Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night on the Rhône, oil on canvas, 74×92 cm, 1888
On an ordinary morning 130 years ago, Vincent van Gogh went out to paint as usual, but returned in the evening with a terrible gunshot wound and died two days later in the arms of his brother Theo. The art he left behind for future generations is barbaric and absurd, but it contains the sharpest interpretation of the universe and beauty; when the greatness of it is finally understood by the world, the mystery of the death of this genius artist is more and more fascinating. Was Van Gogh suicidal? What was he doing in the last moments of his life?
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Afternoon dusk before gunshots
Opinions about what happened on the day Vincent van Gogh was fatally shot are widely debated, and scholars are hard to say. At the beginning of the year, however, a widely circulated postcard unexpectedly became a key to the truth, pointing van Gogh's last painting, The Roots of the Tree, to rue daubigny on the banks of the Oise River in France.
Van Gogh, "Roots of trees", oil on canvas, 50.3× 100.1 cm, 1890
A 1905 postcard inspired the discovery © of researcher Van Derwin by Elliott Verdier for the New York Times
The idea was first proposed by Wouter van der Veen, a researcher at the Van Gogh Institute, a French nonprofit. He relied on an old borrowed postcard depicting a man standing on a bicycle on the side of the road, with knotted tree knots on the hillside. Although it looks sparse and ordinary at first, after a while, this picture inadvertently reminds Van Derwen, who is deep at home under the epidemic, think of Van Gogh's unfinished work "Tree Roots", igniting a Spark in his heart.
© Elliott verdier for the new york times
He went through several twists and turns until the travel ban was slightly relaxed before he was able to come to Dubini Street for verification in person. The street, 20 miles north of Paris, is just 500 feet from the auberge ravoux, where Van Height exceeded the last 70 days of his life. Today, the thick roots of the trees on the hillside on the side of the street are still clearly visible, as if history has long been sealed.
Van Gogh, "Cypress Tree in the Wheat Field", oil on canvas, 73×93.4 cm, 1889
Brah Taka, Self-Portrait, Cloth Oil Painting, 65×54cm, 1889
The discovery was recognized by the Van Gogh Museum, and the director emilie Gordenker attended the site's disclosure ceremony on July 28, and everything seemed to settle down. However, if Van Gogh had been painting for the last ordinary days of his life, his subsequent death seemed to require a reasonable explanation.
Van Gogh's last residence, the Lavo Inn ©, was elliott verdier for the new york times
Suicide or accident?
Van Gogh's genius as an artist has always been full of contradictions: the "madness" seen by others is for him the talent of "prophets" to understand the mysteries of the universe - he works madly with a unique perspective and brushstrokes that are different from ordinary people, and can complete at least one painting a day, or even more, which has made Paul Gauguin, who shared the studio, envious; but the great mental torture also caused him to cut off his earlobes, swallow paint, and even be sent to a mental hospital.
Van Gogh, The Prisoner Movement (Imitating Doré), oil on canvas, 80×64cm, 1890
Van Gogh, "Starry Moon Night", oil on canvas, 74×92cm, 1889
The game of rationality and madness is the main theme of this genius life, so in people's minds, "suicide" seems to be a reasonable ending, and even exudes the beauty of tragedy.
BBC The Power of Art Episode V
In response to the reasons for the "suicide", the Van Gogh Museum officially explained: "The decision of his brother Theo to resign from the art dealer made Van Gogh worried about the future economic situation, and he was already suffering from illness and could not bear great pain." On July 27, 1890, he went to the middle of the wheat field and shot himself in the chest..."
Van Gogh, The Reaper in the Wheat Field, oil on canvas, 73.2×92.7cm, September 1889
Van Gogh's Red Vineyard in Arles, oil on canvas, 75×93cm, 1888, is the only work van Gogh sold during his lifetime.
However, even if the fact of suicide is basically recognized, there are different versions of van Gogh's interpretation of the last moments of Van Gogh's life in the folk and academic circles. For example, the BBC documentary series "The Power of Art" highlights that Van Gogh sold his first painting just a few weeks before his death, that life "began to go smoothly", and was praised by art critics as "the genius of the future", thus adding mystery and drama to his death.
Van Gogh, "Pruned Willow Trees", oil on canvas, 31.5 × 34.5 cm, 1888
Van Gogh, "Four Sunflowers Cut off", oil on canvas, 60×100cm, 1887
Also shortly before his death, Van Gogh created the revolutionary Crows in the Wheat Field. The work was once considered his last posthumous work, and the 1956 documentary "Lust for Life" depicted Van Gogh painting "Crows in the Wheat Field" before ending his life while going mad.
Film Van Gogh, 1956
Van Gogh, "Crows in the Wheat Field", oil on canvas, 50.5×103cm, July 1890
Many of these details about van Gogh's death come from the description of andries bonger, the brother-in-law of his brother Theo van Gogh. He once wrote in his letter: "In the morning before Van Gogh's death, he painted a jungle scene full of sunshine and life. It doesn't sound like describing an empty wheat field where crows fly. Finally, in 2012, the Van Gogh Museum published an article arguing that "Roots of the Tree" is the final relic that conforms to the clues, correcting public perception.
