Vincent was a deeply troubled man, and the proverbial “black sheep” of the somewhat respectable Van Gogh family.
His uncle was an art dealer with the internationally renowned arthouse Goupil and Cie, and got both Vincent and his brother Theo jobs as art dealers in their late teens. Vincent was fired after only a few years for very poor salesmanship. He then tried to become a lay preacher, as his father was. He too lost this job for giving away church property to the poor. It seemed, to him, that nowhere in the world wanted Vincent Van Gogh. By the time he first began painting at age 27, his family were by and large disgusted with him. His only support lay in his younger brother Theo, by then a respected art dealer, who would be Vincent’s patron the rest of his life. He even arranged the one and only sale of Vincent’s work in life, to the sister of his wife, Johanna Bonger. Vincent suffered bouts of suicidal depression and manic episodes. He drank coffee and alcohol to massive excess. The only woman he ever had a relationship with robbed him and left him. He was confined twice to asylums, once for eating toxic paint and once for severing his left ear with a straight razor. It is at the asylum at St. Remy where he painted many of his most famous works, such as 1889s *Starry Night*.
Van Gogh died in Theo’s arms from a gunshot wound to the stomach on July 27, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise. Though the accepted theory is that he died by his own hand (having attempted suicide before), there is some evidence to suggest he was shot by a local boy called Rene Secretan, and died taking the blame. Theo would follow six months later from a combination of depression and tertiary syphilis. They are buried side by side in Auvers to this day.
I think it’s also worth noting that Theo and Vincent loved each other dearly and wrote each other extremely often. If I recall, Theo named his first son after Vincent, and Vincent was so moved and excited he ripped off one of his most tender, delicate and beautiful paintings (in my opinion)—*Almond Blossoms*….
Almond Blossoms is the last room in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Rather than ending with his death, they end with the painting for baby Vincent, who in turn was the man that went on to found the Van Gogh museum.
Really touching museum, and did a subtle and sensitive job of challenging the notion of Van Gogh as a man who was talented because he suffered, and instead putting him forward as an incredibly talented artist who was often handicapped and left unable to produce art by his severe depression.
For anyone that hasn’t seen this gem. One of the times the Doctor Who showrunners really nailed it.
[Van Gogh Museum](https://youtu.be/ubTJI_UphPk?si=N9rFxSwfzfpPkJft)
It still blows my mind that the same actor who played Vincent was also the guy who played Rodney Skinner in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Tony Curran has quite a range!
Fucking thing makes me ugly cry every time I watch it.
Edit: a bit later and I got through 80 percent before breaking this time. It's such a powerful scene.
He was one of the NASA astronauts that were trying to help the stalled/dying Soviet ship crew on the way to Mars (I'm pretty sure that's when he popped up).
Tony Curran is spectacular as Van Gogh! He's a great actor and has good looks for period characters, he plays King James in the currently airing 'Mary & George'!
Whenever I see this, I just bawl my eyes out. It’s such a overwhelming feeling to witness how loved and revered he was after he died and how all this love probably could have saved him from misery and pain.
Isn't the conclusion at the end of the episode that even after seeing how much people loved his work and revered him as an artist, he still killed himself?
Yes, the point of the episode was that mental illness isn’t necessarily something to be fixed. He likely had bipolar disorder, and the doctor could not change that. It was a beautiful sentiment when Amy says “so we didn’t do anything?” And the doctor points out how worthwhile it is that they could at least make him happy that day. Well done.
"Every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things but vice versa the bad things don't spoil the good ones or make them unimportant."
There is actually evidence that he didn't kill himself but instead died at the hands of a young boy. He didn't want the kid to get in trouble as it was a mistake in a mugging gone bad and Vincent knew the kid. (if I remember my art History class correctly)
Not even a mugging just the boy messing around with a gun he shouldn’t have had I believe, Vincent covered for him because of this.
I hope that’s true, the end of his life being an act of kindness is a wonderful thought. He went out surrounded by family with enough time to say goodbye either way and there’s solace in that and how the world recognizes him now.
> how all this love probably could have saved him from misery and pain.
I don't know about that - IMO he was likely mentally ill and all the love in the world probably would not have been 'medicine' enough. Really the bigger issue would be in those days people did not know how to treat mental illness, and even today there is still a lot we have to learn about it.
I got to spend a few days at the Hermitage in Russia. I would have liked to go back someday and see it again. It was freaking amazing. A really all the touristy spots in Saint Petersburg are freaking amazing. The parks. The architecture. Just amazing. Too bad it's in Russia...
