Biography and episodes of life Vincent Van Gogh. When born and died Vincent Van Gogh, memorable places and dates important events his life. Artist Quotes, photos and videos.
Years of life of Vincent van Gogh:
born March 30, 1853, died July 29, 1890
Epitaph
“I’m standing there, and looming over me
Cypress twisted like a flame.
Lemon crown and dark blue, -
Without them I would not have become myself;
I would humiliate my own speech,
If only I could take someone else's burden off my shoulders.
And this rudeness of an angel, with what
He makes his stroke similar to my line,
Leads you through his pupil
To where Van Gogh breathes the stars.”
From a poem by Arseny Tarkovsky dedicated to Van Gogh
Biography
Without a doubt the greatest artist XIX V. With a recognizable manner, the author of internationally recognized masterpieces, Vincent Van Gogh was and remains one of the most controversial figures in world painting. Mental illness, passionate and uneven character, deep compassion and at the same time unsociability, combined with an amazing sense of nature and beauty, found expression in the artist’s enormous creative heritage. Throughout his life, Van Gogh painted hundreds of paintings and remained an unrecognized genius until his death. Only one of his works, “Red Vineyards in Arles,” was sold during the artist’s lifetime. What an irony: after all, a hundred years after Van Gogh’s passing, his tiniest sketches were already worth a fortune.
Vincent Van Gogh was born in a village in big family Dutch pastor, where he was one of six children. While studying at school, the boy began to draw with a pencil, and even in these very early drawings of the teenager, extraordinary talent is already visible. After school, sixteen-year-old Van Gogh was assigned to work in the Hague branch of the Parisian company Goupil and Company, which sold paintings. This gave the young man and his brother Theo, with whom Vincent had a not simple but very close relationship all his life, the opportunity to get acquainted with real art. And this acquaintance, in turn, cooled Van Gogh’s creative zeal: he strove for something sublime, spiritual, and in the end gave up what he considered a “base” occupation, deciding to become a pastor.
What followed were years of poverty, living from hand to mouth and the spectacle of much human suffering. Van Gogh was passionate about helping poor people, while at the same time experiencing an ever-increasing thirst for creativity. Seeing in art much in common with religious faith, at the age of 27 Vincent finally decides to become an artist. He works hard, goes to school fine arts in Antwerp, then moved to Paris, where at that time a whole galaxy of impressionists and post-impressionists lived and worked. With the help of brother Theo, who is still engaged in the painting trade, and with his financial support Van Gogh leaves to work in the south of France and invites Paul Gauguin there, with whom he became close friends. This time is the flowering of Van Gogh’s creative genius and at the same time the beginning of his end. The artists work together, but the relationship between them becomes increasingly tense and eventually explodes in the famous quarrel, after which Vincent cuts off his earlobe and ends up in a mental hospital. Doctors find he has epilepsy and schizophrenia.
The last years of Van Gogh's life were tossing between hospitals and attempts to return to normal life. Vincent continues to create while in the hospital, but he is haunted by obsessions, fears and hallucinations. Twice Van Gogh tries to poison himself with paints and, finally, one day he returns from a walk with a gunshot wound in his chest, having shot himself with a revolver. Van Gogh’s last words to his brother Theo were: “The sadness will be endless.” A hearse for the suicide's funeral had to be borrowed from a neighboring town. Van Gogh was buried in Auvers, and his coffin was strewn with sunflowers - the artist's favorite flowers.
Self-portrait of Van Gogh, 1887
Life line
March 30, 1853 Date of birth of Vincent Van Gogh.
1869 Start of work at the Goupil Gallery.
1877 Work as a teacher and life in England, then work as an assistant pastor, life with miners in Borinage.
1881 Life in The Hague, first paintings, created to order (cityscapes of The Hague).
1882 Meeting with Klozinna Maria Hornik (Sin), the artist’s “vicious muse”.
1883-1885 Living with parents in North Brabant. Creation of a series of works on everyday rural subjects, including the famous painting “The Potato Eaters”.
1885 Study at the Antwerp Academy.
1886 Acquaintance in Paris with Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Pissarro. The beginning of a friendship with Paul Gauguin and creative growth, the creation of 200 paintings in 2 years.
1888 Life and work in Arles. Three paintings by Van Gogh are exhibited at the Independent Salon. Gauguin's arrival collaboration and a quarrel.
