La Famille de Vincent van Gogh

To just continue a bit on Vincent van Gogh. I will not give a full account of his life here but just a few facts or what people claim to be facts.

Vincent was born in Zundert in the province of Brabant, the Netherlands (close to the border of Belgium). He is the oldest child and so the first picture in the line of children is the one of him. He was born in 1853. Four years after that his brother Theo is born. He plays a very important role in Vincent's life. As a young men he works for an art company on different locations as Den Haag, London and Paris. Apparently it was due to mental problems that he was fired by his uncle in 1876. After this he becomes a teacher and preacher in England but returns to the swampy lands a year later. After a year of trying to study theology and working as a preacher a fire inside of him seems to get bigger and bigger and he starts to draw and sketch in a very expressive way. He is inspired by masters like Rembrandt and Millet. He also starts receiving money from his brother Theo and his explosive yet dramatic oddysee starts.

After this we see a period where he lives with his parents, moves to Den haag and his failed relationship. But also we see him getting in contact with famous painters like Maris, Weissenbruch, Mesdag en Israëls. But Vincent is getting in a lot of problems in these days: lots of fighting with his parents, his father dying in 1885 and him becoming more and more dependent on his brother Theo. But his work is progressing a lot. Also in 1885 we see him move to Antwerp where he gets into artschool...but it doesnt seem to be a succes and after 3 months of being a workaholic he leaves the academy by advice of one of his teachers.....that same teacher apparently freaked out another important artist,Eugeen van Mieghem, ten years later. Very sneaky if I may say so myself.


In Antwerp he became very ill and loses a few teeth and is also diagnosed with syphilis and some say this disease caused his mental breakdowns years later.

Now he moves to Paris (wouldn't we all like to do this) where he has an artistic breakthrough but soon Paris is to cold and crowded for him and he moves to Arles where to his dissapointment at the time of his arrival it snows. But the sun is near and under this French bundle of sunshine he is able to make a few of his most remarkeable paintings. Although he is getting weaker and weaker he works in an amazing speed. During this time he keeps corresponding with his brother and sees him every now and then.

On july 27th 1890 he shoots himself in the chest hoping to shoot right through his heart but makes the classic mistake of thinking by thinking his heart is at the same place as his leftnipple(don't like that word at all). So, he misses but unfortunatly dies 2 days later with his brother on his side. That same brother dies 6 months later himself. He left a son, Vincent Willem, who we now know as the grandfather of Theo van Gogh. Yes, the Theo van Gogh who was brutally murdered in 2004.


Now, this was just a mere reproduction of already existing facts but it is a start! I am happy to say though that Vincent is part of the Dutch canon. Meaning he is one of the 50 subjects they find important enough over here to educate children on. Talking about children (but also adults) there is this great Vincent doll...yes with detachable ear and all: