He was disdainful of the art market
Vincent van Gogh held a lifelong aversion to the basic principles behind the art market. When he was younger, he spent eight years working for a gallery run by Goupil & Cie, firstly in the Hague and then in London and Paris. However, he was dismissed for openly questioning, in front of customers, the idea that works of art can be considered commodities to be bought and sold. He went to Arles in 1888, setting up the Atelier du Midi, in the famous Yellow House in Place Lamartine. He painted it that same year, and established a community of artists around research and experimentation, placing himself on the margins of the traditional art market.
He spent time as a pastor
Just after he was dismissed from the Goupil & Cie gallery, van Gogh went back to England, and was overcome with an intense spiritualism which rapidly evolved into religious vocation. Firstly working for some time as a professor in a boarding school, he then enrolled in a Methodist church where he was an assistant. Between 1877 and 1878 he studied theology in Amsterdam and then in Brussels, but failed his exams to become a preacher. This failure threw him into a long period of depression, and defined his choice to devote his life to painting.
He used self-portraiture to experiment with different techniques
Between 1886 and 1889, van Gogh painted over 20 self-portraits, often on very small canvases. Most of the paintings came to realization during a two year trip to Paris. By painting his own face, the artist experimented with different styles and techniques, and the evolution is visible throughout these 37 works, today scattered between private collections and the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York, among others. L’Autoportrait au visage glabre (1889), sold for 71.5 million dollars in 1998, becoming one of the most expensive paintings in history.
He only sold one painting in his lifetime
His younger brother Théo van Gogh, an art merchant, sold La vigne rouge in 1890 for 400 francs, a scene in a vineyard, to painter Anna Boch. It was only years after both the brothers had died that Johanna Bonger, Théo’s widow, who inherited the paintings, and Père Tanguy (one of the first collectors and merchants of impressionist works) began to sell the artist’s paintings. Edgar Degas was among the first buyers.
He spent one year in an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
In 1889, van Gogh suffered from another episode of chronic depression. He was first admitted to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, until his brother convinced him to relocate to one in Auvers-sur-Oise. From his room, he would observe the fields of wheat, giving life to a new series of paintings. Despite this deeply troubled time for the artist, he was incredibly productive, with Iris and Lilas born out of this period, painted in the gardens of the hospital.
He may have cut off his ear after an argument with Paul Gauguin
The infamous ear-cutting episode, which gave rise to two remarkable self-portraits, took place in Arles in 1988. Determined to unite a community of artists in the yellow house, based on a shared set of artistic values, van Gogh convinced his friend Paul Gauguin to join him. The two painters created a series of works inspired by the cemetery of Alyscamps. However, the pair often fought. On December 23, 1888, van Gogh was found in his bed with his left ear cut off. The most widespread theory is that it was an act of self-harm: van Gogh, overcome, cut his ear with a razor, before telling one of his neighbors, an employee in a brothel. Of course, this story had taken on many different forms. Another is told in a book by Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans, who write that Gauguin himself sliced off his friend’s ear with a sword.
He was an avid letter writer
He wrote more than 800 letters in his life, most of which were addressed to his brother Théo, and were gathered after the painter’s death in 1890 (it is thought that van Gogh put a bullet through his own chest, although this theory is often questioned). The letters were the access point for experts, allowing them a privileged look into the artist’s tormented and deeply depressive soul, and offering them incredible opportunity for analysis of his work. Many of his works can be read, such as Lettres de Van Gogh, the six volumes created by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
He was influenced by Japanese prints
In the second half of the 18th century, via the newly opened merchant channels between Japan the occident, Japanese art began to circulate throughout Europe. Van Gogh was fascinated by the prints, inspiring his painting L’amandier en fleurs, painted in the year he died. His study of the landscapes in Provence was for him, a continuation of this Japanese artworks he was so inspired by, and which equally had a major influence on the impressionist movement as a whole.
Translated by Ashe de Sousa
