Church at Auvers, 1890.

Mademoiselle Gachet in the Garden, 1890.

Tree trunks in the grass, 1890.

Vincent’s time in Auvers-sur-Oise was a period of most passionate productivity, it is one of the most incredible outpourings of all Art History. Were you trying to cure yourself with painting, Vincent, which you said calmed your mind? Or were you trying to prove something before you finally gave up on this world? I’m not sure I’ll ever have a satisfactory answer…

What I do know is that I unwittingly share this time with you. I am about to embark on a period of intense productivity myself – teaching theater to children all day and rehearsing at night – understanding my craft from every possible angle and, I’m sure, learning many new things. My choreographer said to me the other day, “so the whole play is like one big crescendo, right?” I agreed heartily with her. It is also what the making of this play will be from now until opening night.

Unwittingly, I arranged my rehearsal period to begin and end within the same dates as your seventy days. Your first letter from Auvers is dated May 20th, my first rehearsal, 120 years later, was May 22nd. And opening night is the anniversary of your death, when your soul finally left its body…

But my, how you linger in so many other forms. I never can get over how you keep popping up everywhere.

All my love to you today, readers. May you feel as cosmically entwined as I do, for as Vincent wrote July 10, 1888:

That rakes up the eternal question: is life visible to us in its entirety, or before we die do we know of only one hemisphere?

Painters — to speak only of them — being dead and buried, speak to a following generation or to several following generations through their works. Is that all, or is there more, even? In the life of the painter, death may perhaps not be the most difficult thing.

There are two little things I wanted to share today. One is that a painting by Vincent had a surprise unveiling in Minnesota yesterday — the public was not told what new painting the Marine Art Museum had acquired, only that the artist would “rival Monet and Renoir.” (that’s my boy!)

Below is a quote that warmed my heart, clicking on it will take you to the article (thank you Winona Daily News):

Attendees swarmed around the paintings, a deep crowd quickly forming around the Van Gogh. Nearby, Swanson smiled at the thought of how the museum’s newest jewel will draw art lovers from Winona and beyond. The public will have its first chance to see the work when the museum opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

“Not only do we have four outstanding paintings, and the fifth is by Vincent Van Gogh,” he said. “I mean, come on, guys.”

So if you live in or near Minnesota, take a look! It’s from 1882, which makes it one of the earliest paintings of his on public display (at least that I’ve seen). Vincent did not even begin drawing seriously until 1880.

Thanks to winonadailynews.com

Lastly, I had an interesting idea the other night. I was about to reply to Vincent’s daily quote on twitter from my personal account, then imagined him responding back to me, my responding back to him, and so on. I ended up writing a dialogue, and instead of doing it on the fly, I thought I’d allow those interested to have a say in when it is “performed.”

For those who are not aware, I post daily quotes from Vincent’s letters on twitter at www.twitter.com/Vincent_Says, matching the date as closely as possible. You can look at them without being on twitter, but it’s easier to be updated if you are. Vincent_Says always responds to those who direct their tweets at him, and so it occurred to me that if I said something, he would say something. My tweets can be found at www.twitter.com/artesoy. The dialogue will be posted publicly on these two pages, and anyone will be able to follow along.

So the long and short of this all is… There will be a twitter scene between Vincent and I. This dialogue will not be in the play; it has been exclusively created for this event. So here’s the big question.

In the past, my conversations with Vincent have been mostly on Facebook, and have gone like this (and often included others)!

If you are on twitter, and want in on the conversation, you’ll only have to tweet @Vincent_Says or @artesoy and you will be.

While looking for the conversation above, I ran into the following, which I posted shortly before my incredible trip of YellowEurope…

Have a wonderful weekend, and please vote if you are interested! I will announce the performance time here on Wednesday morning.

[update: the wednesday option was changed from the 14th to the 21st to allow more time for voting...]

So here we go, after 3 years of research, these are the primary things that drive me crazy, in order from most obvious to least obvious  (but assumed somewhere in the back of people’s minds). If you ever read anything that makes any of these claims, you can be sure it’s an unreliable (or under-researched) source.

TOP TEN MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT VINCENT VAN GOGH

1. Vincent van Gogh cut his ear off.

Thanks to vggallery.com

This may seem a bit pedantic, but it was his ear lobe, not the whole ear. As slight as this oversight may seem, I notice people seem to really react when I tell them that. It’s also possible that Vincent got in a fight with Gauguin and that he cut it off. I find either scenario likely since Gauguin is not a reliable narrator, and lied about various details concerning that infamous night.

Anyway, the main point is, we do not know what happened exactly. Also – as far as the idea of Vincent giving the piece of his ear to the prostitute Rachel:this was reported in the newspaper of the town (well, they reported he gave his whole ear) and Vincent writes in his next letter of “the girl I went to when I was out of my mind.” The ear is not mentioned, however. Over all, it seems likely to me that he in fact did give her this strange gift.