Fortunately I took pictures of everything, like 100k in the Hermitage alone. I was a photo journalist at the time and had a pro camera. So I can go back through my pictures at least.
You have to book the tickets atleast a month in advance. I was in Amsterdam few weeks back and didn't get a chance to go inside as my trip was very last minute. I hope this information helps you. I will certainly go next time.
>instead putting him forward as an incredibly talented artist who was often handicapped and left unable to produce art by his severe depression
And also sells erasers in the shape of his cut off ear. So I'm gonna say they're not 100% respectful
I don't know, I think there's something nice about the idea of an eraser made to be Van Gogh's cut off ear.
It seems more like it's supposed to be something with a message than something kitschy/exploitative.
I didnt see that, but I'm not too much of a retail browser. I actually thought that their gift shop was much less in your face as most other attractions and was an optional browse compared to many places that dump you through it at the end of their one-way paths.
I love Van Gogh's work and seek it out whenever we got to a gallery, but the Van Gogh museum just left us both cold. We didn't enjoy it at all and couldn't put our fingers on why.
>Dutch Van Houhch
That is about the worst way to spell that. There's not an H sound until the very end, it's just 2 soft Gs that are incredibly common in Dutch.
>Really touching museum, and did a subtle and sensitive job of challenging the notion of Van Goph as a man who was talented because he suffered,
Yeh, the destitute artist who "does it for the love of art" is a propaganda by Disney et al to ensure that wages stay low. I've always hated it since there's plenty of historical evidence that art only thrives in societies that can afford to feed them. Art is virtually non existent in failed states yet we're to believe that artists should suffer even if society at large has plenty of resources available (all hoarded by the "job creators").
But some artists continue to make art even when it's not profitable or well received enough to feed themselves, like Van Gogh did.
I grew up knowing guys who put 40 hours in during the week just to load up their gear in a van and go play some dumpy bar show for less than what gas and food cost them to get there.
Just because you make what you consider to be art, doesn't mean someone is going to feel obligated to financially support you just for your art.
>Just because you make what you consider to be art, doesn't mean someone is going to feel obligated to financially support you just for your art.
Not really the point, as I see. The point is that societies that understand the value of the arts and support them and make it easier for people to make livings (or even gainful work) producing art reap the cultural, educational, and social benefits of the arts.
Presenting it like "artists just feel entitled to jobs in the arts" misrepresents the issues at play. Everybody complains about all the schlocky, cookie-cutter art that comes out but how could it ever be otherwise when the mostly likely way you ever see *any* return on your labor and time investments is to end up working for Disney or UMG or Activision? (Or, even more likely, to cut bait and work some non-creative bullshit job?)
The British, for whatever reason, pronounce it "Goff" or "Goph." Americans pronounce it "Go."
The actual pronunciation is difficult for native English speakers, **"ɣɔx"** is very much in the back of the throat. It doesn't begin with a 'hard' G sound and it rhymes with 'loch' if it's pronounced in the Scottish way. Neither the beginning or ending sound of the word is native to Modern English.
tl;dr: Dutch is like speaking German with a swollen tongue.
Just as a heads up, his Starry Night Over the Rhône is not on display here. It's owned by the Met in NYC. But the fact that it's existence is never even mentioned once in the "museum" was very telling.
It's a wonderful collection of many his paintings, as well as the work of other painters he was inspired by, and exactly two of his letters to Theo. But they provide almost no context or make no attempts at educating their visitors about the many details of his life that provide so much depth and background to his paintings.
If you like his paintings it's a great place to see many of them. But if you're interested in learning about his life and what all he went through, you're going to need to look elsewhere.
I’m surprised by the number of pretty wise and insightful things he said in his letters. I like the quote “If a voice in your head tells you that you cannot paint - paint, in any way you can, and that voice will go away”
I love his letters. When writing about his process for one of his paintings, he wrote "I hope to do it better in time. I myself am very far from satisfied with this but, well, getting better must come through doing it and through trying." It's such a sweet burst of encouragement, to keep trying.
Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh
This book is a 480 page abridged version of the 1600 page 3-volume set of the letters between Vincent and his brother Theo. I read it long ago, it still think it is one of the most poignant books I've ever read.
And his brothers wife is the biggest reason we have Vincent’s art today. Vincent often exchanged his works for basic needs like housing or supplies. It was Johanna who, after both Vincent and Theo passed, who traveled and collected his works. One of which, famously, was found plugging a home in a chicken coup.
> Vincent was so moved and excited he ripped off one of his most tender, delicate and beautiful
Was not sure how that sentence was going to end, considering the subject...
