143 Facts About Van Gogh

1.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,755
2.

Van Gogh was not commercially successful and, struggling with severe depression and poverty, committed suicide at the age of 37.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,756
3.

Van Gogh began drawing at an early age and as a young man worked as an art dealer, often traveling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,757
4.

Van Gogh turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,758
5.

Van Gogh drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881, having returned home to his parents.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,759
6.

Van Gogh's paintings grew brighter as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the South of France in 1888.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,760
7.

Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, psychotic episodes, delusions and, although he worried about his mental stability, often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,761
8.

Van Gogh's depression persisted and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a revolver, dying from his injuries two days later, with his brother Theo at his side.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,762
9.

Van Gogh's paintings did not sell during his lifetime, during which he was generally considered a madman and a failure, although some collectors recognized the value of his work.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,763
10.

Scholars increasingly have recognized the role of Vincent's sister-in-law Jo Bonger-Van Gogh for shaping and promoting his reputation as an artist.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,764
11.

Van Gogh evolved in the public imagination into a misunderstood genius.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,765
12.

Van Gogh's reputation grew in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves and German Expressionists.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,766
13.

Van Gogh attained widespread critical and commercial success over the ensuing decades, and is remembered as an important but tragic painter whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,767
14.

Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings to have ever sold, and his legacy is honoured by the Van Gogh Museum established by the Dutch government in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,768
15.

Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support as well as access to influential people on the contemporary art scene.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,769
16.

Van Gogh turned around and returned without making his presence known.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,770
17.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the Netherlands.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,771
18.

Van Gogh was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and his wife, Anna Cornelia Carbentus .

FactSnippet No. 1,310,772
19.

Van Gogh was given the name of his grandfather and of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,773
20.

Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague, and his father was the youngest son of a minister.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,774
21.

Van Gogh's mother was a rigid and religious woman who emphasized the importance of family to the point of for those around her.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,775
22.

Van Gogh was taught at home by his mother and a governess, and in 1860, was sent to the village school.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,776
23.

Van Gogh was encouraged to draw as a child by his mother, and his early drawings are expressive, but do not approach the intensity of his later work.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,777
24.

Van Gogh's philosophy was to reject technique in favour of capturing the impressions of things, particularly nature or common objects.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,778
25.

Van Gogh later wrote that his youth was "austere and cold, and sterile".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,779
26.

Van Gogh became infatuated with his landlady's daughter, Eugenie Loyer, but she rejected him after confessing his feelings; she was secretly engaged to a former lodger.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,780
27.

Van Gogh's parents had meanwhile moved to Etten; in 1876 he returned home at Christmas for six months and took work at a bookshop in Dordrecht.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,781
28.

Van Gogh was unhappy in the position and spent his time doodling or translating passages from the Bible into English, French, and German.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,782
29.

Van Gogh immersed himself in Christianity, and became increasingly pious and monastic.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,783
30.

Van Gogh prepared for the University of Amsterdam theology entrance examination; he failed the exam and left his uncle's house in July 1878.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,784
31.

Van Gogh undertook, but failed, a three-month course at a Protestant missionary school in Laken, near Brussels.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,785
32.

Van Gogh's humble living conditions did not endear him to church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,786
33.

Van Gogh then walked the 75 kilometres to Brussels, returned briefly to Cuesmes in the Borinage, but he gave in to pressure from his parents to return home to Etten.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,787
34.

Van Gogh stayed there until around March 1880, which caused concern and frustration for his parents.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,788
35.

Van Gogh's father was especially frustrated and advised that his son be committed to the lunatic asylum in Geel.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,789
36.

Van Gogh returned to Cuesmes in August 1880, where he lodged with a miner until October.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,790
37.

Van Gogh became interested in the people and scenes around him, and he recorded them in drawings after Theo's suggestion that he take up art in earnest.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,791
38.

Van Gogh traveled to Brussels later in the year, to follow Theo's recommendation that he study with the Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, who persuaded him – in spite of his dislike of formal schools of art – to attend the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,792
39.

Van Gogh registered at the Academie in November 1880, where he studied anatomy and the standard rules of modelling and perspective.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,793
40.

Van Gogh returned to Etten in April 1881 for an extended stay with his parents.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,794
41.

Van Gogh continued to draw, often using his neighbours as subjects.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,795
42.

Late in November 1881, Van Gogh wrote a letter to Johannes Stricker, one which he described to Theo as an attack.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,796
43.