1889 Periodic exits from the hospital and attempts to return to work. Final move to the shelter in Saint-Rémy.
1890 Several of Van Gogh's paintings were accepted for exhibitions of the Society of Twenty in Brussels and the Independent Salon. Moving to Paris.
July 27, 1890 Van Gogh wounds himself in Daubigny's garden.
July 29, 1890 Van Gogh's date of death.
July 30, 1890 Van Gogh's funeral in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Memorable places
1. The village of Zundert (Netherlands), where Van Gogh was born.
2. The house where Van Gogh rented a room while working at the London branch of the Goupil company in 1873.
3. The village of Kuem (Netherlands), where Van Gogh’s house, where he lived in 1880 while studying the life of miners, is still preserved.
4. Rue Lepic in Montmartre, where Van Gogh lived with his brother Theo after moving to Paris in 1886.
5. Forum Square with a cafe-terrace in Arles (France), which in 1888 Van Gogh depicted in one of his most famous paintings, “Cafe Terrace at Night.”
6. The hospital at the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mousol in the town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Van Gogh was placed in 1889.
7. Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent recent months life and where he is buried in the village cemetery.
Episodes of life
Van Gogh was in love with his cousin, but she rejected him, and the persistence of Van Gogh’s courtship put him at odds with almost his entire family. The depressed artist left his parents' house, where, as if in defiance of his family and himself, he settled with a corrupt woman, an alcoholic with two children. After a year of nightmare, dirty and miserable “family” life, Van Gogh broke up with Sin and forever forgot about the idea of starting a family.
No one knows exactly what caused Van Gogh's famous quarrel with Paul Gauguin, whom he greatly respected as an artist. Gauguin did not like Van Gogh's chaotic life and disorganization in his work; Vincent, in turn, could not get his friend to sympathize with his ideas of creating a commune of artists and general direction painting of the future. As a result, Gauguin decided to leave, and apparently this provoked a quarrel, during which Van Gogh first attacked his friend, although without harming him, and then mutilated himself. Gauguin did not forgive: subsequently he more than once emphasized how much Van Gogh owed him as an artist; and they never saw each other again.
Van Gogh's fame grew gradually but constantly. Since his very first exhibition in 1880, the artist has never been forgotten. Before the First World War, his exhibitions were held in Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, and New York. And already in the middle of the 20th century. Van Gogh's name became one of the most famous in the history of world painting. And today the artist’s works occupy first place in the list of the most expensive paintings in the world.
The grave of Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theodore in the cemetery in Auvers (France).
Testaments
“I am increasingly coming to the conviction that God cannot be judged by the world he created: this is just a failed sketch.”
“Whenever the question arose - to starve or work less, I chose the first, if possible.”
“Real artists don’t paint things as they are... They paint them because they feel like they are them.”
“He who lives honestly, who knows real difficulties and disappointments, but does not bend, is worth more than he who is lucky and knows only comparatively easy success.”
“Yes, sometimes it gets so cold in winter that people say: the frost is too severe, so it doesn’t matter to me whether summer returns or not; evil is stronger than good. But, with or without our permission, the frosts sooner or later stop, one fine morning the wind changes and a thaw sets in.”
BBC documentary “Van Gogh. Portrait written in words" (2010)
Condolences
"He was an honest man and a great artist, for him there were only two true values: love for one’s neighbor and art. Painting meant more to him than anything else, and he will always live in it.”
Paul Gachet, Van Gogh's last attending physician and friend
Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide on July 29, 1890, shooting himself with a revolver. He lived for 37 years, painted quite a lot of paintings during this time, but sold practically nothing, was poor, unknown and suffered from a mental disorder. Only after his death did fame come to his works.
The history of the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh has been thoroughly studied and is known to many. According to the official version, genius artist, suffering from mental illness, shot himself on July 29, 1890, aged 37. However, there is a new version of the death of the great painter, which has a right to exist.
Date and cause of death
Figure 1. Walk
Van Gogh's death was due to gunshot wound in the chest area. The bullet fired from Lefoshe's revolver passed tangentially in close proximity to the heart. It happened on July 27, 1890, while walking while staying at a hotel near Paris.
Having received a mortal wound, the artist was able to independently get to the hotel, where the owner called a doctor and, at the request of the wounded man, his brother Theo. Despite the efforts of the arriving doctor, Vincent Van Gogh died 29 hours after the shot. This happened on July 29, 1890 at half past one in the morning. The as yet unrecognized post-impressionist artist was 37 years old.
