After riding a series of escalators to the fifth floor of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, I stepped into a gallery where, on display, were a dozen paintings and lithographs by late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century artists, including Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Georges Seurat.
asserted
paintings → rid → Picasso
But most visitors were gathered around one explosively colorful painting in swirling shades of light and dark blue, bottle green, and pale gold.
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visitors → gather → blue
These were the early days of my research about a little-known woman who is key to shedding light on three inevitable questions when it comes to Vincent van Gogh.
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it → know → Gogh
Why did he cut off his ear?
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he → cut → ear
Why did he commit suicide?
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he → commit → suicide
And how, after dying in obscurity, did he eventually become regarded as one of the world’s greatest artists?
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he → die → artists
Gauging Van Gogh
Watching and talking to people as they engaged with this particular masterpiece seemed an apropos way to gauge the interest of Van Gogh lovers.
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they → gauge → lovers
I, for one, could remember, as a child, first seeing The Starry Night reprinted in one of my parents’ art history books.
uncertain
Night → remember → books
No one was standing over my shoulder telling me to pay it special attention, but I was mesmerized.
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I → stand → attention
The painting became imprinted on my young imagination, and I never forgot it.
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I → imprint → it
As I observed the gallery, I quickly learned my reaction is hardly unique.
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reaction → observe → gallery
A man from Southern California named Paul Duelo was laughing.
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man → name → California
“I know this painting, and I don’t know anything about art,” he said with a chuckle, nodding at the crowd standing around The Starry Night.
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he → know → Night
A woman from Seattle stood gazing quietly with her arms folded.
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arms → stand → Seattle
Sheri Larison first saw a picture of The Starry Night more than 30 years ago in her high school art class.
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Larison → see → class
A reproduction of the iconic painting hung in her office.
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reproduction → hang → office
This was her very first time seeing the original.
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This → see → original
“It’s overwhelming,” Larison whispered, with tears in her eyes.
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Larison → ’ → eyes
“It evokes something.
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It → evoke → something
It’s magical.”
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It → ’ → ?
“His mental health was declining,” she said, and that was true, although perhaps also misleading.
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that → decline → ?
Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June of 1889 during a year he spent in a mental asylum in the south of France.
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he → paint → France
It does not represent an actual place but a compilation of elements—a village, starry sky, moon, dark hills, and a cypress tree—all things that Vincent had seen at one time and brought together in this composition.
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Vincent → represent → composition
The sight of stars, he said, always made him dream.
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him → say → stars
Hanging just to the left of The Starry Night was a Paul Gauguin’s painting, The Moon and the Earth.
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painting → hang → Night
The juxtaposition provoked a curious thought.
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juxtaposition → provoke → thought
Gauguin and Van Gogh lived and worked together in Vincent’s yellow house in Arles in the south of France for several weeks.
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Gauguin → live → weeks
What would the hot-tempered, competitive Gauguin have thought seeing so many people gathered around Vincent’s painting at this moment while his was comparatively ignored?
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his → think → moment
And what would Vincent have made of all the attention given to The Starry Night?
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Vincent → make → Night
It is generally believed that it was an argument with Gauguin, who was threatening to quit Arles (in effect abandoning Van Gogh), which spun the mentally unstable Vincent into such a state of despair and frustration that he mutilated himself by slicing off his left ear.
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he → believe → ear
The fine art of family matters
But, as I was learning, family matters also very likely played a part in the most notorious instance of self-harm in art history.
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matters → learn → history
It’s a tragic story of dependence and the limits of love.
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It → ’ → love
And it’s where Jo van Gogh-Bonger comes in.
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Bonger → ’ → ?
Biographical details about her—revealed in her diaries and letters—have only recently been made public by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
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details → reveal → Amsterdam
They paint a picture of a determined woman to whom the world of art owes a tremendous debt.
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world → paint → debt
Theo supported Vincent with a monthly allowance, and in exchange Vincent gave Theo his paintings to try to market and sell.
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Vincent → support → paintings
The financial arrangement, as it would in most families, put an emotional strain on both brothers.
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it → put → brothers
Theo was not rich, and Vincent constantly complained about being broke, with not even enough money for food, and often practically begged his brother for more money.
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Vincent → complain → money
Over the course of 10 years, Vincent created more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings, desperately hoping for financial independence and commercial success.
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Vincent → create → independence
But in Vincent’s lifetime, Theo is known to have sold just one painting: Red Vineyard at Arles.
asserted
Theo → know → Arles
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
