BIOGRAPHY OF VINCENT VAN GOGH

A detailed Summary of BIOGRAPHY OF VINCENT VAN GOGH

I'm not going to include a full biography of Vincent van Gogh since such information is easily enough obtained from the more traditional media (do people still visit libraries and book shops these days?). As I mention on my References page, David Sweetman's Van Gogh: His Life and Art is an excellent biography and I would definitely recommend it. In addition, the chronology I include below gives a reasonable overview of the important events in the course of Vincent's life.

For my own Van Gogh site, I'd instead like to take a more personal approach (as I certainly do on my own Personal View page) and focus on a few details throughout the course of Vincent's life which, for me, have some interest. Often these may be just isolated moments, but each one offers a clue to the overall tapestry of Van Gogh's life.

* The Wanderer: I've always been haunted by the image of Vincent as the wanderer--of his time spent in poverty and isolation as he sought to help those around him, and perhaps to find himself in the process. Picture Vincent as he gives one of his first sermons in Isleworth, outside of London. Ask yourself: if you could be anywhere at any point in history, what would your top ten choices be? Riding with Joan

The burial is equally moving. There is Vincent's coffin, covered with sunflowers and surrounded by a group of people who knew him and cared for him. From Sweetman's book:

The years of Vincent's wandering suggest that he was looking for something. Did he ever find it?

. . . . friends started to arrive by train from Paris. First came Andries Bonger with Pere Tanguy and Lucien Pissarro; later Emile Bernard and Charles Laval. As they waited by the coffin Dr. Gachet arrived with a bunch of sunflowers. More mourners came with yellow dalias and other yellow blooms. Soon the room was vibrant with Vincent's glorious colour.

There are many single events which stand out in Vincent's life (the ear-cutting is, of course, the one that springs to the mind of most people). Another specific moment which I find powerful is when Vincent confronts the parents of his cousin, Cornelia Adriana Vos-Stricker (Kee). Vincent's love for Kee is unrequited, but he won't be turned away. Vincent argues unsuccessfully with Kee's parents and then, in order to prove his determination, holds his hand over the funnel of an oil lamp, intentionally burning himself. Kee's father quickly defuses the situation by simply blowing out the lamp, but nevertheless it's an incredibly powerful image.

I was a bit disappointed to find out recently that another image of Van Gogh that I thought so wonderful is, in fact, untrue. Many people who know about Van Gogh and his works are familiar with the story of this passionate, misunderstood artist painting outdoors at night. In order to see better in these surroundings, Vincent placed candles around the brim of his hat. In an earlier version of this page I wrote "In my own humble opinion, there are a couple of moments that define the real essence of Van Gogh--painting with the candles in his hat is one of them". Well, it turns out that the story of the hat and the candles is apocryphal. I looked into the subject further and

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Approximate Word count = 1309
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous