Several years ago, my oldest daughter came home from kindergarten and told me `Mam we saw the painter who cut off his ear`. I realized then that this painter is famous among different generations. How did this happen? I once had heard, he only sold a few paintings while he was alive. This year the Van Gogh Museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary. On their website, I should be able to find my answer. Would it be a question of, whether your message will be heard or seen if you tell it to the right people at the right time?
Vincent’s life was full of obstacles. He had a hard time finding a job as an art seller, priest, and then finally, an artist who was not appreciated by his contemporaries. At the age of 27 years, he educated himself, went to the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels and became, with the support of his brother, a professional painter. He got influenced by old Dutch masters but also by contemporary painters. His character, which was very temperate, did not make him popular. Art buyers were not interested in daily life scenes such as potato-eaters or colorful vases with sunflowers. The impressionists like Monet and Degas set foot in the art world but still became criticised for their work in which they tried to paint everyday life scenes. There was still a big contrast between the coarse paint strokes and daily images of Vincent. Luckily, there was someone who believed in Vincent, his brother Theo Van Gogh.
The two brothers were very close, they shared their thoughts and feelings in letters they wrote to each other. They couldn’t have imagined how important those letters would become. Theo was the one who was well organized, and the letters written by Vincent were kept in his apartment.
Theo married a woman when he was 27 years old. She, called Jo, knew how close the brothers were. Vincent wrote several letters to her only, in which he explained his bond with his younger brother and told her it wasn’t because he was depending on his brothers’ money. When Vincent cut off his ear and finally shot himself, Jo was always at her husband’s side. It was clear to her how Theo admired Vincent as an artist. After Vincent died, Theo put on an exhibition of his work. Just half a year after Vincent’s death, Theo also died. Jo van Gogh-Bongers was a young woman who had a 1-year-old son and an apartment with more than 500 pieces of art. What would you do if something like this happened to you?
I would be terribly miserable, angry, and disappointed in life, what did Jo do? She decided to deal with her grief and follow Theo’s wishes and be the heir to Vincent’s talent. She moved back to The Netherlands and got to know the contemporary artists, the art critics, and the museum directors. They were the people who influenced `what was considered good, popular art and what was not`. She was determined to show the world her brother-in-law’s art. Everyone should fall in love with the way Vincent painted.
Jo, being a woman, must have had a hard time at the end of the nineteenth century. She was female, she couldn’t start her own business. She had to ask a man for permission to open a bank account. Jo must have been convinced of her mission and very determined to reach it.
A giant exhibition with 484 works of art from Vincent was organized by her in a museum in Amsterdam. Numerous people came from all over the world to see it. People wanted to see the paintings with their one eyes. Jo was a businesswoman. The reason she rarely sold a painting was that if there were only a few available, the price would go up.
Jo also started to read the letters from Vincent to Theo, in which the painter talked about colors, compositions, and about his view of life. Those letters brought Vincent back to life and were unique in their own way. It changed how we look at art. Jo made them more well-known by publishing and later translating them into English. It made her succeed in Theo’s wish to let the world know about Vincent’s work. She even transforms her driving force into her son Vincent, who opened, 50 years ago, the first art-museum dedicated to only one artist.
To come back to my question, how did Vincent become famous? It is a matter of telling it to the right people at the right time, but most of all, someone really believed in his talent.
I spy with my historical eye 