2. Vincent van Gogh was crazy.

Thanks to vggallery.com

Okay,  yes, he went to an asylum, and he had attacks with hallucinations where he would hear voices, and he definitely ingested paint as a way of hurting himself in the asylum, as well as eventually committing suicide. However, Vincent was not always like this. All his attacks occurred in the last two years of his life. Which is not to say he was completely stable and calm the rest of his life, but I think the rest is pretty understandable given his circumstances. Two years, out of the 37 years he lived, is about 5% of his life. Thus, the statement that he was simply crazy is not quite accurate enough for me.

It is also note-worthy that psychologists seem incapable of pinning his attacks on any singular condition or illness. A large part of his madness seems attributable to his difficult social conditions, his terrible diet, and his high intake of alcohol and tobacco.  Something I read today that I found very interesting was that the gas in the lamps he used in Arles (where he first had his attacks) were 5% carbon monoxide, which is a poison capable of provoking over two hundred symptoms and a dozen illnesses including epilepsy, hallucinations, hypersensitivity, and depressions that could lead to suicide. That is to say, almost everything he suffered from.

Lastly, his suicide was executed with a cool mind. This much is known because during the last day of his life, when he was still awake (as the bullet had missed his heart), he said that if he survived he would have to kill himself again.

3. Vincent van Gogh’s madness fueled his art.

Thanks to vggallery.com

The most fabulous and annoying of the lies. It really gets my goat every time I hear it color the way this painter is represented (excuse the pun), so let me make it clear: Vincent could not paint or even write during his attacks! Between attacks, he had phases of complete lucidity in which he would finally gain back his strength enough to work. The way he saw it was that painting was possibly his cure. Vincent did not like his “madness” nor did he encourage it — he actively fought against it every day after his first attack.

4. Vincent van Gogh never sold a single painting.

Thanks to vggallery.com

BAM! This painting was sold to Anna Boch for 400 francs in 1890. Vincent died some months later. Also, Vincent got his work out there in other ways, by trading paintings with other artists (which they wouldn’t do unless they thought they were worth something), and trading his paintings for paint supplies, and sometimes meals.

5. Vincent van Gogh was completely unrecognized during his lifetime for his work.

Thanks to vangoghletters.org

Also untrue. Apart from the sale, Vincent’s work  also got its first review in 1890 (when obviously, he was gaining steam) and it was incredibly positive. Vincent gave the critic, Albert Aurier, the above painting as a gift in return. Another critic wanted to write about him earlier, but Vincent had told him not to, and various artists from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Claude Monet admired and defended his work.

6. Vincent van Gogh was entirely self-taught.

Thanks to vggallery.com

False. Vincent had several very serious mentors and tutors in painting before he took painting courses in both Antwerp and Paris. The above was painted in his class at Cormon’s studio in Paris.

7. Vincent van Gogh was poor.

Thanks to vggallery.com

While Vincent lived in poverty, his brother Theo did send him enough money to live and eat, but Vincent spent most of it on canvas, paint, and models. For long periods of time, he allowed himself little more than dry bread, perhaps cheese, tobacco, and alcohol to survive by. He chose to live poorly, and to give his all to his work.

8. Vincent van Gogh never had a romantic relationship.

Thanks to vggallery.com

Vincent lived with Clarissa Maria Hoornik, or Sien, for a year and a half. She is pictured in his drawing above. He took her in when he met her, pregnant, and already with a five-year-old daughter. She was a prostitute and had been abandoned by the father(s) of her children. He considered this the right thing to do (that any good man would do), and he became very attached to his little family in the time they spent together. He felt enormously guilty when he left her.

Later in Nuenen, Margot Begemann was another woman whom Vincent loved and who returned his feelings. When her family pressured her to end things with him, she attempted suicide. Luckily her attempt failed, but he never saw her again.

9. Vincent van Gogh was always a painter, had never considered another career, etc.

Thanks to vggallery.com

Vincent initially attempted to be an arts dealer like his brother Theo would become, and like many of the men in his family were. After that failure, he turned to the clergy for four years (to join his father’s profession) and was set on being an evangelist for some time. He dreamed of saving the souls of the poor. Of course, his passion and self-sacrifice made him unpredictable and undesirable. Again and again, he was dismissed from his religious studies and his religious appointments. Painting was his last career choice, at 27 years old. He began by drawing the mining community he tended to.

10. Vincent van Gogh had no friends.

Vincent had many friends, particularly in the last five years of his life (though it is true he spent most of his time alone). In Paris he made friends with numerous artists, but particularly Emile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Latrec, and Paul Gauguin. He also made great friends with the paint dealer Père Tanguy. In Arles, he made friends with several young painters whom he gave classes to, he expresses in his own letters that he got along very well with his neighbors, and a beautiful friendship blossomed between him and the postman Joseph Roulin. At the asylum, he had a “great friend” in sister Epiphane, and in Auvers you had, of course, Dr. Paul Gachet.

Thanks to vangoghletters.org

Well, I hope this clears some things up! If you’d like any clarification, Readers, please — ask away!