Vincent van Gogh: A Misunderstood Genius

By Karen Beishuizen

I have been a lifelong admirer of this man who, like myself, is from Holland or The Netherlands as it is known worldwide. Vincent died 29 July 1890. My Dad died exactly 100 years later on 29 July 1990. That’s why I always felt a connection. It is on my bucket list to visit Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise in France where Vincent created most of his famous work. It started all in a small town in the south of Holland where he was born 30 March 1853: Zundert, Noord-Brabant. He started drawing at a young age and became an art dealer in his twenties. He was transferred to London but didn’t like it one bit.

After moving to southern Belgium, he became a Protestant missionary in the hope religion would help him beat his depression. He became ill and moved back to his parent in Holland where he started a new hobby: Painting. Early works consisted of still lifes and peasant laborers. In 1885 Vincent became aware that an art dealer in Paris might have interest in his work and asked him if he had painting ready for an exhibition.

He responded with a painting that would become his first major work: The Potato Eaters. He met Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin after moving to Paris in 1886 and his work started to blossom: The colors became vivid, and he added olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers to his subjects. After painting more than 200 paintings he left Paris in 1988 and moved to Arles in the south of France. Little did he know that he would paint his most famous work right here in this pretty little town.

He lived in a hotel for a few months and then signed a lease for The Yellow House on 2 Place Lamartine. It was not furnished yet, but he could use it as a studio while living at Café de la Gare whose owners he befriended: Joseph and Marie Ginoux. He started a series of paintings that are world famous now: Van Gogh’s Chair, Bedroom in Arles, The Night Café, Café Terrace at Night, Starry Night Over the Rhone and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers. All these paintings were intended to decorate The Yellow House. Paul Gauguin promised Vincent to visit him in Arles and while he was waiting Vincent painted Sunflowers.

He needed 2 beds, so Paul had a place to sleep. Post office supervisor Joseph Roulin, whose portrait was painted by Vincent, told him where he could buy the beds. By the time Gauguin arrived in October 1888, Vincent had painted 2 more works which would become legendary: Van Gogh’s Chair and Paul Gauguin’s Armchair. Vincent adored and loved Paul and doted on him. He wanted to be treated as his equal but Gauguin, arrogant and a bully, refused and Vincent became frustrated. He feared Gauguin might leave him and he couldn’t stand being alone. There was a fight and Gauguin moved out into the nearby hotel.

Vincent, completely desperate, cut off his left ear with a razor. The bleeding was heavy, and he managed to bandage his head. He wrapped the ear in paper and delivered the package to a woman at the brothel he and Gauguin visited often. A policeman found him the next morning and he was taken to the hospital where someone had delivered the ear, but the doctor could not reattach it as too much time had passed. Later it was discovered that it was the brothel’s cleaner, a 17-year-old girl named Gabrielle, who had delivered Vincent’s ear to the hospital. Descendants of this girl still live in Arles. Vincent was placed into hospital care and treated for mental breakdown. When he was released and went back to The Yellow House, he painted The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles and Ward in the Hospital in Arles from memory. Paul Gauguin taught him this during his visit. He had left Vincent after the incident and never saw him again.

In March 1989 the police closed The Yellow House after 30 people signed a petition, including Joseph and Marie Ginoux, and wanted him out. They called him the redheaded madman (Le fou roux). Vincent returned to the hospital. He moved into rooms owned by Dr Felix Rey and painted the man from memory. He gave the doctor the painting who didn’t like it at all: it was used to repair a chicken coop and then gave it away. Now it is on display at The Pushkin Museum, worth $50 million. In June 1989 Vincent left Arles and checked himself into the asylum in Saint-Remy: He had 2 cells with barred windows. One was used as a studio. He painted his most famous work from the asylum: The Starry Night.

Severe depressions came up as he ran out of ideas what to paint due to not being allowed to go outside. Then an art critic Albert Aurier praised Vincent’s work in the newspaper Mercure de France in January 1890: he described Vincent as a genius. In February Vincent was invited to be part of an art exhibition in Brussels and from March – April he was in Paris showing his work. Claude Monet said Vincent’s work was the best on display. In May 1890 he left the clinic and moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris where his brother Theo lived. There was also a doctor who had treated other artists for depressions: Dr Paul Gachet.

He became another subject for one of Vincent’s most famous paintings. On 27 July 1890 Vincent was in a wheatfield where he was painting. For whatever reason he decided to end his life. He shot himself with a 7mm Lefaucheux pinfire revolver: the bullet was deflected by a rib and ripped through his chest without damage to internal organs. He was able to walk back home and was treated by two doctors but as there was no surgeon in town the bullet could not be removed. The wound became infected, and all help was too late. Vincent died on 29 July 1890: only 37 years old. His last words were: “The sadness will last forever” He was buried the next day in the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. His brother Theo couldn’t cope with Vincent’s death and his own health started to decline. He died on 25 January 1891 and was buried in Utrecht, Holland but in 1914 his body was exhumed and put to rest alongside Vincent’s.

During his life Vincent loved painting people: everybody he met ended up posing for him so he could do a portrait. He painted more than 43 self-portraits and looking at them you can tell the state Vincent was in. He loved painting flowers whether they were sunflowers, lilacs, roses, or irises. He became obsessed with cypresses and dedicated fifteen paintings to this tree. Wandering through the landscape of Arles he made several paintings of wheat fields. His family worked together and in 1973 The Van Gogh Museum opened in Amsterdam.

In 2022 the great-great-grandson of Vincent’s brother Theo resides in Amsterdam and is a painter: Lieuwe van Gogh who is 30 years old.

Check out his website: HERE