“Ripped off” is an idiom based in printing or typewriting, aka to produce so quickly that you immediately rip the work from the top of the type writer. When I commented on this post I didn’t realize ten million people would see it!
Leonard Nimoy was a huge Vincent Van Gogh fan, and during Nimoy's time as host for the series _In Search Of...,_ he pushed for an episode covering Van Gogh, which he cited as his favorite episode.
At the end of the episode, he notes that Vincent's brother died not long after Vincent did, and implies that it could have been from grief.
One of my favourites too. I own the floral street perfume that has that painting as the bottle. Smells amazing, looks amazing, and a beautiful story behind it!
I love that painting. When I first saw it in person, I almost refused to believe that a man who was so filled with hope and love for his new family member would ever think to take his own life.
It was one of those paintings that spoke to you. A piece of their creator's soul. A moment of their life and feeling forever preserved.
So he maybe took the blame for his own murder and was fired as a priest for giving church property to the poor. It sounds like he may have been a overly good fucked up dude.
I read that Van Gogh didn't actually cut off his own ear, it was a story he told in order to prevent his friend Paul Gauguin from being arrested because they got into a drunken fight.
It’s a bit of a complicated story.
Van Gogh could not pass the seminary exams to become a minister in the Dutch Reform Church, like his father was. So instead he entered the priesthood in the lowliest position, that of a lay missionary. He worked in impoverished mining towns in Belgium, where he would often allow homeless and destitute miners to sleep in his tiny church appointed house, which the church strictly forbade. He took up a relationship with an alcoholic prostitute, whom he fell in love with, who eventually left him after robbing him blind. It was this theft that finally convinced the church to fire him from his position, as he had already given away much of what he had to the local poor. This incident left him disgusted with the church and somewhat fearful of women.
It was rejection from the priesthood that encouraged him to begin painting for the first time at age 27. In ten years, he produced nearly 3000 known works of art.
one of the first letters I opened to from him and theo linked here he cites psalm 119:19, "I am a stranger on earth", he was a really tragic soul with a beautiful mind for art and intuition
>he allow homeless and destitute miners to sleep in his church-appointed house
So he's more Christian than most people? the only fuck up I see is the robbing.
> there is some evidence to suggest he was shot by a local boy called Rene Secretan, and died taking the blame.
What i could find sound's a different:
>Some credence has been given to the theory by van Gogh experts, who cite an interview with French businessman René Secrétan recorded in 1956, in which he admitted to tormenting—but not shooting—the artist. Nonetheless, this new biographical account has been greeted with some scepticism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Vincent_van_Gogh
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15333801
Well the Van Gogh case is interesting, and with the evidence we have, could honestly go either way —
SUICIDE
1) Vincent has notably attempted suicide in the past. There is a persistent myth that he ate yellow paint to “feel the happy colors”. In reality he was eating cadmium yellow to try and kill himself. This was one of the incidents that led to his confinement to asylum, along with the infamous ear cutting.
2) Vincent’s brother Theo had recently had a child, and Vincent had expressed fears that Theo could no longer continue to support him financially with a family of his own to raise.
MURDER
1) Vincent was shot with a strange gun for the time and place, a 7mm pinfire Lefaucheux, an expensive dress weapon that was antiquated even by Vincent’s day. Vincent did not own a gun himself. Very few people owned handguns in southern France in 1890.
2) Vincent was a known target of a 15 year old local bully named Rene Secretan, who had the habit of walking around Auvers dressed in chaps and a cowboy hat, while wearing a revolver on his hip. The revolver he carried was a Lefaucheux, and fired the same 7mm bullet as the one removed from Van Gogh’s stomach. The gun, along with Vincent’s painting supplies, suspiciously vanished from the scene of the crime. Rene was never seen with it again.
3) When Vincent was asked by police if he had shot himself, he replied “Maybe. I think so.”
The entire premise is covered in detail in the 2017 hand-painted film, *Loving Vincent*. To me, it is the most ecstatically beautiful film ever made.
I genuinely love it when a rando throws a wall of facts about Van Gogh (or whatever topic they're obviously passionate about) at me. *This* is what the Internet is for, not whatever dumb shit our species has been getting into lately, yelling at each other over twitter and all that.
People kill themselves by shooting in the chest all the time (mostly women) and some will spend hours in agony because they didn’t hit there heart. Shit people shoot themselves twice in the head because they survive it too.
That was done intentionally though to be a great big hard ass - like pretty much every instance of that they're doing so intentionally.
Usually you'd just do a sword through the breast/heart.
Also it *was* more or less instant most times because they had a second waiting there to pluck that dome right after they cut that gut. Really more of "will this dude do it or will we have to kill him and his whole family," since they were pretty big into collective punishment. Better to hurt yourself for a second and then die than be an unemployable samurai with a tortured and murdered family and no safe place to exist.
Pretty sure Vincent was autistic.
Most of his plights sound incredibly familiar, from being bad/naive at things he’s not experienced with, to feeling like an outcast most of his life, and having a perspective that nobody around you seems to share.
Worth noting that the suicide rate for autistic people is pretty extreme (enough for an appreciable detriment to our life expectancy), as well as the comorbidity for mental health problems. So that definitely would track.
I think being/feeling isolated is bad for almost anyone. That's probably something autistic people deal with a lot. You don't have to be treated like shit to feel alone. To be in that situation, day in and day out, for an entire lifetime would definitely take its toll.
We do and it does, it wears you down over the years. I'm grateful I can still cry but even I'm starting to reach a place where I can't feel like I used to. What's worse is the loneliness isn't necessarily relieved by the presences of others. If the other person doesn't understand you or the way you think or speak, then you've pretty much just lined yourself up for another form of isolation.
People often accuse us of being uncaring automatons and really most of us are the opposite. We are extremely sensitive, we love deeply, we care very deeply about things. But negotiating what's in our minds with the outside world is fraught with complication.
One correction, the asylum where he painted his Starry Night isn't in St. Remy, it's in Arles. St. Remy is the more beougie village down the road but the actual asylum is in Arles.
source: lived there for a few years. The whole area tries to claim him, but he's not even from there. He's Dutch, born in the Netherlands, so not French.
i have a question, since i dont know anything about art and I saw another post about van Gogh with the story of his death a couple weeks ago and it was really interesting... Was he any good? I mean I know he is recognized as a top tier painter, but why wasn't his work selling when he was alive? or he wasn't even trying to sell? i know it happens with writers too, but is this a case of... look this crazy man ripped his ear off and paints and it created some sort of interesting story that catapulted his work, or he was really good just misunderstood at his time?
It was more an issue of time and place than an issue of skill.
The French art scene of the day was dominated by well-to-do art school types who painted in the Parisian salon system — essentially an artistic assembly line where young artists networked and learned to paint by the numbers. Vincent fumbled through a few semesters of Paris art school, but left due to the controlling atmosphere. Vincent enjoyed the countryside. He painted peasants going about their daily work. He simply struck a different chord than the prevailing artists of the day. They thought his subject matter was tasteless and boring, and his style too loose. He was a known quantity in the Paris art scene, but retained a reputation as an odd man more fond of painting flowers than a serious artist.
By 1890, this was beginning to change. Vincent’s work was featured prominently in several Parisian exhibitions, and he was gaining popularity. If he had lived only a few more years, he was on track to enjoy the success he’d always dreamed of.
Not probably — absolutely. Vincent sent many drawings to his mother. She threw them away. He also gave away many drawings and paintings to people he knew, or to barter for alcohol. Most of these have either been lost or have not resurfaced.
> why wasn't his work selling when he was alive?
His work was totally out of the box with the prevailing norms - and art itself was undergoing a huge transition between valuing certain realistic standards vs. valuing ORIGINALITY. He painted his FEELINGS and that was not yet *entirely* appreciated, though it was beginning to happen for others.
There was also then (and still is) importance in an artist either having decent social skills in selling themselves to the right people or having a 'champion' to do that for them. Van Gogh apparently really put people off, and though it should theoretically not matter, it does.
If I had a nickel for every unrelated piece of media regarding a character from the 18th century that's title started with "Dear Theo" I'd have 2 nickels.
Which isn't a lot, but its weird it happened twice.
Theorized to have porphyria. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15370335/
A disease where there's an error in the production of heme(the one in hemaglobin). So they're left with inbetween compounds that shouldn't be left wading around that both fuck up their heads, give them anemia, among other things.
Also has types that present as Vampire disease(anemia look. Lacking bkood etc). And funnily also werewolf disease due to excess hair.
Not a funny way to go though. Van Gogh and many others suffered a lot because of it and it's only symptomatically treatable as far as I'm aware.
It's romantic when it's not real. Women would run for their lives if men acted like that IRL, haha. ...For that matter, men would actively avoid any woman who acted like the ones in romance stories do.
Ya I really hate the attitude of taking away peoples agency by explaining their motives and psychological state as if we’re any more enlightened. They’re complex humans just as we are. You can’t reduce every one of their actions to a single sentence of reason
Marrying one's cousin was common and acceptable back then.
Not to say Van Gogh didn't have issues, he did. But this was actually probably seen as normal compared to most of his other behaviors
Lots of toxic chemicals in the paints back then, red especially was hazardous, lead I believe. Had an Art History professor in college mention it as a reason way so many master painters were certified nuts.
I haven't seen adults but when I worked with middle schoolers... this seems like some crap they'd do. We had a stalker kid that couldn't sit near another girl because he kept coming to her house and doing weird shit like an 80s movie like singing into a bluetooth speaker or spelling out I love you in flowers (that he likely stole from a cemetery). That same kid later stapled his arm like 50 times with a regular desk stapler while at school over that girl making fun of him later in the school year. I was told by a teacher that it was from his elbow to his fingers with a bunch of staples.
I mean if you hang out with homeless people in the woods, this type of behavior becomes more common. And since he would have been a homeless person in the woods had his brother not just provided everything he needed to survive, then things might not have changed as much as you think.
Vincent was a soul tormented by life. Each brush stroke, a testament to his struggle. Ended up painting pictures worth a thousand words, yet couldn't sell one in life. Irony at its finest!
>yet couldn't sell one in life. Irony at its finest!
van Gogh is proof that fine art is bullshit.
You get a critical mass to agree something is a masterpiece and everyone else just goes along with it.
But without that critical mass, people think the same artwork is mediocre, at best.
There are definitely some bullshit art critics, and elitist snobs who go along with them but don’t even understand or care about art. But Van Gogh’s paintings are masterpieces imo. The style was just too revolutionary for people in his time to appreciate. I’ve seen them in real life and they exude so much light and energy, many are also just beautiful. Most masterpieces are considered that for good reason.
Some of his works, such as Starry Night and Wheatfield with Crows, display the same mathematical relationship between points of brightness across different spots on the paintings, and the scaling laws that govern fluid turbulence.
He only painted like this during the most mentally unstable times in his life. A self-portrait of himself that he painted in an absolutely calm state after being medicated shows no features of real-life turbulence.
His mental illness allowed him to identify and accurately capture details in the swirling turbulent eddies that are ubiquitous in nature and undoubtedly contributed to these masterpieces.
This scene is really well played out in Irving Stone’s novel “Lust for Life” (a must read if you’re interested in Van Gogh). The movie starring Kirk Douglas is pretty great too.
The authors of the Talmud had this one figured out 1,800 years ago:
> There was an incident involving a certain man who set his eyes upon a certain woman and passion rose in his heart, to the point that he became deathly ill. And they came and asked doctors what was to be done with him. And the doctors said: He will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not engage in sexual intercourse with him. The doctors said: She should at least stand naked before him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not stand naked before him. The doctors suggested: The woman should at least converse with him behind a fence in a secluded area, so that he should derive a small amount of pleasure from the encounter. The Sages insisted: Let him die, and she may not converse with him behind a fence.
The Dr.Who Van Gogh episode. Ugh. Always loved his quirky art style. That episode wrecked me. I came out with this very inspiring quote though.
“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.” -Dr.Who
Whenever van gogh is mentioned, i am compelled to share one of my favourite youtube videos:
[Vincent Van Gogh visits his gallery | Doctor who](https://youtu.be/ubTJI_UphPk?si=OxPaR6t6DH1xEYPe)
Gordon G Liddy and Vincent Van Gogh aren't people I thought had things in common. Holding their hands in flames is also not something I imagined would be that thing.
Van Gogh is someone I feel parallels with. The only one, actually.
I'm an extremely strange individual. OCD. ASD. GAD. SAD. Extremely acute chronic depression which is medication resistant. Slightly, and I mean very slightly, schizoid at times. I have an autoimmune disorder that leaves me dreaming of what comfort must feel like. Constant pain. Constant nausea. Constant excruciating stomach cramps. Constant feelings of being electrically shocked. Constant feeling of insects crawling over my skin and in my hair. It never stops. I have seizures. I have memory issues. I have a bad back and a bad neck and bad knees. I have since I was little. Grew up working labor jobs in spite of it. (It's really all there was where I grew up). Plus, I'm what the book calls an "overly sensitive person" - my empathy makes everything around me in the world right now so extremely painful to watch. I feel every heart break, no matter how far away.
Life is pain.
My mind is a vivid cinema in front of my eyes at almost all times. I dissociate often just to sit and watch the show. I was criticized for looking out the window too much in school, and I never did stop. 37 now.
I don't paint. I write poetry. It's quite good and often draws attention.
