A canvas of chaos

It’s July 29, 1890, and in a tiny bedroom at Auberge Ravoux in France’s Auvers-sur-Oise village lies a lone figure shrouded in silence. The man, with his brother by his side, awaits his death, reminiscing about the countless moments of pain and misery he experienced in almost 37 years of his life. Just as he feels that he cannot go on any longer, he whispers to his brother Theo: “La tristesse durera toujours” (the sadness will last forever), and with these haunting words, Vincent Van Gogh’s life ebbs away, finally surrendering to his turbulent sorrows.

Van Gogh — born to Theodorus, a Protestant pastor, and Anna Carbentus on March 30, 1853 — grew up in a conservative and traditional household in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, where his father’s strict Calvinist values would later influence his own spiritual struggles and paintings. A quite serious and shy individual since childhood, Van Gogh never really had the proverbial happy life. As years passed by, his pain grew multitude, and to give vent to his miseries, he found a way through artistic expression.

A renowned Post-Impressionist, second only to Rembrandt van Rijn, Van Gogh is known for his bold, expressive and emotionally charged paintings, which explored the human condition and nature. The thick, heavy brushstrokes and vivid, clashing hues, particularly shades of yellow, blue and green, gave his works a sense of dynamic energy and emotional intensity. ‘Sunflower’ (1888), ‘The Starry Night’ (1889) and ‘Wheatfield with Crows’ (1890), being some of his most famous paintings, brought his signature style to the world’s notice.

As a child, he was never really interested in art and did not start painting until he was 27 — after being encouraged by Theo to give it a shot. He worked several jobs, including that of an art dealer, a language teacher and missionary, before becoming a full-time artist. He had started to develop a resentment towards art trading. Van Gogh, who had finally found refuge in art, wrote in one of this letters to his younger brother: “Theo, I’m really so happy with my painting box, and it’s better, it seems to me, that I’ve got it only now, after having drawn exclusively for at least a year, than if I’d started with it immediately. I think you’ll agree with me there…For Theo, with painting my real career begins.”

In 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris, where he was exposed to the latest artistic trends and movements, including Impressionism and Pointillism. It was during this period that he met Paul Gauguin, a fellow artist with whom he shared a deep passion for art and a desire to break free from traditional conventions.

The two artists formed a close bond, and in 1888, he invited Gauguin to join him in Arles, where he had relocated to in search of inspiration and a simpler way of life. However, their friendship was short-lived, as their intense personalities and artistic differences eventually led to a violent argument. The argument ended with Van Gogh severing part of his left ear, an incident that marked the beginning of his struggles with mental instability. This event had such a deep impact on him that he got himself admitted to an asylum in Saint-Remy, as he began to experience increasing episodes of anxiety, depression and psychosis. It was in 1889 that he brought out his ‘Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear’ — a haunting and introspective work that captured his agony and vulnerabilities.

The later stages of his life were marred by an extreme emotional turmoil over having “failed as a man” — what he thought throughout his life, despite having made nearly 900 paintings. The whispers of bipolar disorder, a condition marked by the tempests of extreme mood swings, grew louder with each passing day. His depression was growing, and now, it was becoming difficult for him to contain his emotions. The letters he was writing to Theo, once filled with hope and enthusiasm, now echoed with despair and desperation.

The weight of his perceived failures started crushing him, and the colors that once flowed so vibrantly from his brush began to fade. Even art, which he confided in once, couldn’t seem to alleviate his pain. The darkness began closing in, and his mind had become a battleground of conflicting emotions. And on the fine morning of July 27, 1890, he shot himself in the chest with a revolver, and succumbed to his pain two days later.

A week after his death, Theo wrote a letter to his sister Elizabeth: “In the last letter which he wrote me and which dates from some four days before his death, it says, ‘I try to do as well as certain painters whom I have greatly loved and admired.’ People should realise that he was a great artist, something which often coincides with being a great human being. In the course of time this will surely be acknowledged, and many will regret his early death.”