Biography: Vincent Van Gogh – Part 12

Vincent Van Gogh, dutch born and an exquisite painter. I visited the place that Vincent spent his last 90 days and the place he ultimately took his life. The field where he painted his last paintings with the black crows and ominous skies and where he wrote disturbed letters to his brother about his state of mind.

We walked the cobble streets, and winding pathways into the natural green ancient trees that probably shaded Van Gogh as he walked to the fields everyday.

We went to the place where he died, the small room where he hung his paintings – everything had been left exactly as it was before he died. No one had changed it since then, the hooks in the wall.

Watching the paintings flick up on the slide show, they displayed his words of emptiness and despair, and one felt desperately for this man who wanted to paint for a

living and felt like a burden on his brother.

Auvers sur oise is a beautiful town that still remains old looking. Not much different to the paintings that he did of it that are placed outside the famous church, the garden, the steps, the fields, the buildings that he painted!

This took my breath away. This man, who didn’t ask for much in life but felt too hopeless to continue, ending his brother’s torment, he ended his life.

When I returned from Paris and our trip to England and Ireland, I read his letters to his brother Theo and began to delve deeper into his suffering and into why he killed himself. I also wrote an account of his death, from his point of view.

So special was the bond between the brothers that Theo died within six months of Vincent, he never recovered from the loss of his brother. His devoted wife after burying Theo in Holland, moved him to be with Vincent in the field where he died and now they have this wonderful grave with ivy growing over their graves, they are together, as in life, they are in death.

It is one of the saddest and most touching stories that I know of, not only his beautiful art but the love between these two brothers and their devotion for each other. Even Theo’s wife’s determination to keep them together in death.

Amazing story. Vincent there is so much more to say about him, but I couldn’t possibly fit it all in. I have done a lot of reading and studying about him. However this was my most profound experience of Van Gogh. Leaving this town felt like we were leaving Van Gogh. It was a truly moving experience.