Vincent Van Gogh, a Troubled Artist Ahead of His Time

Today in this article we will be following a case of world-renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh, his paintings gross millions of dollars worldwide, this case is interesting because it was long thought that he committed suicide, but recently it has been alleged that this was a murder, so without wasting time lets jump into it.

Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter famous for his short-stroke paintings, born on 30th March 1953. Most of his life he was deemed as unsuccessful and had a reputation of being psychotic, though his early works show him as a cheerful character. 

It is interesting to note that as his battle with depression took a toll on him, he started to invent and implement new styles of paintings and his most famous paintings are his self-portraits with his ear cut off.

This tends to point in one direction that this man was a troubled genius, his paintings were said to be 20-30 years ahead of his time, there is a mystery surrounding his death and at the time it remains unsolved. 

Well in this article, I am going to tell you about some of the theories surrounding his death, but first, let's quickly look into the timeline of his life.

Early Life 

Van Gogh was born in an upper-middle-class family in a predominantly catholic province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. He was interested in art from a young age due to his mother. Most of his life he was homeschooled and was taught by his mother.

At the age of 16, he began his art career as an apprentice of Goupil and Cie. He worked for a company in Hague, London and finally in Paris, where he was released by the company 2 days before his 23rd birthday.

In 1881 after scorching through Europe and doing dead-end jobs he moved back with his parents, jobless and without direction in life. He started to get depression, although his younger brother Theo started giving him money, who at the time was the manager of Goupil and Cie, and he still could not fight the depression. 

For a few years, Vincent would move out and roam through Europe, and no one would know if he would return or if he was dead, but every time he would return to his parent's home.

In 1884, when he was in his 30’s he thought that he should start paying back the money his brother, to show that he was thankful for supporting him all these years. 

But still, at the time he had only one asset, that was his paintings, he began sending his paintings to his brother Theo to sell in Paris, but at that time his paintings could not make a market in Paris as his paintings could not make a place in contemporary culture.

For the next five years, his life did not improve at all, he started an art gallery which failed, roamed in Europe, etc. However, the style associated with Vincent started taking its true form, the disruptive paintings, the short strokes, etc. 

At this time he moved to brighter subjects often self-portraits, this was the time when you can see what was going in his mind at that time through his paintings.

Unfortunately for him, this progress took place at a time when his mental health started to deteriorate and he found himself hallucinating on things and this was the time where he painted “starry night”. 

Notably this was also the time when he started heavy drinking and became an alcoholic (this detail will help us in the theories leading us to his death).

Although the timeline is messed up people believe this is the time when he severed his ear and gifted it to a sex worker, just a day after this incident he was admitted to a hospital. 

Eventually, he checked himself into a psychiatric ward and spent a year there. During this time, he sat and wondered about things and used to make masterpieces that are today sold for millions. All in all, Vincent made about 150 paintings in the hospital.

In January 1890, Theo and his wife welcomed a child and famously named him after the infant's uncle. He then began sending his paintings (again) to his brother as a form of payback, this was the time when his art started being recognized.

After checking himself out from the mental institution, he moved to a village near Paris where he could be near his brother Theo and during this time Theo told Von Gogh that he was planning on starting his own business, Van Gogh became deeply worried about this as Theo wanted to gamble this move on his own expense.

Mere days after this, Van Gogh left his Inn where he was staying to go to nearby grasslands to paint with his easel and other supplies. It was a warm day and the guests at the Inn were enjoying the evening after the sunset. 

Van Gogh arrived, he went past them without exchanging words, notedly he also had none of his belongings he left with and had his jacket buttoned up till neck and pretended as if he was hiding something.

When the owner went up to check him in his room, he was all curled up and was mumbling in pain, when the owner asked Van Gogh if he was okay, Van Gogh revealed the wound of a gunshot and told him I wounded himself. 

Soon his brother was informed and when Theo arrived he found Van Gogh smoking in his bed and his last word were “I want to die like this” (pretty cool way to die right?)

At the age of 37, Vincent Van Gogh's career was over, leaving behind approximately 1300 paintings on paper and more than 850 artworks. At that time there was no autopsy conducted and the exact location of the shooting was unknown. 

The undocumented time of about 5 hours between him leaving the hotel and him coming back certainly points towards a foul play.

Without further ado, let's jump into the theories behind his death.

The First and Prevailing Theory

It is that Van Gogh was a troubled genius and he shot himself in the wheat field according to Adeline Ravoux, the then 13-year-old daughter of the Inn owner “as per my father, Van Gogh went towards the wheat field, where he usually painted. He had thoughts of suicide and started contemplating it. 

He took the gun and then shot himself, he was wounded and due to this, he fainted. But the coolness of the night revived him and started he searching for the gun, but could not find it, finally, he decided to come back.”

Perhaps no one was more adamant about this theory then Van Gogh himself, witness recall Van Gogh saying “I wounded myself in the field, I shot myself in the field” “do not accuse anyone of murder it was me who shot myself, I wanted to kill myself”. 

Notably when asked by the police that did he intend to kill himself? he said “I think so.”

But for me, I think that is not possible because if he shot himself with a revolver he would have killed himself immediately, also he shot himself on the ribs which is an odd place to shoot, and why would he not shoot himself in the head? 

Even if he shot himself the reports say there is no way an individual can inflict himself such a wound without help from others. Notably, no gun was ever found near the scene.

If a person shoots himself, I don't think he will throw away his gun, but at the same time, there is an argument that says if he shot himself and was bleeding do you think the search was thorough? 

When he returned to the Inn the blood was flowing; the blood did not clot and the wound was fresh, which means he was shot recently and still he was able to walk to the Inn, I don't think that's possible if he shot himself. 

So I don't think this theory is aptly plausible.
 
If somebody shot him why was Van Gogh trying to save the person that shot him? 

Given Van Gogh had no friends, acquaintance, or no relation with anyone, also I don't think that he would carry his art supplies, given he wanted to kill himself, but an argument states that what if he wanted to draw one last portrait and then become famous by shooting himself. 

Given the logistics of the situations no one knows where Van Gogh got the gun, revolvers were not at all common in Paris at that time.

In addition to all the evidence pointing towards that he did not commit suicide, Van Gogh was a religious man who condemned suicide, calling it “wicked” and an act of “moral cowardliness.

When asked by people how life was for Van Gogh, there are accounts of people telling that he was an eccentric man, always had shabby clothes and his cut off ear did not help either.

People would usually retreat when Van Gogh asked them to sit for him while making a portrait. People usually did not enjoy his company, and at a young age of 37, he used to look like a grumpy old man.

He used to get bullied by teenage boys. They used to act as a friend to Van Gogh and then bullied him. Accounts say that they dipped the end of his brush (that he used to suck while working) in chili water. 

The pranks did not stop here, accounts recall boys doing much worse things than this, like once putting a snake in his supplies.

One such boy's name was Rene Secretan who in an interview said “our favorite game was to make him angry, which was easy” but his elder brother Gaston was a student of art and was particularly close to Van Gogh. 

Van Gogh figured that he had to endure Rene as to remain friends with Gaston, also Rene had no interest in art and was actually interested in fishing and hunting.

Moreover, Rene used to attend cowboy fights and was very much fascinated by them. After watching Buffalo Bill's show named ‘Wild WildWest’, he came back with a full outfit of cowboy completed with a gun. Accounts say Van Gogh started making fun of Rene by saying “Buffalo Pill”, this angered Rene and,

This Segues Us to Theory 2 

This theory suggests that two Secratan brothers quarreled with Van Gogh and the small brother accidentally shot Van Gogh. Van Gogh after accidentally being shot by the boys stumbled to the Inn and covered for the boys, boys seemingly in shock of what they have done decided to take Van Gogh’s belonging and hid it near the village or probably destroyed it.

For me this theory is more plausible, as told earlier he was close to the older brother Gaston and maybe to protect him he had given this murder the name of suicide. 

This theory is backed by the accounts of witnesses that say he went nowhere near the field where he used to paint, instead, he went near Raise the place where Rene enjoyed fishing, and the brothers probably met him on the way, where they quarreled. 

This theory, in turn, solves most of the inconsistencies in the suicide story

1. The odd entry point of the bullet
2. Why did he not leave a suicide note
3. Why did he carry the art supplies
4. Why the gun and his art supplies were never found
5. And why did he not shoot himself in the head

This ends the curious and mysterious theories of death of Vincent Van Gogh. At the time of his death, this depressed man did not know that he’ll have a whole museum dedicated to his art and that his paintings would gross millions of dollars. What he did know was how the bullet found its home in his abdomen.

His funeral was attended by very few people and no autopsy was ever conducted. Though these are the most prevailing theories, the fact that no evidence has been found and no one was convicted in this bizarre yet peaceful death of Vincent Van Gogh makes this case unsolvable.

Written by - @thatfunnykidinthecrowd

Edited by - Anusha Vajha