AN APPRECIATION: Vincent Van Gogh
(Part III Triumph and Failure)

 If you look at Van Gogh's life, you see a pattern where he would leave home in order to embark on a new adventure and then return home once that venture had failed. In the early part of his life, this meant returning to his father's house. However, since the death of his father, home had become where his brother Theo lived.

In the Spring of 1888, Van Gogh embarked on a new adventure. Leaving Theo, he took a train to the south of France where he would not be in the way of his brother who was about to be married . In addition, the weather in the south was warmer and the light was reported to be magical. It was another fresh start.

Van Gogh got off the train in Arles. In those days, Arles was not the fashionable tourist destination that it is today. Instead, it was a sleepy country town.

The reason why Van Gogh selected Arles as his destination is unknown. It has been suggested that he may have done so because the town had a reputation for being home to the prettiest women in France. Vincent, ever the romantic, may have been swayed by this reason. However, he was to find that the respectable women of Arles were not interested in romance with a shy, awkward, strange-looking, penniless Dutch artist. Consequently, Van Gogh would turn to the town's brothel's for solace.

He took a room in a local hotel. Immediately, he began working feverishly. He painted scenes of the town and its people. In addition, he went out into the countryside to paint people working in the fields. He found the light magnificent and incorporated sharp outlines and bright colors into his work.

After a few months, Van Gogh took a four-room apartment in what has become known as the “Yellow House.” This gave him more room to work. It also was more economical than staying at the hotel and enabled him to stretch the money he was receiving from Theo a little further.

Van Gogh also made excursions to nearby locations. For example, in June, he traveled to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer where he saw the Mediterranean. According to legend, it was also the place where Mary Magdalen came ashore after being cast adrift from the Holy Land. This would have attracted Van Gogh, who still studied the Bible on a regular basis and who occasionally painted biblical scenes.

Back in town, Vincent continued to work feverishly. He was now a master, producing works in his own unique style. The images had a child-like simplicity and did not reflect his ability as a draftsman. He incorporated bright colors often bounded by dark outlines. The end products conveyed emotion and in the years to come would speak to many people. Van Gogh produced some of his best work in Arles.

The stimulation Van Gogh found in Arles and its surrounding area rekindled his dream of establishing a community of artists living and working together. He wrote to his friends in Paris but none were interested in joining him although Henri Toulouse-Latrec may have come for a visit.

Perhaps under pressure from Theo, Paul Gauguin eventually decided to shift his base to Arles. As was usual, Gauguin was in financial distress and the promise of a subsidy from art dealer Theo was persuasive. In addition, Gauguin had enjoyed corresponding with Vincent about art and Vincent's adulation of him appealed to Gauguin's ego.

In preparation for Gauguin's arrival, Vincent prepared one of the rooms in the Yellow House for Gauguin's use. He decorated it with paintings he had done of sunflowers. Vincent saw Gauguin as the leader of his planned artist colony who would attract other artists to Arles.

The arrangement started out well enough. Van Gogh took Gauguin out on excursions where the two artists would paint together. However, their relationship soon began to deteriorate. Neither man had a reputation for being easy to live with and they quarreled over everything. Also, Gauguin did not find Arles as inspiring as Vincent did. Furthermore, the people in Arles at the cabarets and at the brothels found Gauguin more appealing than Vincent, which fed Vincent's insecurity.

Things came to a head around Christmas. One evening after a quarrel, Gauguin found that Vincent had followed him out onto the street armed with an open razor. Gauguin stared him down and Van Gogh returned to the Yellow House.

Vincent was still in a rage. He took the razor he was carrying and cut off part of his left ear. Wrapping it carefully, he then took he piece of ear to a brothel where he presented it to the young woman who did the cleaning there.

It has been suggested that this gesture may have been inspired by a tradition in bull fighting, which was then very popular in Arles. After a notable match, the toreador would be awarded one of the bull's ears, which he then would present to the prettiest woman in the audience.

In any event, Van Gogh who was bleeding profusely returned to the Yellow House where he went to bed. The next morning, a neighbor saw the bloodstains on the stairway which led to the discovery of the mutilated Vincent.

At first, Gauguin was suspected but it was found that after the encounter with Vincent, Gauguin had spent the night at a hotel and had then left town on an early train without returning to the Yellow House for his possessions. Although the two artists would later exchange some correspondence, they never met again.

Vincent was taken to a local hospital where he was put under the care of Dr. Felix Rey, who treated him with compassion. Over the next few months, Vincent's physical health improved but he fell into mental depressions.

His friend Joseph Roulin, the local postmaster, visited Vincent in the hospital. However, Roulin was soon transferred to another post. The other residents of Arles were not so understanding. Children taunted Van Gogh in the streets. His neighbors sent a petition to the mayor urging that Vincent be ejected from the town or locked away. The police closed up Vincent's rooms in the Yellow House and so Vincent had to find other lodgings when he was released from the hospital.

Theo, who was in the midst of preparing for his wedding, did not come to Arles. Reassurances from Vincent and Dr. Rey, helped to ease his concern. However, Theo persuaded Paul Signac to travel to Arles to assess the situation. Vincent gave Signac a tour of the town and showed him some of the canvases that he had produced in Arles. Signac was impressed by the paintings and apparently sufficiently assured of Vincent's well-being that he only spent the day in Arles.

By May, however, Dr. Rey and others had persuaded Vincent that he should voluntarily commit himself to the asylum at nearby Saint-Remay-de-Provence. The asylum was housed in an old priory. There were bars on the windows and the treatment generally consisted of taking cold paths.

As a voluntary patient, Van Gogh was allowed a certain freedom of movement, which enabled him to paint the pleasant park and gardens of the hospital. He also painted scenes inside the hospital including the patient's exercise period. In all, Vincent painted some 150 paintings and executed 100 drawings during his stay in the asylum. His style continued to develop and he produced more masterpieces.

But the treatment failed to solve Van Gogh's mental problems. He went through a series of breakdowns during which he was too depressed to do any art. When such episodes ended, Van Gogh was lucid and his artistic abilities and desire to work returned.

Vincent spent a year in the asylum. Worried that his brother was not getting better, Theo decided to bring Vincent home. Therefore, on May 17, 1890, Vincent arrived in Paris, once again returning home from a failed adventure.

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See our profiles of these other Post Impressionists
​Emile Bernard

​Paul Cezanne

​Paul Gauguin

​Henri Toulouse Lautrec

Odlion Redon

Henri Rousseau

George Seurat

​Paul Signac

See our profiles of the Impressionists and members of  their circle.

Frederic Bazille
Eugene Boudin
Marie Bracquemond
Gustave Caillebotte
Mary Cassatt
Paul Cezanne
​Edgar Degas
​Henri Fantin-Latour
​Eva Gonzales
Paul Gauguin
Armand Guillaumin​
Edouard Manet
​Claude Monet
​Berthe Morisot
​Camille Pissarro
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Alfred Sisley
​​Suzanne Valadon
​Victor Vignon
​

Art reviews and articles index

Above: Paul Gauguin's portrait of Van Gogh painting a picture of sunflowers.
​Below: One of Van Gogh's paintings of sunflowers.

Above: "The Night Cafe."
​Below: "Three Fishing Boats" from Vincent's trip to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.   

Above: The "Yellow House" in Arles.

​Above: Van Gogh's  portrait of Joseph Roulin who came to visit Van Gogh in the hospital at Arles.
Below: The masterpiece "Starry Night" was painted while Vincent was in the asylum at St. Remay.

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Artist appreciation - Vincent Van Gogh​ (Part III Triumph and Failure)