"The Curious Death Of Vincent Van Gogh" is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on May 10, 2019. It was the eighth episode of the fifth season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime, and the ninetieth episode overall. You can find it here.
Description[]
Do we really know the life and death of this famous artist?
Background[]
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorious van Gogh, and Anna Carbentus. Vincent would eventually have five younger siblings. The only he would form the closest relationship with, being his brother Theo. Despite his good grades, Vincent left secondary school before graduating. At age 16, he began his art career as an apprentice with Goupil & Cie. An international art dealer where his uncle was a partner. Vincent first worked for Goupil in the Hague, then in London, and finally in Paris, where he was dismissed from the company in 1876, two days after his 23rd birthday.
In 1881, after five years of wandering Europe and bouncing between dead end jobs such as lay preacher, Vincent moved back in with his parents, who worried about their son's lack of direction in life. Theo, who had also gone to work for the art dealer Goupil & Cie, but had risen through the ranks to become a manager, began sending his older, jobless brother money. For the next few years, Vincent would move out for periods, but return to his parents home.
In 1884, Vincent, now in his 30s, wanted to start paying Theo back for all the support he had given him over the years. Vincent began sending his paintings to Theo in Paris for him to sell. Unfortunately for all parties, Vincent's work was not what the people of Paris were looking for.
Over the next five years, Vincent's life would appear to once again be mired by folly, as he started a failed art collective, and continued his nomadic habitation of Europe. During this period however, the style now associated with Vincent began to take form. The tones used in his paintings began to lighten. He developed his characteristic style of using short brushstrokes, and he moved to brighter, more colorful subjects, such as portraits, often self portraits, and city scenes. Unfortunately for Vincent, the progress of his art happened during a time of declining mental health, culminating in late 1888, when Vincent famously severed his own ear, and wrapped it up as a present for a sex worker, the day after this eerie occurrence.
Vincent was admitted to the hospital where he stayed until early 1889. For the next few months, Vincent struggled with his mental health, eventually checking himself into a psychiatric hospital in May. During his one year stay at the hospital, Vincent made some of his most famous masterpieces. In his first week there, he started painting the irises in the asylum's garden. While Vincent considered the paintings merely a study, "Irises" is considered one of his most iconic pieces. "The Starry Night", now one of the most famous paintings in the world, depicts the view from a window in the asylum, enhanced by Vincent's imagination. In January of 1890, Theo and his wife welcomed their newborn son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, into the world. Named after the infant's uncle. Vincent sent them his famous painting, "Almond Blossom", from the hospital, as a gift for his new nephew. All told, while in the asylum, Vincent made about 150 paintings, and by 1890, his work was finally being exhibited and receiving positive reviews.
After being released from the mental hospital in May, Vincent moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, an area with other artists not far from Paris, which allowed for him to easily visit Theo's family in Paris. On one such visit in July, Theo told his brother he was considering starting his own business. This news greatly unsettled Vincent, who not only felt like a burden to his brother who was still supporting Vincent, but also worried about the impact of Theo taking this gamble on his own finances.
After lunch on July 27th, 1890, Vincent left the Ravoux Inn where he was staying in Auvers with his easel and painting supplies. It was a warm evening, so the innkeepers and guests were enjoying dinner outside after sunset when Vincent returned. He shuffled past without exchanging any words, he also notedly had none of the belongings he left with, and had his jacket buttoned all the way up despite the heat. He clutched his abdomen and limped up the stairs to his room. Gustave Ravoux, the owner of the inn, went to check on Vincent. The artist was curled up in his bed. And when Gustave asked him what was the matter, Vincent replied, "I wounded myself." He lifted his clothing to reveal a bullet hole under his ribs.
Theo arrived midday on the 28th to find Vincent in bed, smoking. Vincent van Gogh died just after midnight, cradled by his brother after telling him, "I want to die like this." At just 37 years old, Vincent's life and career was over, leaving behind nearly 1,300 works of art on paper, and more than 850 paintings, with no autopsy ever conducted, the exact location of the shooting never identified, and a five hour period between the time he left the inn and when he returned unaccounted for.
Theories[]
- Vincent was a troubled genius who shot himself in a wheat field. According to Adeline Ravoux, the then 13-year-old daughter of the inn owner, Gustave, "Vincent had gone toward the wheat field where he had painted before. During the afternoon, as my father understood it, Vincent shot himself and fainted. The coolness of the night revived him. On all fours, he looked for the gun to finish himself off, but he could not find it. Then Vincent got up, and climbed down the hillside to return to our house."
- Perhaps no one was more adamant about this theory than Vincent himself. Witnesses recalled Vincent saying, "I wounded myself in the fields. I shot myself with a revolver there." He was emphatic saying, "do not accuse anyone. It is I who wanted to kill myself." Witnesses did say, however, that Vincent appeared confused as he lay dying, replying to the police's question of "did you intend to commit suicide?" With, "I think so."
- Vincent had also in the past morbidly joked about suicide. He once told Theo he would, quote, "cease to be." If he ever felt that he had begun a burden or nuisance to his brother. Could his fear of complicating his soon-to-be unemployed brother's life have driven him to kill himself one hot afternoon?
- While this story is the one Vincent seemingly wanted the world to hear, there are some glaring issues with it. For one, Vincent was shot in the abdomen below his ribs, which is an odd position to take if he had been aiming for his heart. Additionally, the fact that the bullet did not exit Vincent's body suggests there was some distance between Vincent and the gun. More distance than Vincent could have achieved on his own.It's also suspicious that Vincent allegedly dropped the gun so far out of reach, that when he came to, he couldn't find it to finish the job. What's more, if he had actually passed out for hours after shooting himself, his wound would have been much bloodier than it was when he returned to the inn.
- Apart from the hard to explain ballistics, no one knows where Vincent would have obtained the gun. Revolvers were very rare in Auvers at the time, and no one would admit to selling or lending Vincent a gun. The next day, no one was able to find a gun where Vincent purportedly did the deed. All of Vincent's painting gear too seemed to have vanished.
- In additions to the questions the physical evidence raises, Vincent was a religious man who condemned suicide, calling it "wicked" and a demonstration of "moral cowardice". At one point prior to his death, he even said, "I really do not think I am a man with such inclinations." Any time he did have thoughts of suicide, it was always by way of drowning, saying "I can understand people drowning themselves."
- Theo also found no evidence that Vincent was planning on killing himself, finding no suicide note, but instead drafts of letters on his desk that he surely didn't want anyone to read.
- Naifeh and Smith suggest Vincent was shot by some local boys, and that Vincent protected their identities. To begin, it's worth going back to get a better picture of what life was like for Vincent in Auvers. He was known to be quote eccentric, and when he would approach people in the street to ask if they would sit for him, most people retreated. His appearance didn't help matters, with wild hair, ratty clothes, and you know, a missing ear.
- As is often the case, the worst bullies were the teenage boys. They would pretend to be nice to the artist to gain his trust, then pull pranks on him, like throwing salt in his coffee, rubbing chili paper on a dry paintbrush Vincent tended to suck, and putting a snake in his box of painting supplies.
- One of the boys who would tease Vincent was Rene Secretan, who said, "Our favorite game was making him angry, which was easy." Rene's older brother, Gaston, was an aspiring artist who liked to hear Vincent's tales of the Parisian art world. Vincent figured Rene was just something he had to endure in order to have a friendship with Gaston. Rene, unlike his brother, had no interest in art, instead enjoying fishing and hunting.
- After seeing Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in Paris, Rene came back to Auvers with a full outfit of western clothes, complete with fringe coat, cowboy boots, and added a .380 caliber pistol. Vincent started calling Rene "Puffalo Pill", a mispronunciation of "Buffalo Bill" due to his accent, which only angered the boy more.
- In their book, Van Gogh, The Life, authors Naifeh and Smith speculate that the Secretan boys quarreled with Vincent around a farmyard on Boucher Road. They may have accidentally fired the gun, striking Vincent in his abdomen. Vincent then stumbled back towards the inn, where he covered for the boys. The boys, in shock at what they had done, may have collected Vincent's belongings and fled the scene, destroying what evidence might remain.
- The theory is supported by the fact that multiple witnesses saw Vincent leave the inn and head towards the hamlet of (speaks in foreign language), and not towards the fields where he claimed he'd been painting. That road leads to a spot in Oise where Rene enjoyed fishing. It's possible Rene and his brother met Vincent on their way back from Oise, went to a nearby farmyard, and then the boys accidentally shot the artist. That would also make it easier for Vincent to get back to the inn with a bullet in his stomach, as opposed to a steep, mile long trek back from the wheat fields.
- This theory would explain a lot of things the suicide story does not, such as the odd entry point of the bullet, the lack of suicide note, why Vincent took his painting equipment to kill himself, why all that gear and the gun could not be found, and why he didn't shoot himself in the head.
- In the wake of the shooting, Rene, Gaston, and their father left town. When they returned, Rene, who rarely traveled anywhere without his pistol, no longer had the gun. When asked about it decades later, Rene said Vincent stole it from him. In the 1930s, as Vincent's work was beginning to gain notoriety, townspeople told an art historian that young boys shot Vincent on accident, and that Vincent protected their identities for fear that they'd be accused of murder. Still, largely due to Irving Stone's 1934 novelization of Vincent's Life and Death, and the 1956 movie that followed, the idea of Vincent van Gogh being a tortured genius who took his own life crystallized in the public consciousness.