Van Gogh, Orville Church, oil on canvas, 94×74cm, June 1890
Van Gogh, "Yellow House (Street)", oil on canvas, 72× 91.5cm, September 1888
However, what remains unresolved is whether Van Gogh committed suicide. Controversy over the matter peaked in 2011, when two American historians published Van Gogh: the life, in which he argued that Van Gogh did not commit suicide but was perhaps hit by a misfired pistol in an argument with two boys.
Van Gogh, The Sower, oil on canvas, 32.5×40.3 cm, November 1888
This theory points to the location of Van Gogh's gunshot wound, the disappearance of the pistol, and whether the badly injured person could actually walk back from the wheat field back to the hotel, but it lacks direct evidence and is therefore listed only in the appendix to the biography. Nevertheless, the raising of this new doubt has somehow shattered the world's established impression of Van Gogh and become a possibility that many people are willing to believe.
Van Gogh, "Glass Water Bottles, Trays and Citrus Fruits," oil on canvas, 46.3×38.4 cm, February-March 1887
Van Gogh, The Pile of French Novels, oil on canvas, 544×73.6cm, October-November 1887
In 2019, the "vanishing pistol" made a sensational appearance at the auction site of the French art auction house (auctionart – rémy le fur & associés), selling for $180,000.
The pistol, believed to have inflicted Van Gogh's fatal wounds, was discovered by farmers in 1960, and the auction house released several pieces of evidence to confirm its authenticity: the pistol was found from van Gogh's injury site, the seven-millimeter caliber matched Van Gogh's body bullet, and scientific research confirmed that the gun had fallen at the site of discovery since around 1890. Its lower power also seems to further explain why Van Gogh did not die immediately after being shot.
Orville's Wheat Fields is van Gogh's favorite painting theme ©, Elliott Verdier for the New York Times
The pistol © stéphane briolant, courtesy of auctionart – rémy le fur, believed to have inflicted Van Gogh's fatal wounds
But after the focus, it is still uncertain whether the pistol is real or who left it in the wheat field; the auction seems to be just another contest between public opinion and capital centered on Van Gogh a hundred years later. So can today's revelation of the location of "Roots of the Tree" really bring a different interpretation?
A farewell spanning 130 years
Van Gogh, The Bedroom of Arles, oil on canvas, 72.4 × 91.3 cm, 1888
With the revelation of the location of the Rue Dubini sketches, it seems that van Gogh's last period works can be followed to recall his activities in the art town of Orville. He would walk down Dubini Street to the town's church, where he painted the Orville Church; then he went deep into the vast wheat fields outside the town and created The Crows in the Wheat Fields.
Van Gogh, "The Farm Near Orville", oil on canvas, 50.2×100.3 cm, July 1890, or van Gogh's penultimate work.
Van Gogh, "Wheat Field Under the Clouds of Thunder and Lightning", oil on canvas, 50.4 × 101.3 cm, July 1890
Now, comparing the chiaroscuro in Roots of the Tree with the daytime light on the side of Dubini Street, Van der Wen believes that Van Gogh was still painting the work until 5 to 6 p.m., which indirectly refutes the possibility that he had an argument with the boy and was accidentally shot, because the time is not sufficient.
Van Gogh, "Bushes," oil on canvas, 73× 92.3 cm, July 1889
Bon Gao, Self-Portrait, Cloth Oil Painting, 44.5×37.2cm, September-October 1887
Some people question this, after all, painting is not a photograph, Van Gogh's depiction of things is more abstract, and it seems difficult to convince everyone to infer the creation time from the relationship between light and shade in the painting. Proponents of his theory of homicide have further suggested that he could paint all day to prove that Van Gogh did not show frustration that day, so suicide is impossible to talk about. This is in line with the evidence of many people involved: Van Gogh was normal in the days leading up to his death and did not show suicidal tendencies.
Elliott Verdier for the new york times in the town of © Orville
Van Gogh's painting Orville Church is based on © Elliott Verdier for the New York times
However, suicide remains the official view held by Van der Waen and the Van Gogh Museum. In 1882, Van Gogh painted the roots of trees. At that time, in a letter to his brother Theo, he expressed the hope that the tree would "express some struggle in life" and saw it as "violently rooting into the dirt while being nearly destroyed by a wild storm."
Van Gogh and his brother Theo were buried in the same cemetery © in the town of Orville, elliott verdier for the new york times
Van der Waen believes that "Roots" expresses a similar meaning: the roots of the trees that seem to be constantly climbing and twisting in the painting show van Gogh's struggles in life and entanglement with death, which is his colorful farewell to the world. After 130 years, people can finally stand on Dubini Street and pay tribute to this talented artist through his final art.
📁 Download the official study 📃
Tracing the Roots: Exploring van Gogh's Final Moments
attacked at the very root: an investigation into van gogh's last days
🔗https://arthenon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/tree-roots_en.pdf
Editor, Wen Yu Shan
This article is original by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission