Vincent Van Gogh is a post-impressionist artist from the Netherlands. Over the ten years of creativity, Van Gogh created about 2100 works, which had a huge impact on the fine art of the XX century. Before the suicide of the artist at the age of 37 years, no one noticed his work. Currently, Van Gogh's works are the first in the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold worldwide.
Fact No. 1. First love of painting
Van Gogh's love of painting arose after being employed by his uncle Vincent in London. While staying at the position of art dealer of the art and trading company "Goupil & Cie", and every day in contact with various works of art, Van Gogh began to orient himself in painting, to understand and love it. At first, Vincent liked his work, and he achieved success in this field. This continued until Van Gogh's beloved refused to reciprocate. Her name remained unknown (according to various sources, her name was either Eugene or Ursula).
Her refusal of relations with Vincent greatly shocked the future artist. Because of this, he lost all interest in work, constantly felt miserable. He began to try himself in painting, and also increasingly began to turn to the Bible. As a result, in the spring of 1876, despite family ties, Van Gogh was fired from his uncle's company due to his neglect of work.
Fact No. 2. Van Gogh - a priest
After an unsuccessful career at Goupil & Cie, Vincent decides to follow in his father's footsteps - to become a clergyman. Having worked for free at several schools as a teacher and assistant pastor, Van Gogh is eager to preach the gospel to the poor.
Vincent studied sermon at the Protestant Missionary School for three months. In 1878, Van Gogh went to the small mining village of Paturaj in Borinage (in the south of Belgium), where he began active missionary work. He takes care of the sick, teaches the illiterate Bible, deals with children, and at night works as a drawer of maps and portraits for the local population. By this, he gains the favor of the inhabitants of the village and members of the religious community. As a result, he was assigned a salary of fifty francs.
Seeing the overwork of the miners, Van Gogh turned to the heads of the mines with a request to review the working conditions of the workers. His request was not simply rejected, but he was fired as a preacher. For an impressionable artist, this became a big shock and negatively affected his mental state.
Fact No. 3. Southern workshop
In 1888, Vincent van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles (a town in the south-east of France in the Provence region). Exhausted by the cold winter, misfortunes and illness in Paris, the artist wanted to find inspiration in Arles and improve his health. Van Gogh also dreamed of creating a commune for artists in the south of France, a kind of “Workshop of the South”, headed by his friend Paul Gauguin.
Fact No. 4. Cut off ear
During Van Gogh's residence in Arles, Paul Gauguin came to him to talk about organizing a general workshop for painting. This dialogue between friends soon grew into a quarrel. Gauguin realized that they would not come to a consensus with Vincent and decided to leave. There are several possible versions of this conflict of artists. According to one of them, Van Gogh pounced on Gauguin with a razor in his hand and, by a lucky chance, managed to avoid death. According to another version, Van Gogh attacked the sleeping Gauguin, but he woke up in time and escaped reprisal.
A reliable fact is that on that ill-fated night, Van Gogh cut off the lobe of his own ear. Most art historians believe that the artist cut off his ear in a fit of regret and repentance. According to other researchers, this was a violent manifestation of insanity due to the abuse of absinthe. After the artist nearly became the killer of his own friend, Vincent was isolated from society and placed in a clinic for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy-de-Provence.
Fact No. 5. The best picture
In the hospital of Saint-Remy-de-Provence, Vincent van Gogh continued to paint. Most often, he painted landscapes, window views of the garden and the surroundings of Saint-Remy. Here, the artist created one of his best works, "Starry Night." During the year spent in the clinic, Van Gogh created more than 150 oil paintings and about 100 drawings and watercolors.
Fact No. 6. Recognition in life
There is another myth that during the life of Van Gogh his works were not sold, and were not recognized by the general public. This is actually not the case.
In 1889, the artist took part in a Brussels exhibition called "Group of Twenty." There, his paintings were approved by other artists, critics and many connoisseurs of painting. But, unfortunately, this fact did not cause Van Gogh any emotion, because after all the trials and poverty he was mentally ill.
Fact number 7. 10 years of creativity
The incredible fact is that Van Gogh was engaged in painting only the last ten years of his life. For such a short period of time, the artist has created more than two thousand works. In the last year of his life, Vincent Van Gogh reached such a level of skill that he could completely paint a picture in just two hours. At such moments, he said that he wrote the work in two hours, but worked for years to do something worthwhile in these two hours.
Fact number 8. The mysterious death of the artist
Van Gogh died at the age of 37. The causes of his death are still full of secrets and mysteries. It is unclear whether this was a fatal accident, suicide or attempt.
According to one version, on July 27, 1890, Van Gogh went for a walk to draw from nature. The artist had a revolver with him to scare away the birds that bothered him while painting in the open air. Van Gogh accidentally shot himself in the heart, but the bullet went a little lower, so he could get to the hotel in which he lived.
The innkeeper immediately called a doctor and informed his brother Theo. Bleeding, Van Gogh refused medical care. Most likely, this happened due to the fact that Vincent no longer wanted to burden his brother, who had been supporting not only him all his life, but also his wife and child, as well as an elderly mother. The artist died of blood loss 29 hours after being shot in the arms of his younger brother Theo.
According to another version, which American art historians insist on, one of the teenagers who regularly drank with the artist in taverns shot at Van Gogh. According to Theo, the last words uttered in life by Van Gogh were: "Sorrow will last forever."
Fact No. 9. Brother Theo
The dearest and closest person in the life of the artist was his younger brother Theo. Thanks to his financial assistance, Vincent was able to seriously engage in painting. Theo loved his older brother very much and sincerely believed in his talent. But the communication between the brothers did not work out mainly due to the difficult nature of Vincent. A kinship was maintained thanks to Theo, who regularly wrote letters to his brother. Their correspondence lasted about eighteen years. Only 36 letters survived that Theo wrote to Vincent. Unlike Vincent, Theo was very sensitive to the messages of his older brother, so more than 600 letters from Vincent were preserved.
