维森特·梵高？ / Vincent van Gogh

“He was born. He painted. He died. The wheat fields turned golden, and a flock of crows cried out as they flew across the sky.” — Baudelaire

He was a great painter.

He was one of the representatives of the Impressionist school, and a pioneer of Expressionism.

His works have endured, undiminished, into the twenty-first century.

It is no rarity to see his paintings printed on postcards or tote bags — indeed, they are everywhere: exhibitions, films, spin-off merchandise…

As a painter of more than a century ago, he has won the love of art enthusiasts by far too much. What kind of work, born in the nineteenth century, can still avoid feeling dated in an age where fashions endlessly come and go?

Now, take a deep breath, clear your mind, and enjoy to your heart’s content.

This is the story of a man who decided to become an artist only at the age of twenty-seven.

This is the story of a man who became world-famous only a dozen years after his death.

This is the life of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

▼ A bird’s-eye view of Van Gogh’s life @Xu Jiayi, adapted from Facing Vincent van Gogh (Please rotate your phone 90° to explore Van Gogh’s life)

Ⅰ Early Life

On March 30, 1853, Vincent van Gogh (Vincent van Gogh) was born in the Netherlands. He grew up in the Dutch village of Zundert.

In a pastor’s family of six children he was the eldest son — but not the first child. His elder brother, also named Vincent, had died before he was born.

From childhood Van Gogh was withdrawn and reluctant to communicate with others. Because of this, his parents always felt that his brother would have been the perfect child, and that he was merely a defective substitute born in his brother’s place.

Though Van Gogh always tried to fit into the family and win their affection, he never managed to.

▼ Portrait of Van Gogh as a baby @Van Gogh Gallery

At seventeen, he began working in the reproduction of famous paintings. In those years, a good thousand printed pictures passed through Van Gogh’s hands, and it was precisely this that first brought him into contact with art.

If the only bosom friend a person has for his whole life is his own brother — is that his fortune or his sorrow?

Vincent’s younger brother, Theo van Gogh, is an indispensable part of any account of Vincent’s life. He was six years younger than Vincent. In 1872, Theo also began working at a print company, and that same year saw their first known correspondence. “Let us write to each other often,” Vincent wrote in a letter.

Later, Van Gogh grew weary of the commercialism of the art trade of the time and was dismissed in 1876.

▼ His brother Theo van Gogh, 1873. It was once thought to be a photo of Vincent, but was later confirmed to be a photo of his brother, Theo van Gogh.

▼ Vincent’s first letter to Theo, September 29, 1872 @Van Gogh Museum

In the summer of 1880, Van Gogh took Theo’s advice and chose a new path: he decided to become an artist. By this point he was already 27.

Twenty-seven — by today’s standards, an age at which one has already graduated from university and long since laid the foundation stones for one’s life. Yet Van Gogh stood empty-handed: without his family’s support, without a solid foundation, with nothing but a chest full of passion. And so he set out down this road without looking back.

Although his family wanted him to work and earn money, he refused to bury his passion. Just as Maugham wrote, the ground was strewn with sixpences, but he looked up and saw the moon.

And so heaven’s true making of a genius finally began.

▼ Adapted from Van Gogh’s The Starry Night @film Loving Vincent

Ⅱ The Making of a Genius

Having found his calling, Van Gogh threw all his energy into it.

At this time he moved back into his parents’ home, and his relationship with the family remained tense. His circumstances living with his parents were far from ideal, but he kept his head down, practicing copying and life drawing, mainly painting peasant figures during this period.

▼ The Sower, 1881 @wikipedia

▼ Worn Out (Weariness), 1882 @Van Gogh Museum

▼ An excerpt from the film Loving Vincent

Later, Van Gogh lived in Paris for nearly two years. Everything there was dazzling, and this stay had an enormous influence on him.

For the first time Van Gogh saw Impressionist and Pointillist works, coming into contact not only with the likes of Gauguin and Pissarro, but also getting to know a group of young artists. Now Van Gogh could study all the masters through a painter’s eyes. Confronted with the avant-garde art of Paris, he realized that his Dutch-period works did indeed look out of step with the times.

Van Gogh’s palette underwent a complete transformation — from gray to color.

▼ View from Theo’s Apartment, 1887. Van Gogh painted the section of houses on the right and center-front with small dabs of paint resembling Pointillism, while the background is looser and freer. @Van Gogh Museum

▼ Montmartre: Windmills and Allotments @Van Gogh Museum

▼ Self-Portrait with a Gray Felt Hat, 1887

“For God’s sake, send me those paints right away. The season of blossoming orchards is short, and you know how cheerful this kind of subject makes people.” — Vincent’s letter to his brother Theo, Arles, April 5, 1888.

▼ The White Orchard, 1888. In Arles, Van Gogh threw himself with enthusiasm into a series of blossoming fruit trees and orchards. @Van Gogh Museum

▼ Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries, 1888. “…The Mediterranean — a color somewhat like mackerel, that is to say, changeable — you never quite know whether it is green or purple, nor can you be sure whether it is blue, for the next moment its shifting reflection takes on a hue of pink or gray.” — Vincent’s letter to his brother Theo, Saintes-Maries, June 3 or 4, 1888.

▼ Sunflowers, 1889. Van Gogh painted five versions of a bunch of sunflowers in a vase. The first was completed in August 1888, right in sunflower season, and the other four afterward. He used three shades of yellow, “and nothing else,” achieving a radiant harmony of color.

Ⅲ Creating While Ill

What is it like to be friends with someone who is withdrawn and mentally ill?

Speaking of Van Gogh, one cannot fail to mention Gauguin, who influenced him deeply. During 62 days of living together, Gauguin endured Van Gogh’s madness for the sake of his own interests, while in Gauguin’s presence Van Gogh poured out almost all of his fiery passion — as vivid, full, dazzling, and scorching as his own paintings. Van Gogh idolized Gauguin, but that feverish spirit was something Gauguin could not bear, and even came to fear. In the end, despite Van Gogh’s desperate pleading, Gauguin resolutely decided to leave.

▼ Paul Gauguin, The Painter of Sunflowers (Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers), 1888. Gauguin painted from memory or imagination, while Van Gogh created from reality. In this painting, Gauguin depicts his friend painting sunflowers — yet sunflowers do not bloom in December. @wikiart

▼ Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe @vangoghgallery

Exactly what illness Van Gogh suffered from remains a mystery to this day. Peyron, his attending physician in Saint-Rémy, mentioned severe epileptic seizures; later psychologists believed he suffered from psychosis or bipolar disorder.

During his time in the asylum, his health was very unstable. When he was well, he painted; when an attack came, everything fell into chaos, and he could not even remember what he had done. He told Theo: “They say I picked up filthy things off the ground and ate them.”

But mercifully, even in his darkest moments, his brother Theo was always by his side, supporting and comforting him.

▼ Almond Blossoms @Van Gogh Museum. On January 31, 1890, Theo and Jo had a son, and that same day Theo wrote to his brother: “As we agreed, we named him after you, and I hope he will be as tenacious and brave as you are.”

Ⅳ An Unexpected Ending

Van Gogh spent the last two months of his life in the small town of Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. Here he entered a highly productive period — in just 70 days he completed about 80 outstanding landscapes and portraits.

Van Gogh worshipped nature, drawing from it great solace and abundant energy, and painted a great many wheat fields, barns, and orchards in full bloom.

▼ Ears of Wheat, 1890 @wikiart

▼ Landscape at Twilight, 1890 @Van Gogh Museum (Please rotate your phone 90°)

▼ Wheatfield under Thunderclouds, 1890 @Van Gogh Museum. In the last few weeks of his life, Van Gogh created several striking works in the wheat fields around Auvers. He wanted these paintings to express “extreme loneliness and sadness,” while painting out in nature could heal and “improve” his mood. (Please rotate your phone 90°)

▼ Wheatfield with Crows, 1890 @Van Gogh Museum. It is commonly thought that this painting foreshadows the tragic end of Van Gogh’s suicide — which is not surprising, though in fact he created several more optimistic works after it. But myth is often more persuasive. (Please rotate your phone 90°)

▼ Adapted from Wheatfield with Crows @film Loving Vincent

▼ Tree Roots, 1890 @Van Gogh Museum. This is probably Van Gogh’s last painting. (Please rotate your phone 90°)

In Auvers, his style changed once again. His colors grew brighter and more powerful, and he believed he had never been in better condition. His brother encouraged him too: “Dear brother, you have found your own path, and from now on you can travel it with ease.”

In early summer 1890, Theo confided to Vincent the difficulties in his own life. By then Van Gogh’s health had markedly improved, but Theo’s worries were a heavy blow to him. All along he had depended on his brother financially, and now not only could he offer no help for Theo’s plight, but his own way forward was shrouded in confusion.

On July 27, Van Gogh fired a shot into his own chest. Two days later, with Theo at his side, he quietly departed this world.

On July 30, Van Gogh was buried in Auvers, his coffin covered with yellow flowers.

▼ The graves of Vincent and his brother Theo

Ⅴ The Mystery of His Death

The story seems to have ended — but this may not be the truth.

When Van Gogh went out that day, he was carrying his full set of painting equipment, very heavy to carry on his back. It looked for all the world like a simple outing to paint from life, not like someone who did not intend to come home. And another person living in the town of Auvers at the time may well have been the one who truly killed him.

Although his paintings had not won broad public recognition, many famous painters had already begun to appreciate Van Gogh’s work, and his mental state had improved. Many people in the town felt he had fully recovered. Right up until the two weeks before Van Gogh’s death, people still believed this brilliant star was steadily rising. So when they heard the tragic news of Van Gogh’s suicide, they found it hard to believe.

Behind the cause of Van Gogh’s death — was it premeditated murder or a self-inflicted gunshot? Even now, people are still studying it. Where did Van Gogh get the pistol? And why would he take his own life without any warning?

Opinions on the suicide theory and the murder theory vary widely. Van Gogh enthusiasts even made a film to unravel the mystery of his death — Loving Vincent. This 90-minute film, created entirely in oil paintings, recreates the details of the last six weeks of Van Gogh’s life, one story after another piecing together a vivid, three-dimensional portrait of the man.

▼ Van Gogh’s agony after cutting off his ear @Loving Vincent

▼ Recreating Van Gogh’s original works @Loving Vincent

Van Gogh said: “Dying may not be the hardest thing. As for me, I confess I do not understand it. I often ask myself why we cannot touch the starlight in the sky. Perhaps we can reach that star through death. It’s getting late, time to go to bed. Good luck, good night! Let me shake your hand! Your loving Vincent.”

A shining star in the history of art was extinguished. But the light that star sent out still pierces the boundless darkness, traveling on through endless space and time.

▼ Your loving Vincent @Loving Vincent

P.S. Main references for this article: Facing Vincent van Gogh; Loving Vincent; Van Gogh: The Life. P.P.S. The theme of this piece is “Loving Vincent” — which comes from the way Van Gogh signed his letters: Loving Vincent. P.P.P.S. I have no intention of infringing copyright; if any infringement exists, please write to let me know and it will be removed immediately.