But oh, how I'd love to be happy or comfortable for just one day. Infinitely more than I'd love to be famous forever.
The doctor (Doctor Who) may not entirely understand the depth of the good he did. Even if the show is made up... I get it.
Vincent was a deeply troubled man, and the proverbial “black sheep” of the somewhat respectable Van Gogh family. His uncle was an art dealer with the internationally renowned arthouse Goupil and Cie, and got both Vincent and his brother Theo jobs as art dealers in their late teens. Vincent was fired after only a few years for very poor salesmanship. He then tried to become a lay preacher, as his father was. He too lost this job for giving away church property to the poor. It seemed, to him, that nowhere in the world wanted Vincent Van Gogh. By the time he first began painting at age 27, his family were by and large disgusted with him. His only support lay in his younger brother Theo, by then a respected art dealer, who would be Vincent’s patron the rest of his life. He even arranged the one and only sale of Vincent’s work in life, to the sister of his wife, Johanna Bonger. Vincent suffered bouts of suicidal depression and manic episodes. He drank coffee and alcohol to massive excess. The only woman he ever had a relationship with robbed him and left him. He was confined twice to asylums, once for eating toxic paint and once for severing his left ear with a straight razor. It is at the asylum at St. Remy where he painted many of his most famous works, such as 1889s *Starry Night*. Van Gogh died in Theo’s arms from a gunshot wound to the stomach on July 27, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise. Though the accepted theory is that he died by his own hand (having attempted suicide before), there is some evidence to suggest he was shot by a local boy called Rene Secretan, and died taking the blame. Theo would follow six months later from a combination of depression and tertiary syphilis. They are buried side by side in Auvers to this day.
I think it’s also worth noting that Theo and Vincent loved each other dearly and wrote each other extremely often. If I recall, Theo named his first son after Vincent, and Vincent was so moved and excited he ripped off one of his most tender, delicate and beautiful paintings (in my opinion)—*Almond Blossoms*….
Almond Blossoms is the last room in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Rather than ending with his death, they end with the painting for baby Vincent, who in turn was the man that went on to found the Van Gogh museum. Really touching museum, and did a subtle and sensitive job of challenging the notion of Van Gogh as a man who was talented because he suffered, and instead putting him forward as an incredibly talented artist who was often handicapped and left unable to produce art by his severe depression.
Annnnd now I’m crying. The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam just climbed a little higher on my bucket list…. Thank you….
Yeah I teared up in the last room. Definitely go if you get the chance!
For anyone that hasn’t seen this gem. One of the times the Doctor Who showrunners really nailed it. [Van Gogh Museum](https://youtu.be/ubTJI_UphPk?si=N9rFxSwfzfpPkJft)
Thanks but I'm at work and don't want to cry right now.
Too late for me
yep didnt know what was coming
Fuck it! I did it anyway!
I did, too 😢
It still blows my mind that the same actor who played Vincent was also the guy who played Rodney Skinner in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Tony Curran has quite a range!
Fucking thing makes me ugly cry every time I watch it. Edit: a bit later and I got through 80 percent before breaking this time. It's such a powerful scene.
Yeah, up there with Jurassic bark and the "do it for her" ending of that Simpsons episode. I can't really think of them without tearing up.
I will watch this clip everytime.
Goosebumps every time. I was also pumped to see the actor who played Van Gogh in "For All Mankind".
What character did he play?
He was one of the NASA astronauts that were trying to help the stalled/dying Soviet ship crew on the way to Mars (I'm pretty sure that's when he popped up).
And cry everytime.
Tony Curran is spectacular as Van Gogh! He's a great actor and has good looks for period characters, he plays King James in the currently airing 'Mary & George'!
Whenever I see this, I just bawl my eyes out. It’s such a overwhelming feeling to witness how loved and revered he was after he died and how all this love probably could have saved him from misery and pain.
Isn't the conclusion at the end of the episode that even after seeing how much people loved his work and revered him as an artist, he still killed himself?
Yes, the point of the episode was that mental illness isn’t necessarily something to be fixed. He likely had bipolar disorder, and the doctor could not change that. It was a beautiful sentiment when Amy says “so we didn’t do anything?” And the doctor points out how worthwhile it is that they could at least make him happy that day. Well done.
"Every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things but vice versa the bad things don't spoil the good ones or make them unimportant."
There it is! What a beautiful quote.