Versions of Van Gogh's death
Today there are 2 versions of how Van Gogh died, or rather the story of receiving a fatal gunshot wound. The first, official, is that the artist shot himself in the chest on his own, but due to inexperience, he placed the barrel of the revolver slightly away from his heart. Thus, he could not kill himself immediately, but inflicted a mortal wound. This is confirmed by eyewitnesses of his death, to whom the dying painter told this version.
Second version mysterious death Van Gogh appeared recently, in 2011. According to two American art historians - Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith - the painter died due to an accidental shot.
Their work relied on early research conducted by John Renwald, who dedicated his life to solving the mystery of the artist's death. This man visited the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, where the tragic event took place, and spoke with local population, and most importantly, he studied the medical records of the doctor who examined the wound. It followed from them that the bullet entered the abdominal cavity in the upper part along a trajectory close to a tangent, which is completely uncharacteristic for cases when a person shoots himself.
Also, to prove the correctness of their story, they cite the story local residents, who often saw the writer in the company of his new friends: “It was known that two guys at that time of the day often went drinking with Vincent. One of them had a cowboy suit and a faulty pistol with which he played cowboy.”
Scientists suggest that they might have been playing around firearms, which accidentally fired, hitting the painter. For what reason Vincent did not report this is unknown; researchers admit the possibility that the artist simply did not want to ruin the lives of those with whom he often spent evenings in drinking establishments.
Where is he buried?
Figure 2. Grave of Vincent van Gogh and brother Theodore
Vincent Van Gogh was buried on July 30, 1890, in the cemetery of the town of Auvers-sur-Oise. Conduct him to last path Several friends and my brother came. After the funeral was over, Theo attempted to organize an exhibition of paintings, but became seriously ill and died in Holland 6 months after his brother’s suicide. Only 25 years later the brothers “reunited” - Theo’s remains were reburied next to Vincent’s resting place.
Brief biography
Vincent Willem Van Gogh ( Vincent Van Gog) was born on March 30, 1853 in the Netherlands Grot-Zundert. During his 37 years of life, 10 of which were devoted to creativity, he never received recognition. Moreover, his acquaintances and neighbors feared him as a mentally unstable person. Worldwide fame came only several decades after the tragic death of the painter.
Modern researchers of creativity say: “His style is distinguished by extraordinary energy, and his paintings express the intensity of feelings and convulsive force. Van Gogh painted very quickly, with a sense of extreme urgency, applying paint straight from the tube to the canvas in thick, strong strokes..."
Childhood, youth, study
The boy was born into the family of a Catholic pastor. In addition to Vincent, the parents raised five more children. However, throughout his life he maintained a close relationship only with his younger brother, Theo.
Of all the children, he was the most mischievous child, often punished by his parents. On the contrary, he behaved completely oppositely with his peers: he always looked thoughtful and calm. At the age of seven he begins to study at a village school, but a year later his parents take their son and study with him at home. In the fall of 1864, the child was sent to the Zevenbergen boarding school, where Vincent entered full maintenance.
After 4 years he is transferred to another boarding house, here the boy begins to study foreign languages and receives his first skills as an artist. After 2 years, he unexpectedly quits his studies and returns home - this is where Van Gogh’s education and childhood ends. Subsequently, the artist will not be able to say anything interesting about that time, remembering only in cold and gloomy, abrupt phrases.
Figure 3. Still from a film about Van Gogh
Painting classes
At the age of fifteen he went to work at the art company Gupil and Co. Here the guy shows himself to be versatile and inquisitive, showing good prospects. The owner sends him to one of the London branches, where Vincent shows an interest in commerce and English engravings. The teenager's future looks bright and flawless.
Suddenly he withdraws into himself, quits his job and comes to work as a teacher at a missionary school in Belgium. Here he studies God's law in depth, makes sketches of miners, their life and families. Due to an attempt to defend the rights of miners before the administration, he is removed from preaching.
Trying to get away from the depression caused by what happened in Belgium, he finds himself in fine arts. With the support of his brother, Theo studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, but again drops out and returns to his parents.
Here he falls in love with his cousin, but, not finding reciprocal feelings, after a while he switches to a pregnant woman whom he meets on the street. Living together does not bring happiness - due to constant pressure from relatives and the difficult nature of her partner, she leaves her. During his life with her, he uses her as a model.
Having moved to the north, he settles in a shack, equips it as a workshop and takes up painting. Here peasants, landscapes, and rural life appear among the works.
A few months later he settled in Paris, and received 250 francs each month from his brother for living expenses. In response, as a token of gratitude, Vincent sends him several of his works. During a two-year period of residence in the city, he painted 230 canvases.
Friends, acquaintances
Figure 4. Self-portrait painted after a quarrel with Gauguin
Throughout his life, Vincent had no one except his brother Theo. During a certain period of time, while living in Provence, he became close to the French painter and sculptor Paul Gauguin, often arguing with him, discussing creative issues. The date December 23, 1888 became the date of the final quarrel. After another conflict, Van Gogh attacked his guest with a blade in his hands. Having come to his senses, he cut off his earlobe as a sign of repentance.
After this event, Vincent was placed in a psychiatric boarding house, where, after a similar attack, he was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy and was transferred to a ward for violent patients.
“Throughout my life I suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness. About 30 different diagnoses of his illness have been proposed, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, and depression. Any of these possible disorders were aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia, paint poisoning and consumption of alcohol, especially absinthe ... "
Pictures, facts from life
Figure 5. One painting from the “Sunflowers” series was sold for $74.5 million
In many documentaries, dedicated to the life and work of Van Gogh, is mentioned misconception that during life great artist sold only one painting, “Red Vineyards in Arles” (1888). Today there is documentary evidence that this painting is only the most expensive of all sold (400 francs).
In fact, Vincent Van Gogh sold his first painting back in 1882, as can be understood from the phrase written in a letter to his brother: “The first sheep crossed the bridge.” The sale of 14 paintings has been officially proven, although it is admitted that there were many more.
Today it is known for certain that over the 10 years of his career as a painter, Vincent Van Gogh created at least 850 paintings and more than 1,300 drawings and sketches. Of these, the most famous are the following works:
- “Montmajor. Red vineyards in Arles" (1888).
- Series of paintings “Sunflowers” (1987-1989).
- “Peasant Woman” (n/a).
- "The Potato Eaters" (1885).
- "Bedroom in Arles" (1889).
- "Self-Portrait" (1889).
- "Van Gogh's Chair" (1888).
- “Self-portrait with a cut off ear and a pipe” (1889).
The first exhibition of the works of the crazy artist, whose paintings are considered one of the most expensive in the world, took place in the second half of the 1880s. By the middle of the 20th century, contemporaries recognized him as one of the greatest and most recognizable artists in the history of painting. Famous painting Van Gogh " Starry night» stored in the museum Contemporary art in New York, which was created under the patronage of. There are his paintings in the National London Gallery, the Paris d'Orsay Museum, the Hermitage of St. Petersburg and other places.
Video about Van Gogh
"Van Gogh. With love, Vincent." A film dedicated to the life, work and mysterious death of the great painter, entirely painted in oil paints.
At the age of 37, on July 27, 1890, the amazing and unique artist Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide. In the afternoon, he went out into a wheat field behind the small French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, located a few kilometers from Paris, and shot himself in the chest with a revolver.
Before this, he had suffered from mental disorders for a year and a half, ever since he cut off his own ear in 1888.
The last days of the artist
After that notorious incident of self-harm, Van Gogh was tormented by periodic but debilitating attacks of insanity, which turned him into an embittered and inadequate person. He could remain in this state from several days to several weeks. In the periods between attacks, the artist was calm and thought clearly. These days he loved to draw and, it would seem, was trying to compensate for the time taken from him. In just over ten years of creativity, Van Gogh created several thousand works, including oil paintings, drawings and sketches.
His last creative period, held in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, turned out to be the most productive. After Van Gogh left the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, he settled in picturesque Auvers. In just over two months spent there, he completed 75 oil paintings and drew over a hundred drawings.
Death of Van Gogh
Despite his extraordinary productivity, the artist was constantly tormented by feelings of anxiety and loneliness. Van Gogh became increasingly convinced that his life was worthless and was wasted. Perhaps the reason for this was the lack of recognition of his talent by his contemporaries. Despite the novelty of artistic expression and the unique style of his paintings, Vincent van Gogh rarely received praise for his work.
Ultimately, the desperate artist found a small pocket revolver that belonged to the owner of the boarding house where Van Gogh lived. He took the weapon into the field and shot himself in the heart. However, due to the small size of the revolver and small caliber, the bullet got stuck in the rib and did not reach the target.
The wounded Van Gogh lost consciousness and fell into a field, dropping his revolver. In the evening, after dark, he came to his senses and tried to finish what he started, but could not find the weapon. He returned with difficulty to the boarding house, where the owners called the doctor and the artist’s brother. Theo arrived the next day and did not leave the wounded man's bedside. For some time, Theodore hoped that the artist would recover, but Vincent Van Gogh intended to die, and on the night of July 29, 1890, he died at the age of 37, finally telling his brother: “That’s exactly how I wanted to leave.”
On the verge of madness
Today the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is open new exhibition entitled "On the Threshold of Madness." It reveals in detail, carefully and as objectively as possible the life of the artist in the last year and a half, at that very time darkened by attacks of madness.
Although it does not provide an exact answer to the question of what exactly the artist suffered from, the exhibition presents viewers with previously unexhibited exhibits related to Van Gogh’s life and a number of his last works.
Possible diagnoses
As for the diagnosis, over the years there have been a lot of different theories, some justified and some not, as to what Vincent van Gogh actually suffered from and what his madness was. Both epilepsy and schizophrenia were considered. In addition, split personality, complications of alcohol addiction and psychopathy were listed as possible illnesses.
Van Gogh's first recorded bout of madness and violence was in December 1988, when, as a result of conflicts with his friend Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh attacked him with a razor. Nothing is known for certain about the causes and course of this particular quarrel, but as a result, in a fit of repentance, Van Gogh cut off his own ear with this very razor.
There are many theories regarding the causes of self-harm and even doubts about the very fact of self-harm. Many believe that Van Gogh thus sheltered Paul Gauguin from responsibility and trial. However, this theory has no practical evidence.
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
After an attack of violence, the artist was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where everything continued until Van Gogh was placed in a ward for particularly violent patients. At that time, the diagnosis of psychiatrists was epilepsy.
After the attack ended, Van Gogh asked to be released back to Arles so that he could continue painting. However, on the recommendation of doctors, the artist was transferred to a home for the mentally ill, located near Arles. Van Gogh lived in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence for almost a year. There he painted about 150 paintings, most of which were landscapes and still lifes.
The tension and anxiety that plagued the artist during this period are reflected in the extraordinary dynamism of his canvases and the use of darker tones. One of the most famous works Van Gogh's "Starry Night" was created during this period.
Curious exhibits
The exhibition "On the Threshold of Madness", despite the lack of precise diagnoses, provides an unusually visual and emotional account of last stage life of an artist. In addition to the paintings, over which last days Van Gogh worked, letters from his brother Theo, notes from the doctor who treated the artist in Arles, and even the revolver from which the artist shot himself in the chest are exhibited here.
The revolver was found in that same field seventy years after Van Gogh's death. Its model and corrosion confirm that this is the same weapon that inflicted the fatal wound on the artist.
A note in a letter from Dr. Felix Ray, who treated the artist after the sensational razor incident, contains a diagram showing exactly how Van Gogh's ear was cut off. Until now, it has often been mentioned that the artist cut off his earlobe. From the letter it follows that Van Gogh cut off the auricle almost completely, leaving only part of the lower lobe.
The final stage of creativity
The exhibition is of interest not only to those interested in the life and death of the great artist, but also to fans of his work, since the canvases, drawings and sketches presented in it appear before the viewer in a different light.
Against the backdrop of evidence of the artist's practical madness latest paintings appear as a kind of visual timeline, demonstrating when the artist experienced periods of clarity and peace, and when he was tormented by anxiety.
Last picture
The last painting that Van Gogh worked on on the morning of that very July day is called “Tree Roots.” The canvas remained unfinished.
At first glance, the painting is an abstract composition, unlike anything the artist has previously depicted on his canvases. However, upon careful study, an image of an unusual landscape emerges, in which main role reserved for the tightly woven roots of trees.
In many ways, Tree Roots is an innovative composition, even for Van Gogh - there is no single focal point and it does not follow rules. The painting seems to foreshadow the onset of abstractionism.
At the same time, considering this painting as part of the exhibition “On the Threshold of Madness,” it is difficult not to evaluate it retrospectively. Is there a secret to it and what is it? One involuntarily asks questions: when drawing the intertwined roots of trees, what was the artist thinking about, who in a few hours will try to shoot at his own heart?
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 artist’s life. 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 extensive search work and studying many documents and memories of eyewitnesses and friends of the artist.
Gregory White Smith and Steve Knife
Nayfi and White Smith compiled 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 the scientists were actively assisted by 20 researchers and translators.
In Auvers-sur-Oise the memory of the artist is carefully preserved
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 through 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 serious, did not lead to immediate death.
Vincent van Gogh "Wheat field with reaper and sun." Saint-Rémy, September 1889
The wounded Van Gogh returned to his room, where the hotel owner called a doctor. The next day, Theo, the artist’s brother, arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise, in whose arms he died on July 29, 1890, at 1.30 a.m., 29 hours after the fatal shot. Last words uttered by Van Gogh was the phrase “La tristesse durera toujours” (Sadness will last forever).
Auvers-sur-Oise. Tavern "Ravu" on the second floor of which he died the great Dutchman
But according to research by Stephen Knife, Van Gogh did not go for a walk through the wheat fields on the outskirts of Auvers-sur-Oise in order to take his own life.
“People who knew him believed he was accidentally killed by a couple of local teenagers, but he decided to protect them and took the blame.”
Nayfi thinks so, citing 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 no one can say with certainty whether Van Gogh took a weapon with him that day.
The tiny closet where Vincent van Gogh spent his last days, in 1890 and now
The version of careless murder was first put forward in 1930 by John Renwald, a famous researcher of the painter’s biography. Renwald visited the town of Auvers-sur-Oise and spoke with several residents who still remembered the tragic incident.
John was also 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 outlived the artist by only six months
In the book, Stephen Knife puts forward a very convincing version of what happened, in which his young acquaintances became the culprits in the death of the genius.
“It was known that the two teenagers would often go drinking with Vincent at that time of day. One of them had a cowboy suit and a faulty pistol with which he played cowboy.”
The scientist believes that careless handling of the weapon, which was also faulty, led to an involuntary shot, which killed Van Gogh in the stomach. It is unlikely that the teenagers wanted the death of their older friend - most likely, it was a murder due to negligence. The noble artist, not wanting to ruin the lives of the young men, took the blame upon himself, and ordered the boys to keep quiet.
Illustration copyright Van Gogh
On a summer day in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in a field outside Paris. A columnist examines the painting he was working on that morning to see what it says about the artist's state of mind.
On July 27, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh walked out into a wheat field behind a castle in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, a few kilometers from Paris, and shot himself in the chest.
By that time, the artist had already been suffering from mental illness for a year and a half - ever since, on a December evening in 1888, during his life in the city of Arles in French Provence, the unfortunate man cut off his left ear with a razor.
After this, he periodically had attacks that undermined his strength and after which he was in a state of clouded consciousness for several days, or even weeks, or lost touch with reality.
However, in the intervals between breakdowns his mind was calm and clear, and the artist could paint pictures.
Moreover, his stay in Auvers, where he arrived in May 1890 after leaving a psychiatric hospital, became the most fruitful stage of his creative life: in 70 days he created 75 paintings and more than a hundred drawings and sketches.
Dying, Van Gogh said: “That’s how I wanted to leave!”
However, despite this, he felt increasingly lonely and could not find a place for himself, convincing himself that his life was in vain.
Eventually he got hold of a small revolver that belonged to the owner of the house he was renting in Auvers.
It was this weapon that he took with him into the field on that fateful Sunday afternoon at the end of July.
However, he only got his hands on a pocket revolver, not very powerful, so when the artist pulled the trigger, the bullet, instead of piercing the heart, ricocheted off the rib.
Illustration copyright EPA Image caption The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam displays the weapon with which the artist is believed to have shot himself.Van Gogh lost consciousness and fell to the ground. When evening came, he came to his senses and began to look for a revolver to finish the job, but he couldn’t find it and trudged back to the hotel, where a doctor was called for him.
The incident was reported to Van Gogh's brother, Theo, who arrived the next day. For some time, Theo thought that Vincent would survive - but nothing could be done. That same night, at the age of 37, the artist died.
“I didn’t leave his bedside until it was all over,” Theo wrote to his wife Johanna. “As he died, he said: “That’s how I wanted to go!”, After which he lived for a few more minutes, and then it was all over, and he found peace that he could not find on earth."