Van Gogh's suicide note. The mystery of Van Gogh's madness: what does his last painting say? The final stage of creativity

1. Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in the south of the Netherlands to the Protestant pastor Theodore van Gogh and Anna Cornelia, who was the daughter of a respected bookbinder and bookseller.

2. By the same name, the parents wanted to name their first child, who was born a year earlier than Vincent and died on the first day. In addition to the future artist, the family had five more children.

3. In the family, Vincent was considered a difficult and wayward child, when, outside the family, he showed the opposite traits of his temperament: in the eyes of his neighbors, he was a quiet, friendly and sweet child.

4. Vincent repeatedly dropped out of school - he left school as a child; later, in an effort to become a pastor like his father, he studied for university entrance exams in theology, but eventually became disillusioned with his studies and dropped out. Wanting to enroll in a gospel school, Vincent considered tuition fees to be discriminatory and refused to study. Turning to painting, Van Gogh began attending classes at the Royal Academy. fine arts but dropped out after a year.

5. Van Gogh took up painting as a mature person, and in just 10 years he went from a novice artist to a master who turned the idea of ​​fine art upside down.

6. For 10 years, Vincent van Gogh created more than 2 thousand works, of which about 860 are oil paintings.

7. Vincent developed a love for art and painting through his work as an art dealer in the large art firm Goupil & Cie, which belonged to his uncle Vincent.

8. Vincent was in love with his cousin Kay Vos-Stricker, who was a widow. He met her when she was staying with her son at his parents' house. Kee rejected his feelings, but Vincent continued courtship, which set all his relatives against him.

9. Absence art education affected Van Gogh's inability to write human figures. Ultimately devoid of grace and smooth lines in human images became one of the fundamental features of his style.

10. One of the most famous paintings Van Gogh called "Starry Night" was written in 1889, when the artist was in a hospital for the mentally ill in France.

11. According to the generally accepted version, Van Gogh cut off his earlobe during a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, when he came to the city where Vincent lived to discuss issues of creating a painting workshop. Unable to find a compromise in solving such a trembling topic for Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin decided to leave the city. After a heated argument, Vincent grabbed a razor and pounced on his friend, who fled the house. On the same night, Van Gogh cut off his earlobe, and not his ear completely, as was believed in some legends. According to the most common version, he did it in a fit of repentance.

12. According to estimates from auctions and private sales, Van Gogh's works, along with works of art, are among the first in the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold in the world.

13. A crater on Mercury is named after Vincent van Gogh.

14. The legend that only one of his paintings, Red Vineyards at Arles, was sold during Van Gogh's lifetime is not true. In fact, the painting sold for 400 francs was Vincent's breakthrough into the world of serious prices, but in addition to it, at least 14 more works by the artist were sold. There was simply no accurate evidence of the rest of the works, so in reality there could have been more sales.

15. By the end of his life, Vincent painted very quickly - he could finish his painting from beginning to end in 2 hours. However, he always quoted favorite expression American artist Whistler: "I did it in two o'clock, but I worked for years to get something worthwhile done in those two hours."

16. Legends about what mental disorder Van Gogh helped the artist to look into such depths that are inaccessible ordinary people, are also false. The seizures, which were similar to epilepsy, for which he was treated in a psychiatric clinic, began with him only in the last year and a half of his life. At the same time, it was precisely during the period of exacerbation of the disease that Vincent could not write.

17. Van Gogh's younger brother, Theo (Theodorus), was of great importance to the artist. Throughout his life, his brother provided Vincent with moral and financial support. Theo, being 4 years younger than his brother, fell ill with a nervous breakdown after Van Gogh's death and died just six months later.

18. According to experts, if it were not for the almost simultaneous early death of both brothers, fame for Van Gogh could have come as early as the mid-1890s and the artist could have become a rich man.

19. Vincent van Gogh died in 1890 from a gunshot to the chest. Going for a walk with drawing materials, the artist shot himself in the heart area from a revolver bought to scare away birds while working in the open air, but the bullet went lower. He died 29 hours later from blood loss.

20. The Vincent Van Gogh Museum, which has the world's largest collection of Van Gogh's works, was opened in Amsterdam in 1973. It is the second most popular museum in the Netherlands after the Rijksmuseum. 85% of visitors to the Vincent Van Gogh Museum come from other countries.

On March 30, 1853, the famous Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh was born, whose exhibition in his song last year was sung by the well-known group "Leningrad". The editors decided to remind their readers what kind of master he is, what he is famous for and how he lost his ear.

Who is Vincent van Gogh and what did he paint?

Van Gogh - worldwide famous artist, author of the famous "Sunflowers", "Irises" and "Starry Night". The master lived only 37 years, of which he devoted no more than ten to painting. Despite the short duration creative way, his legacy is huge: he managed to write more than 800 paintings and thousands of drawings.

What was Van Gogh like as a child?

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in the Dutch village of Grot-Zundert. His father was a Protestant pastor and his mother was the daughter of a bookbinder and bookseller. The future artist received his name in honor of his paternal grandfather, but it was not intended for him, but for the first child of his parents, who was born for a year formerly Wang Gog, but died on the first day. So, Vincent, being born second became the eldest in the family.

The household of little Vincent was considered wayward and strange, he was often punished for tricks. Outside the family, on the contrary, he was very quiet and thoughtful, he hardly played with other children. He went to the village school for only a year, after which he was sent to a boarding school 20 km from his home - the boy took this departure as a real nightmare and could not forget about what happened, even as an adult. After that, he was transferred to another boarding school, which he left in the middle of the school year and never recovered. Approximately the same attitude awaited all subsequent places where he tried to get an education.

When and how did you start drawing?

In 1869, Vincent took a job in his uncle's large art and trading firm as a dealer. It was here that he began to understand painting, to learn to appreciate and understand it. After that, he got tired of selling paintings, and he gradually began to draw and sketch himself. As such, Van Gogh did not receive education: in Brussels, he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, but left it a year later. The artist also visited the prestigious private art studio of the famous European teacher Fernand Cormon, studied impressionist painting, Japanese engraving, and the works of Paul Gauguin.

How did his personal life develop?

In the life of Van Gogh there were only unsuccessful relationships. The first time he fell in love while still working for his uncle as a dealer. Regarding this young lady and her name, the artist's biographers are still arguing, without going into details, it is worth saying that the girl rejected Vincent's courtship. After the master fell in love with his cousin, she also refused him, and the persistence of the young man turned all their common relatives against him. His next chosen one was a pregnant street woman Christine, whom Vincent met by chance. She, without hesitation, moved to him. Van Gogh was happy - he had a model, but Christina turned out to have such a severe temper that the lady turned her life young man in hell. So each love story ended very tragically, and Vincent for a long time could not recover from the psychological trauma inflicted on him.

Is it true that Van Gogh wanted to become a priest?

It really is. Vincent was from religious family: father is a pastor, one of the relatives is a recognized theologian. When Van Gogh lost interest in the painting trade, he decided to become a priest. The first thing he did after ending his career as a dealer was to move to London, where he worked as a teacher in several boarding schools. After, however, he returned to his homeland and worked in a bookstore. He spent most of his time sketching and translating passages from the Bible into German, English and French.

At the same time, Vincent expressed a desire to become a pastor, and his family supported him in this and sent him to Amsterdam to prepare for admission to the university in the department of theology. Only his studies, as well as at school, disappointed him. Leaving this institution as well, he took courses at the Protestant missionary school (or maybe he didn’t finish them - there are different versions) and spent six months as a missionary in the mining village of Paturazh in Borinage. The artist worked so zealously that the local population and members of the Evangelical Society appointed him a salary of 50 francs. After a six-month period, Van Gogh intended to enter an evangelical school to continue his education, but considered the introduced tuition fees to be a manifestation of discrimination and abandoned his intentions. At the same time, he decided to fight for the rights of workers and turned to the directorate of mines with a petition to improve working conditions. They did not listen to him and removed him from his post as a preacher. This was a serious blow to the emotional and mental state of the artist.

Why did he cut off his ear and how did he die?

Van Gogh communicated closely with another, no less famous artist Paul Gauguin. When Vincent settled in the south of France in the town of Arles in 1888, he decided to create the "Workshop of the South", which was to become a special brotherhood of like-minded artists, an important role in the workshop Van Gogh assigned to Gauguin.

