Photo: Revolver, type ‘Lefaucheux à broche’, 7 mm, 1865-1893, private collection.
“Art is to console those who are broken by life,” Vincent van Gogh observed—but in the end it wasn’t enough to keep the great artist alive. Van Gogh died at the age of 37 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He did a poor job of it, as a rib protected his internal organs from injury. The bullet is thought to have lodged near his spine, without hitting it. The day was July 27, 1990.
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After shooting himself, Van Gogh walked back to the Auberge Ravoux, in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, a popular destination for artists of the time, where he had been staying since May 1890. He moved there to be closer to his doctor, trying to find his way back into the world after experiencing an acute psychotic episode while living in Arles.
Vincent van Gogh, Tree Roots, 1890
The story of Van Gogh’s ear continues to this very day, as the story of the woman he gave it to has finally been revealed. Eighteen-year old Gabrielle Berlatier was a farmer’s daughter living in a nearby village who was attacked by a rabid dog on January 8, 1888. The attack was so devastating, the wound had to be cauterized by a red-hot iron, leaving a vicious scar. Despite her condition, Berlatier continued to work as a maid at the Café de la Gare, a brothel in Arles.
Two days shy of Christmas that same year, van Gogh severed his left ear, leaving only the lobe attached to his head. Then he taped up his wound and wrapped his ear in plastic, making a special delivery to Berlatier, bookending what was already a tragic year.
Emile Schuffenecker, Man with a Pipe (after Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait), ca. 1892-1900, chalk on paper, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
Van Gogh’s act of self-harm came after a furious argument with Paul Gauguin; they had been staying together for a couple of months, and the relationship deteriorated sure enough. Van Gogh, who had been arguing that one must work from reality (to counter Gauguin’s insistence on the imagination), forever changed reality with his razor blade.
Van Gogh was then hospitalized, and spent the remainder of his life living in a hospital, a convalescent house, and finally Auberge Ravoux, creating some of the most exceptional work of his career while suffering through psychosis. He was never properly diagnosed, nor treated, but art was always there by his side, for as long as he was willing to work.
Perhaps it was the fever of losing his mind that pushed van Gogh to create some of the most profound work of his life. These final eighteen months represent an entirely new chapter of his work, one that taken together is the story of a magnificent road come to an end. Van Gogh left behind a diary, a story of life and loss as viewed through the lens of profound psychosis, depression, and ultimately death.
The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam presents On the Verge of Insanity. Van Gogh and his illness, on view now through September 25, 2016. Featuring 25 paintings and drawings, original letters, and documents, the exhibition brings us through the final traumatic period of Vincent’s radical life, his hope evaporating as he became completely broken by his pain.
Paul van Ryssel, Vincent van Gogh on his deathbed, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
In the end, van Gogh embraced the suffering completely. No surgeon was present, no surgery was done, and 29 hours after the trigger was pulled, on Tuesday, July 29, 1990, van Gogh gave up the ghost. According to his brother, Theo, his last words were, “The sadness will last forever.”
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
