baths twice a week. When Vincent wasn't suffering from his illness, he was clear-headed and able to work on his art.
His use of intense color became more muted and his brushwork began to resemble the hatchings and scorings of graphic work. He had the beginnings of professional recognition here when two of his paintings were shown at the fifth exhibition of the Société des artistes indépendants.
Van Gogh made a large number of "translations in color" of prints by his favorite artists. These paintings were both good practice for Van Gogh and were consoling. In January of 1890, Van Gogh's first critical acclaim was published in an article by Albert Aurier who praised Van Gogh's work.
Vincent van Gogh - Irises In A Vase 1890 also named 'Iris Dans Un Vase - Painted during his Saint-Remy stay at the sanitarium. Photographed in New York, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art -
John Brody Photography - JohnBrody.com
AUVERS-SUR-OISE
Van Gogh left the asylum in May 1890 for the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. He stopped for a few days to visit his brother, Theo, his wife Joanna, and their infant son, Vincent Willem Van Gogh.
Van Gogh was only in Auvers for two months, but he produced around eighty paintings. But the burden of living had become too great to bear. On July 27, 1890, he shot himself in the chest. Two days later, he died of an infection caused by the bullet which hadn't been removed.
Van Gogh's funeral was attended by many of his artist friends and supporters—including Bernard, Laval, Lucien Pissarro and Père Tanguy. Bernard described how the coffin had been covered with yellow flowers "his favourite color ... a symbol of the light of which he dreamed both in his heart and in his work." Van Gogh was buried in a sunny spot among the wheat fields. Theo was heartbroken. A month later, he became ill and six months later, Theo died.
From that point on, Theo's young widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger became the champion and hero of Vincent's life. She returned to Holland with the collection of Van Gogh's art, which had been left to Theo, and dedicated herself to getting the recognition that Vincent van Gogh deserved.
Johanna wisely held Vincent's letters back from the public. She insisted on first having Van Gogh's stature as a master of modern art established. Finally, in 1914, she published the correspondence between the two brothers.
Starry Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh - Travel photo by John Brody Photography / JohnBrody.com / John Brody - Click image for Hi-Res Version
Note on source of biography components: The text is largely from a Wikipedia article. Most of the images were taken by me (the D'Orsay in Paris a primary source, also the Met in NYC, the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the Getty and Norton Simon in L.A.) The few that weren't my photos were downloaded from museums, the Vincent van Gogh museum in Amsterdam a primary source. None of the images are to be used for commercial purposes or resale. This is for interest or information only.
Note from Top photo above: The Stairway at Auvers is of one of my favorite works of van Gogh's. I was able to visit this site and was amazed that absolutely nothing had changed - The stairway was still there, the walls, the houses, the windows, everything. Other than a few repaired roofs and tree growth as will happen in 125 years, it was all the same. Standing in the same spot where VVG had to have been standing when it was painted, it was a strange and sad feeling since 20 feet to my right was the attic bedroom where Vincent last lived and then died. Walking up a winding small-town hillside road, you reach another location full of mixed feelings. It's the field where Wheatfield with Crows was painted, and also the field where, if the stories I read and also heard from the townsfolk were true, the field where he shot himself. He is buried next to his brother Theo in a peaceful countryside graveyard next to the wheat field. The end of a brief but memorable life.