On October 25 of the same year, Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles to discuss the idea of ​​creating a workshop. But peaceful communication did not work out, conflicts arose between the masters. In the end, Gauguin decided to leave. After another dispute on December 23, Van Gogh attacked a friend with a razor in his hands, but Gauguin managed to stop him. How this quarrel happened, under what circumstances and what caused it is unknown, but on the same night Vincent did not cut off his entire ear, as many used to believe, but only his lobe. Whether he expressed his remorse in this way, or whether it was a manifestation of illness is unclear. The next day, December 24, Van Gogh was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where the attack recurred, and the master was diagnosed with epilepsy of the temporal lobes.

The tendency to hurt himself was also the cause of Van Gogh's death, although there are many legends regarding this too. The main version is that the artist went for a walk with drawing materials and shot himself in the heart area from a revolver bought to scare away birds while working in the open air. But the bullet went down. So the master independently reached the hotel in which he lived, he was given first aid, but it was not possible to save Vincent van Gogh. On July 29, 1890, he died from blood loss.

How much are Van Gogh paintings worth now?

Vincent van Gogh by the middle of the 20th century began to be regarded as one of the greatest and most recognizable artists. His work, according to auction houses, is considered one of the most expensive. A myth spread that the master sold only one painting in his life - "Red Vineyards in Arles", but this is not entirely true. This picture was the first for which they paid a substantial amount - 400 francs. At the same time, documents have been preserved on the lifetime sale of at least 14 more works by Van Gogh. How many real transactions he made is unknown, but do not forget that he started as a dealer after all and was able to trade his paintings.

In 1990, at a Christie's auction in New York, Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. clouds", "Wheat field with cypresses" are estimated at about $ 50 million to $ 60 million. Still life "Vase with daisies and poppies" in 2014 was bought for $ 61.8 million.

The life, death and work of Vincent van Gogh have been studied quite well. Dozens of books and monographs have been written about the great Dutchman, hundreds of dissertations have been defended and several films have been made. Despite this, researchers are constantly finding new facts from the life of the artist. Recently, researchers have questioned the canonical version of the suicide of a genius and put forward their own version.

Van Gogh biography researchers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith believe that the artist did not commit suicide, but was the victim of an accident. Scientists came to this conclusion after conducting a large-scale search work and studying many documents and memoirs of eyewitnesses and friends of the artist.

Gregory White Smith and Steve Knife

Nyfi and White Smith designed their work in the form of a book called “Van Gogh. Life". Work on new biography Dutch artist took more than 10 years, despite the fact that scientists were actively assisted by 20 researchers and translators.

Auvers-sur-Oise cherishes the memory of the artist

It is known that Van Gogh died in a hotel in the small town of Auvers-sur-Oise, located 30 km from Paris. It was believed that on July 27, 1890, the artist went for a walk in the picturesque surroundings, during which he shot himself in the heart area. The bullet did not reach the target and went lower, so the wound, although severe, did not lead to immediate death.

Vincent van Gogh "Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun" Saint-Remy, September 1889

Wounded, Van Gogh returned to his room, where the hotel owner called a doctor. The next day, Theo, the brother of the artist, arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise, in whose arms he died on July 29, 1890, at 1.30 am, 29 hours after the fatal shot. Van Gogh's last words were "La tristesse durera toujours" (Sorrow will last forever).

Auvers-sur-Oise. Tavern "Ravu" on the second floor of which the great Dutchman died

But according to research by Stephen Knyfi, Van Gogh did not go for a walk in the wheat fields on the outskirts of Auvers-sur-Oise in order to take his own life.

“People who knew him thought he was accidentally killed by a couple of local teenagers, but he decided to protect them and took the blame.”

This is what Naifi thinks, referring to the numerous references to this strange story eyewitnesses. Did the artist have a weapon? Most likely it was, since Vincent once acquired a revolver to scare away flocks of birds, which often prevented him from drawing from life in nature. But at the same time, no one can say with certainty whether Van Gogh took weapons with him that day.

A tiny closet in which he spent last days Vincent van Gogh, 1890 and now

For the first time, the version of careless murder was put forward back in 1930 by John Renwald, a well-known researcher of the painter's biography. Renwald visited the city of Auvers-sur-Oise and spoke with several residents who still remembered the tragic incident.

Also, John was able to access the medical records of the doctor who examined the wounded man in his room. According to the description of the wound, the bullet entered the abdominal cavity in the upper part along a trajectory close to a tangent, which is not at all typical for cases when a person shoots himself.

The graves of Vincent and his brother Theo, who survived the artist by only six months

Stephen Nyfi in the book puts forward a very convincing version of what happened, in which his young acquaintances became the perpetrators of the death of a genius.

“It was known that these two teenagers often went out for drinks with Vincent at that time of the day. One of them had a cowboy suit and a malfunctioning gun with which he played cowboy."

The scientist believes that careless handling of the weapon, which was also faulty, led to an involuntary shot, with which Van Gogh was mortally wounded in the stomach. It is unlikely that teenagers wanted the death of their older friend - most likely, there was a murder by negligence. The noble artist, not wanting to ruin the life of the young men, took the blame upon himself, and told the guys to keep quiet.

Art historians are divided into two camps. Specialists from the Amsterdam Museum refute the recent statement that the artist was killed by a 16-year-old schoolboy.

Who killed Vincent van Gogh?

Before two years ago Stephen Knife And Gregory White-Smith published an exhaustive biography of the artist, it was indisputably believed that during his stay in France he committed suicide. But American authors put forward a sensational theory: Van Gogh was shot dead by a 16-year-old schoolboy René Secretan, although it is not clear if he did this on purpose. The artist lived for two more days and, according to the authors, "accepted death with satisfaction." He defended Secretan, claiming it was suicide.

In the July issue Burlington Magazine the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam joined the controversy. In a detailed biographical article, two of the museum's leading researchers, Louis van Tilborg And Teyo Medendrop, insist on the version of suicide. There is no doubt only that he died two days after he received a gunshot wound on July 27, 1890, somewhere in Auvers-sur-Oise. They undertook an investigation based largely on an obscure interview given by Secretan shortly before his death in 1957. The secretary recalled that he had a pistol with which he shot at squirrels. He and his older brother Gaston knew Van Gogh. René Secretan claims that the artist stole the weapon from him, but says nothing about the shot. Nyfe and White-Smith considered the interview a dying confession and referred to the late art historian John Rewald, who mentioned the rumors that circulated in Auvers that the guys had accidentally shot the artist. The authors believe that Van Gogh decided to defend René and Gaston from the accusations.

The conclusions of criminologists

Nayfe and White-Smith drew attention to the nature of the wound and concluded that the shot was fired "from some distance from the body, and not point-blank." This is what the doctors who treated Van Gogh testified: his friend Dr. Paul Gachet and local practitioner Jean Mazeri. After reviewing the facts, van Tilborg and Medendrop were convinced that Van Gogh had committed suicide. Their article says that Secretan's interview "in no way" supports the case of a murder committed intentionally or by negligence. From the interview it follows only that Van Gogh somehow got the weapons of the brothers. The authors emphasize that although Rewald retold the rumors about the Secretans, he did not really believe in them. Van Tilborg and Medendrop cite new data published last year in a book Alena Roana Vincent van Gogh: Has the suicide weapon been found? Dr. Gachet recalled that the wound was brown with a purple rim. The purple bruise is the result of a bullet hit, and the brown mark is a gunpowder burn: it means that the weapon was close to the chest, under the shirt, and therefore Van Gogh shot himself. In addition, Roan discovered new information about weapons. In the 1950s, a rusty revolver was found buried in a field just behind the Château d'Auver, where Van Gogh is said to have shot himself. Analysis showed that the revolver spent 60 to 80 years in the ground. The weapon was found next to the road, which in 1904 the son of Dr. Gachet depicted in a painting called Auvers: the place where Vincent committed suicide. The revolver was found just behind the low farmhouses shown in the center of the painting.

Article in Burlington Magazine also applies recent weeks Van Gogh's life. The authors argue with the generally accepted theory that the artist was depressed due to the fact that he lost the financial support of his brother Theo. Van Tilborg and Medendrop argue that Van Gogh was more concerned that Theo did not allow him to participate in decision making. Theo had serious problems with an employer, the gallery "Busso and Valadon", and he was going to start his own business: it was supposed to be a gallery, but Theo did not even consult with his brother, which made him feel even more alone. Van Tilborg and Medendrop conclude that the suicide was not an impulsive act, but a carefully considered decision. Although Theo's behavior played a role, the key factor was the painful thought of the artist that his obsession with art plunged him into the abyss of mental turmoil. The authors look for traces of this confusion in the last works of Van Gogh and point out that when he shot himself, he had in his pocket farewell note brother. Traditionally, Van Gogh's last work is considered to be the painting Crows over wheat field, but it was completed around July 10, more than two weeks before the artist's death. He himself wrote about this canvas: “A huge space under a stormy sky, dotted with wheat. I was trying to express sadness, extreme loneliness.” Van Tilborg has already suggested that recent works Van Gogh had two unfinished paintings - Tree Roots and Farms near Auvers. The article hypothesizes that the first of them is a program farewell work showing how elms fight for survival.

Van Gogh claimed that he shot himself. The same version was supported by his relatives. Nayfe and White-Smith argue that the artist was lying, while van Tilborg and Medendrop believe that he was telling the truth. In all likelihood, we need to carefully study the evidence of contemporaries about suicide.

Dr. Gachet immediately sent Theo a note with the message that Vincent had "injured himself". Adeline Ravu, whose father kept the hotel where the artist lived, later recalled that Van Gogh told the policeman: "I wanted to kill myself."

Terrible injury

Vincent was very close to his brother. It's hard to believe that he lied to his brother about his horrific injury just to save two teenagers who were poking fun at him from the police. In the end, it was much more difficult for Theo to endure suicide, since he felt part of his guilt in it. Heartbreaking sound last words Vincent van Gogh: "That's how I wanted to leave." In his letter to his wife, Theo says: "A few minutes passed, and it was all over: he found peace, which he could not find on earth."

When 37-year-old Vincent van Gogh died on July 29, 1890, his work was almost unknown to anyone. Today, his paintings are worth stunning sums and adorn best museums peace.

125 years after the death of the great Dutch painter, it is time to learn more about him and dispel some of the myths that, like all art history, his biography is full of.

He changed several jobs before becoming an artist

The son of a minister, Van Gogh started working at the age of 16. His uncle hired him as an intern for an art dealership in The Hague. He happened to travel to London and Paris, where the firm's branches were located. In 1876 he was fired. After that, he worked briefly as a schoolteacher in England, then as a bookstore clerk. From 1878 he served as a preacher in Belgium. Van Gogh was in need, he had to sleep on the floor, but less than a year later he was fired from this post. Only after that he finally became an artist and did not change his occupation anymore. In this field, he became famous, however, posthumously.

Van Gogh's career as an artist was short

In 1881, the self-taught Dutch artist returned to the Netherlands, where he devoted himself to painting. He was supported financially and materially by his younger brother Theodore, a successful art dealer. In 1886 the brothers settled in Paris, and these two years French capital turned out to be fateful. Van Gogh took part in exhibitions of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, he began to use a light and bright palette, experimenting with methods of applying strokes. The artist spent the last two years of his life in the south of France, where he created some of his most famous paintings.

In his entire ten-year career, he sold only a few of over 850 paintings. His drawings (there are about 1300 of them left) were then unclaimed.

He probably didn't cut off his own ear.

In February 1888, after living in Paris for two years, Van Gogh moved to the south of France, to the city of Arles, where he hoped to establish a community of artists. He was accompanied by Paul Gauguin, with whom they became friends in Paris. The officially accepted version of events is as follows:

On the night of December 23, 1888, they quarreled, and Gauguin left. Van Gogh, armed with a razor, pursued his friend, but, not catching up, returned home and, in annoyance, partially cut off his left ear, then wrapped it in a newspaper and gave it to some prostitute.

In 2009, two German scientists published a book suggesting that Gauguin, being a good swordsman, cut off part of Van Gogh's ear with a saber during a duel. According to this theory, Van Gogh, in the name of friendship, agreed to hide the truth, otherwise Gauguin would have been threatened with prison.

The most famous paintings were painted by him in a psychiatric clinic

In May 1889, Van Gogh asked for help from mental asylum Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, located in a former monastery in the city of Saint-Remy-de-Provence in southern France. Initially, the artist was diagnosed with epilepsy, but the examination also revealed bipolar disorder, alcoholism and metabolic disorders. Treatment consisted mainly of baths. He remained in the hospital for a year and painted a number of landscapes there. Over a hundred paintings from this period include some of his most famous works, such as " Starlight Night” (acquired by the New York Museum of contemporary art in 1941) and Irises (purchased by an Australian industrialist in 1987 for a then-record $53.9 million)