On this day, July 29, 1890, Vincent van Gogh died of his injuries.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Fri Jul 30, 2021: On July 29, 1890, Vincent van Gogh died of his injuries.

Tue Mar 30, 2021: On this day, March 30, 1853, Vincent van Gogh was born.

Vincent van Gogh



Self-Portrait, 1889, Musée d'Orsay

Born: Vincent Willem van Gogh; 30 March 1853; Zundert, Netherlands
Died: 29 July 1890 (aged 37); Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Cause of death: Injuries sustained from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest
Resting place: Cimetière d'Auvers-sur-Oise, France
49°04′31″N 2°10′44″E



Sunflowers (F.458), repetition of the 4th version (yellow background), August 1889. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam



Wheatfield with Crows, 1890. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsənt ˈʋɪləm vɑŋ ˈɣɔx] (About this soundlisten); 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at thirty-seven came after years of depression and poverty.

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Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed part of his own left ear. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression persisted, and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a Lefaucheux revolver. He died from his injuries two days later.

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I posted this in the Music Appreciation group for this reason (I keep forgetting that the song is called "Vincent" and not "Starry Night," making my searches difficult):

don mclean - vincent
12,345,640 views • Nov 28, 2007

folkman 123
33.6K subscribers

A beautiful song my favourite

Fri Jul 30, 2021: Back in the Before Times, I worked in a building that was a few minutes' walk from the

National Gallery of Art, the one on the National Mall in Washington DC. There's one room there with a half-dozen van Goghs hanging on the wall. If you go on a cold day in January, there won't be big crowds. You can walk right up to the paintings and look at them as much as you'd like.

Works of Vincent van Gogh, Dutch, 1853 - 1890

They have so many of them that they can't put them all on exhibit at one time.

Boy, was I spoiled.

I've also been to the van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands.

I concur that one should not miss the opportunity to see a van Gogh up close and personal.

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[werdna]

1. While the mythology of Van Gogh's suicide has romantic appeal -

- the latest research suggests otherwise.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/10/17/141435564/was-van-gogh-murdered-a-new-book-says-yes

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I've heard about that. From a thread years ago at DU:

Fri Feb 13, 2015: “I have had a most rare vision”: Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night

Just spent a month with Vincent via the Naifeh/White Smith bio

900 pages...most of them pretty thrilling actually. Vincent was exhausting and exhaustive. The absence and/or inability of anyone other than his brother, who kept his distance, to form an enduring relationship with him was heartbreaking at times. As if by way of compensation, he never shined more than when others were suffering; coal miners in the north of France where he preached or his mother when she broke her hip. In fact, that's when he started drawing landscapes (rather than people), so she could see the outside world. His famous pollard branches sketch, which was probably the first true indication of his greatness, was done then.

It is such an improbable story; he didn't even turn to art until he was 27. Ten almost always frustrating and rejection-filled years later, he was gone. No one praised him critically until January of 1890 and, by the end of July, he was dead.

Starry Night is seen by many as the birth of abstract painting; it was obviously way ahead of its time. Theo saw it and said, cut that out, get back to realism because I need to sell this stuff! Of course, it would become his most famous and best loved work.

RIP Vincent and Theo. It's the best story ever. Really.

Hey, you started it

{snip an emoji}

It's actually 867 plus notes on Vincent's death, which they claim was a murder by a teenager who had been harassing him. Controversial, but plausible. Enjoy the book, and thank you for yet another thread-dose of culture.

Thanks for writing. And good morning.

[3catwoman3]

3. Such a tender and evocative song.

I’ve loved it since I first heard it all those years ago.

The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam is spectacular.

[ChazInAz]

4. Oh, man...the feelings.

I was in Amsterdam in November of 2012. The VanGogh Museum was closed for renovations, and the paintings had been moved to the Hermitage. (This gave me a fair turn at first. Couldn't figure out why the Dutch would ship them to Saint Petersburg. The concierge at the Moevenprijk Hotel patiently explained to me that Amsterdam had a Hermitage, too. Who knew?)
The exhibit was in a series of dark rooms to protect the paintings from the light. Approaching a painting would trigger a soft spotlight. The effect was overwhelming...jewels in the darkness.
As I stood in the darkness before the last painting, Wheatfield With Crows, I teared up.