Van Gogh quarrelled with his father, refusing to attend church, and left for The Hague.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,797
44.

Van Gogh could afford to hire only people from the street as models, a practice of which Mauve seems to have disapproved.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,798
45.

Van Gogh liked the medium, and he spread the paint liberally, scraping from the canvas and working back with the brush.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,799
46.

Van Gogh wrote that he was surprised at how good the results were.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,800
47.

Van Gogh had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik, and her young daughter.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,801
48.

Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,802
49.

Van Gogh's had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,803
50.

When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,804
51.

Van Gogh believed Van Gogh was his father, but the timing of his birth makes this unlikely.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,805
52.

Van Gogh completed The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen, which was stolen from the Singer Laren in March 2020.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,806
53.

Van Gogh's palette consisted mainly of sombre earth tones, particularly dark brown, and showed no sign of the vivid colours that distinguished his later work.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,807
54.

One of his young peasant sitters became pregnant in September 1885; Van Gogh was accused of forcing himself upon her, and the village priest forbade parishioners to model for him.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,808
55.

Van Gogh lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend the money Theo sent on painting materials and models.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,809
56.

Van Gogh bought Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts in the docklands, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,810
57.

Van Gogh was drinking heavily again, and was hospitalised between February and March 1886, when he was possibly treated for syphilis.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,811
58.

Van Gogh became ill and run down by overwork, poor diet and excessive smoking.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,812
59.

Van Gogh started to attend drawing classes after plaster models at the Antwerp Academy on 18 January 1886.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,813
60.

Van Gogh quickly got into trouble with Charles Verlat, the director of the academy and teacher of a painting class, because of his unconventional painting style.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,814
61.

Van Gogh had clashed with the instructor of the drawing class Franz Vinck.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,815
62.

Van Gogh finally started to attend the drawing classes after antique plaster models given by Eugene Siberdt.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,816
63.

Soon Siberdt and Van Gogh came into conflict when the latter did not comply with Siberdt's requirement that drawings express the contour and concentrate on the line.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,817
64.

When Van Gogh was required to draw the Venus de Milo during a drawing class, he produced the limbless, naked torso of a Flemish peasant woman.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,818
65.

Siberdt regarded this as defiance against his artistic guidance and made corrections to Van Gogh's drawing with his crayon so vigorously that he tore the paper.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,819
66.

The story that Van Gogh was expelled from the academy by Siberdt is therefore unfounded.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,820
67.

Van Gogh moved to Paris in March 1886 where he shared Theo's rue Laval apartment in Montmartre and studied at Fernand Cormon's studio.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,821
68.

Van Gogh tried his hand at Japonaiserie, tracing a figure from a reproduction on the cover of the magazine Paris Illustre, The Courtesan or Oiran, after Keisai Eisen, which he then graphically enlarged in a painting.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,822
69.

Van Gogh worked at the studio in April and May 1886, where he frequented the circle of the Australian artist John Peter Russell, who painted his portrait in 1886.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,823
70.

Theo kept a stock of Impressionist paintings in his gallery on boulevard Montmartre, but Van Gogh was slow to acknowledge the new developments in art.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,824
71.

Van Gogh adopted elements of Pointillism, a technique in which a multitude of small coloured dots are applied to the canvas so that when seen from a distance they create an optical blend of hues.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,825
72.

In February 1888, feeling worn out from life in Paris, Van Gogh left, having painted more than 200 paintings during his two years there.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,826
73.

Van Gogh seems to have moved with thoughts of founding an art colony.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,827
74.

Van Gogh was enchanted by the local countryside and light; his works from this period are rich in yellow, ultramarine and mauve.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,828
75.

Van Gogh wanted a gallery to display his work and started a series of paintings that eventually included Van Gogh's Chair, Bedroom in Arles, The Night Cafe, Cafe Terrace at Night, Starry Night Over the Rhone, and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, all intended for the decoration for the Yellow House.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,829
76.

Van Gogh wrote that with The Night Cafe he tried "to express the idea that the cafe is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,830
77.

When Gauguin agreed to visit Arles in 1888, Van Gogh hoped for friendship and the realisation of his idea of an artists' collective.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,831
78.

When Boch visited again, Van Gogh painted a portrait of him, as well as the study The Poet Against a Starry Sky.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,832
79.

In preparation for Gauguin's visit, Van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin, whose portrait he painted.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,833
80.

When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, Van Gogh started to work on the Decoration for the Yellow House, probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,834
81.

Van Gogh completed two chair paintings: Van Gogh's Chair and Gauguin's Chair.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,835
82.

Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital, where he was treated by Felix Rey, a young doctor still in training.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,836
83.

Van Gogh arrived on Christmas Day and comforted Vincent, who seemed to be semi-lucid.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,837
84.

Van Gogh spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and delusions of poisoning.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,838
85.

Van Gogh gave his 1889 Portrait of Doctor Felix Rey to Dr Rey.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,839
86.

Van Gogh entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum on 8 May 1889, accompanied by his caregiver, Frederic Salles, a Protestant clergyman.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,840
87.

Van Gogh had two cells with barred windows, one of which he used as a studio.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,841
88.

Van Gogh made several studies of the hospital's interiors, such as Vestibule of the Asylum and Saint-Remy, and its gardens, such as Lilacs .

FactSnippet No. 1,310,842
89.

Van Gogh was allowed short supervised walks, during which time he painted cypresses and olive trees, including Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above, Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background 1889, Cypresses 1889, Cornfield with Cypresses, Country road in Provence by Night .

FactSnippet No. 1,310,843
90.

Van Gogh instead worked on interpretations of other artist's paintings, such as Millet's The Sower and Noonday Rest, and variations on his own earlier work.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,844
91.

Van Gogh was an admirer of the Realism of Jules Breton, Gustave Courbet and Millet, and he compared his copies to a musician's interpreting Beethoven.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,845
92.

Van Gogh asked his mother and his brother to send him drawings and rough work he had done in the early 1880s so he could work on new paintings from his old sketches.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,846
93.

In February, Van Gogh painted five versions of L'Arlesienne, based on a charcoal sketch Gauguin had produced when she sat for both artists in November 1888.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,847
94.

From 20 March to 27 April 1890, Van Gogh was included in the sixth exhibition of the Societe des Artistes Independants in the Pavillon de la Ville de Paris on the Champs-Elysees.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,848
95.

In May 1890, Van Gogh left the clinic in Saint-Remy to move nearer to both Dr Paul Gachet in the Paris suburb of Auvers-sur-Oise and to Theo.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,849
96.

In July 1890, Van Gogh completed two paintings of Daubigny's Garden, one of which is likely his final work.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,850
97.

Van Gogh wrote that they represented his "sadness and extreme loneliness" and that the "canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words, that is, how healthy and invigorating I find the countryside".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,851
98.

Research published in 2020 by senior researchers at the museum Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp, reviewing findings of Wouter van der Veen, the scientific director of the Institut Van Gogh, concluded that it was "highly plausible" that the exact location where Van Gogh's final work Tree Roots was some 150 metres from the Auberge Ravoux inn where he was staying, where a stand of trees with a tangle of gnarled roots grew on a hillside.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,852
99.

On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a 7mm Lefaucheux pinfire revolver.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,853
100.

Van Gogh was able to walk back to the Auberge Ravoux, where he was attended to by two doctors, but without a surgeon present the bullet could not be removed.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,854
101.

The consensus is that Van Gogh had an episodic condition with periods of normal functioning.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,855
102.

Gun Van Gogh was reputed to have used was rediscovered in 1965 and was auctioned, on 19 June 2019, as "the most famous weapon in art history".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,856
103.

Van Gogh drew, and painted with watercolours while at school, but only a few examples survive and the authorship of some has been challenged.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,857
104.

Van Gogh persevered; he experimented with lighting in his studio using variable shutters and different drawing materials.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,858
105.

Van Gogh had some of them photographed, but when his brother remarked that they lacked liveliness and freshness, he destroyed them and turned to oil painting.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,859
106.

Van Gogh turned to well-known Hague School artists like Weissenbruch and Blommers, and he received technical advice from them as well as from painters like De Bock and Van der Weele, both of the Hague School's second generation.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,860
107.

Van Gogh moved to Nuenen after a short period of time in Drenthe and began work on several large paintings but destroyed most of them.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,861
108.

Van Gogh was aware many of his faults were due to lack of experience and technical expertise, so in November 1885 he travelled to Antwerp and later Paris to learn and develop his skills.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,862
109.

Van Gogh came to believe that the effect of colour went beyond the descriptive; he said that "colour expresses something in itself".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,863
110.

Van Gogh strove to be a painter of rural life and nature; during his first summer in Arles he used his new palette to paint landscapes and traditional rural life.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,864
111.

Van Gogh's paintings of flowers are filled with symbolism, but rather than use traditional Christian iconography he made up his own, where life is lived under the sun and work is an allegory of life.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,865
112.

Van Gogh stayed within what he called the "guise of reality" and was critical of overly stylised works.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,866
113.

Van Gogh wrote afterwards that the abstraction of Starry Night had gone too far and that reality had "receded too far in the background".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,867
114.

Between 1885 and his death in 1890, Van Gogh appears to have been building an oeuvre, a collection that reflected his personal vision and could be commercially successful.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,868
115.

Van Gogh was influenced by Blanc's definition of style, that a true painting required optimal use of colour, perspective and brushstrokes.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,869
116.

Van Gogh applied the word "purposeful" to paintings he thought he had mastered, as opposed to those he thought of as studies.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,870
117.

Van Gogh painted many series of studies; most of which were still lifes, many executed as colour experiments or as gifts to friends.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,871
118.

Van Gogh was inclined to immerse himself in local cultures and lighting conditions, although he maintained a highly individual visual outlook throughout.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,872
119.

Van Gogh moved home often, perhaps to expose himself to new visual stimuli, and through exposure develop his technical skill.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,873
120.

Art historian Melissa McQuillan believes the moves reflect later stylistic changes, and that Van Gogh used the moves to avoid conflict, and as a coping mechanism for when the idealistic artist was faced with the realities of his then current situation.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,874
121.

Those closest to Van Gogh are mostly absent from his portraits; he rarely painted Theo, Van Rappard or Bernard.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,875
122.

Van Gogh created more than 43 self-portraits between 1885 and 1889.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,876
123.

Van Gogh can be seen with bandages in portraits executed just after he mutilated his ear.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,877
124.

Van Gogh painted several landscapes with flowers, including roses, lilacs, irises, and sunflowers.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,878
125.

Sunflowers were painted to decorate the walls in anticipation of Gauguin's visit, and Van Gogh placed individual works around the Yellow House's guest room in Arles.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,879
126.

Van Gogh brought life to the trees, which were traditionally seen as emblematic of death.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,880
127.

In mid-1889, and at his sister Wil's request, Van Gogh painted several smaller versions of Wheat Field with Cypresses.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,881
128.

Van Gogh painted swiftly, and although he brought to this series a version of Impressionism, a strong sense of personal style began to emerge during this period.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,882
129.

Van Gogh was enthralled by the landscape and vegetation of the south of France, and often visited the farm gardens near Arles.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,883
130.

Van Gogh made several painting excursions during visits to the landscape around Arles.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,884
131.

Van Gogh made paintings of harvests, wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area, including The Old Mill ; a good example of a picturesque structure bordering the wheat fields beyond.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,885
132.

At various points, Van Gogh painted the view from his window – at The Hague, Antwerp, and Paris.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,886
133.

Many of the late paintings are sombre but essentially optimistic and, right up to the time of Van Gogh's death, reflect his desire to return to lucid mental health.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,887
134.

About 10 July 1890, Van Gogh wrote to Theo of "vast fields of wheat under troubled skies".

FactSnippet No. 1,310,888
135.

Van Gogh's work was shown in several high-profile exhibitions, including six works at Les XX; in 1891 there was a retrospective exhibition in Brussels.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,889
136.

Russell had been a close friend of Van Gogh; he introduced Matisse to the Dutchman's work, and gave him a Van Gogh drawing.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,890
137.

In Paris in 1901, a large Van Gogh retrospective was held at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, which excited Andre Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, and contributed to the emergence of Fauvism.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,891
138.

Van Gogh's fame reached its first peak in Austria and Germany before World War I, helped by the publication of his letters in three volumes in 1914.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,892
139.

Van Gogh's letters are expressive and literate, and have been described as among the foremost 19th-century writings of their kind.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,893
140.

In 1934, the novelist Irving Stone wrote a biographical novel of Van Gogh's life titled Lust for Life, based on Van Gogh's letters to Theo.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,894
141.

Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,895
142.

Van Gogh then began negotiations with the Dutch government to subsidise a foundation to purchase and house the entire collection.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,896
143.

Van Gogh Museum opened in the Museumplein in Amsterdam in 1973.

FactSnippet No. 1,310,897