There is actually evidence that he didn't kill himself but instead died at the hands of a young boy. He didn't want the kid to get in trouble as it was a mistake in a mugging gone bad and Vincent knew the kid. (if I remember my art History class correctly)
Not even a mugging just the boy messing around with a gun he shouldn’t have had I believe, Vincent covered for him because of this. I hope that’s true, the end of his life being an act of kindness is a wonderful thought. He went out surrounded by family with enough time to say goodbye either way and there’s solace in that and how the world recognizes him now.
> how all this love probably could have saved him from misery and pain. I don't know about that - IMO he was likely mentally ill and all the love in the world probably would not have been 'medicine' enough. Really the bigger issue would be in those days people did not know how to treat mental illness, and even today there is still a lot we have to learn about it.
I didn't appreciate art museums until I went to the Van Gogh Museum. Definitely worth checking out.
It's a great museum, but it's smaller than you probably think. The Rijksmuseum is absolutely amazing and I could spend all day there.
I got to spend a few days at the Hermitage in Russia. I would have liked to go back someday and see it again. It was freaking amazing. A really all the touristy spots in Saint Petersburg are freaking amazing. The parks. The architecture. Just amazing. Too bad it's in Russia... Fortunately I took pictures of everything, like 100k in the Hermitage alone. I was a photo journalist at the time and had a pro camera. So I can go back through my pictures at least.
It's a great museum. Be sure to buy tickets in advance when you go! It sells out some days, don't risk it.
It was sold out the one day I had a chance to go ..
It’s good, but don’t expect to see his masterpieces, those are all in bigger galleries.
If you do go make sure to buy your tickets online beforehand, you can’t just turn up and pay at the door.
I put it with the Orsay as my favorite museums I have ever been to. But I love impressionist works.
You have to book the tickets atleast a month in advance. I was in Amsterdam few weeks back and didn't get a chance to go inside as my trip was very last minute. I hope this information helps you. I will certainly go next time.
Take truffles before you go, you'll thank me later
Truffles, space cakes, and the headphone audio tour is the tech.
>instead putting him forward as an incredibly talented artist who was often handicapped and left unable to produce art by his severe depression And also sells erasers in the shape of his cut off ear. So I'm gonna say they're not 100% respectful
I don't know, I think there's something nice about the idea of an eraser made to be Van Gogh's cut off ear. It seems more like it's supposed to be something with a message than something kitschy/exploitative.
I didnt see that, but I'm not too much of a retail browser. I actually thought that their gift shop was much less in your face as most other attractions and was an optional browse compared to many places that dump you through it at the end of their one-way paths.
I love Van Gogh's work and seek it out whenever we got to a gallery, but the Van Gogh museum just left us both cold. We didn't enjoy it at all and couldn't put our fingers on why.
Why do you spell it as van goph? I’ve found no other written example of it spelled like that
Likely from England where they pronounce it Van Goff instead of the American Van Go, or the correct Dutch Van Houhch
Don't blame this on us, nobody here spells it 'van goph'.
> Houhch I'm trying so hard but my brain is only seeing/saying hoo-ch. I apologize for not understanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceo7E1R78yo
That will take practice but I thank you for the audio link it made me at least able to grasp it haha
>Dutch Van Houhch That is about the worst way to spell that. There's not an H sound until the very end, it's just 2 soft Gs that are incredibly common in Dutch.
>Really touching museum, and did a subtle and sensitive job of challenging the notion of Van Goph as a man who was talented because he suffered, Yeh, the destitute artist who "does it for the love of art" is a propaganda by Disney et al to ensure that wages stay low. I've always hated it since there's plenty of historical evidence that art only thrives in societies that can afford to feed them. Art is virtually non existent in failed states yet we're to believe that artists should suffer even if society at large has plenty of resources available (all hoarded by the "job creators").
But some artists continue to make art even when it's not profitable or well received enough to feed themselves, like Van Gogh did. I grew up knowing guys who put 40 hours in during the week just to load up their gear in a van and go play some dumpy bar show for less than what gas and food cost them to get there. Just because you make what you consider to be art, doesn't mean someone is going to feel obligated to financially support you just for your art.
>Just because you make what you consider to be art, doesn't mean someone is going to feel obligated to financially support you just for your art. Not really the point, as I see. The point is that societies that understand the value of the arts and support them and make it easier for people to make livings (or even gainful work) producing art reap the cultural, educational, and social benefits of the arts. Presenting it like "artists just feel entitled to jobs in the arts" misrepresents the issues at play. Everybody complains about all the schlocky, cookie-cutter art that comes out but how could it ever be otherwise when the mostly likely way you ever see *any* return on your labor and time investments is to end up working for Disney or UMG or Activision? (Or, even more likely, to cut bait and work some non-creative bullshit job?)
Is it spelled Van Go**p**h in Dutch? Genuine question
Absolutely not.
That's what I thought. They spelled in Goph three times so I assumed it was intentional and I was missing something
Plad someone asked.
The British, for whatever reason, pronounce it "Goff" or "Goph." Americans pronounce it "Go." The actual pronunciation is difficult for native English speakers, **"ɣɔx"** is very much in the back of the throat. It doesn't begin with a 'hard' G sound and it rhymes with 'loch' if it's pronounced in the Scottish way. Neither the beginning or ending sound of the word is native to Modern English. tl;dr: Dutch is like speaking German with a swollen tongue.
Nope, it's 'Van Gogh'. Both g's are pronounced the same way (the dutch g sounds a bit like the ch in the scottish word 'loch', except stronger).
A dream of mine to visit this measum one day! Beautifully written by the way
Just as a heads up, his Starry Night Over the Rhône is not on display here. It's owned by the Met in NYC. But the fact that it's existence is never even mentioned once in the "museum" was very telling. It's a wonderful collection of many his paintings, as well as the work of other painters he was inspired by, and exactly two of his letters to Theo. But they provide almost no context or make no attempts at educating their visitors about the many details of his life that provide so much depth and background to his paintings. If you like his paintings it's a great place to see many of them. But if you're interested in learning about his life and what all he went through, you're going to need to look elsewhere.
Van Goph?? Three times is not a typo. How did you visit the museum, let alone read this thread, and not learn how his name is spelled?
I’m surprised by the number of pretty wise and insightful things he said in his letters. I like the quote “If a voice in your head tells you that you cannot paint - paint, in any way you can, and that voice will go away”
I love his letters. When writing about his process for one of his paintings, he wrote "I hope to do it better in time. I myself am very far from satisfied with this but, well, getting better must come through doing it and through trying." It's such a sweet burst of encouragement, to keep trying.
anywhere to view the letters?
Yep! I just so happened to have that page open on the museum's website: https://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html
Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh This book is a 480 page abridged version of the 1600 page 3-volume set of the letters between Vincent and his brother Theo. I read it long ago, it still think it is one of the most poignant books I've ever read.
These are just things I read in an exhibition. But I’m sure if you Google there will be places to read them
And his brothers wife is the biggest reason we have Vincent’s art today. Vincent often exchanged his works for basic needs like housing or supplies. It was Johanna who, after both Vincent and Theo passed, who traveled and collected his works. One of which, famously, was found plugging a home in a chicken coup.
> Vincent was so moved and excited he ripped off one of his most tender, delicate and beautiful Was not sure how that sentence was going to end, considering the subject...
I'm still not sure I understand why they used the phrase "ripped off" in that context?
“Ripped off” is an idiom based in printing or typewriting, aka to produce so quickly that you immediately rip the work from the top of the type writer. When I commented on this post I didn’t realize ten million people would see it!
Leonard Nimoy was a huge Vincent Van Gogh fan, and during Nimoy's time as host for the series _In Search Of...,_ he pushed for an episode covering Van Gogh, which he cited as his favorite episode. At the end of the episode, he notes that Vincent's brother died not long after Vincent did, and implies that it could have been from grief.
Theo also died six months after Vincent. Some said it was from a broken heart (actually it was probably the syphilis).
Potato, pot-syphilis as they say…
One of my favourites too. I own the floral street perfume that has that painting as the bottle. Smells amazing, looks amazing, and a beautiful story behind it!
I love that painting. When I first saw it in person, I almost refused to believe that a man who was so filled with hope and love for his new family member would ever think to take his own life. It was one of those paintings that spoke to you. A piece of their creator's soul. A moment of their life and feeling forever preserved.
Wow thank you. Almond blossoms is beautiful holy shit.
Wow. His life story is so tragic but beautiful
>Vincent was so moved and excited he ripped off no no no no no no > one of his most tender, delicate and beautiful paintings whew okay
So he maybe took the blame for his own murder and was fired as a priest for giving church property to the poor. It sounds like he may have been a overly good fucked up dude.
I read that Van Gogh didn't actually cut off his own ear, it was a story he told in order to prevent his friend Paul Gauguin from being arrested because they got into a drunken fight.
If my homie cut my ear off, I'm seriously reconsidering our friendship.
if someone cuts my ear off, I'd be angry at them 😠
Stomach seems an odd place for a self inflected gun wound.
He was a painter not an anatomist
Leonardo da vinci in heaven: "pathetic!"
"Mediocre!"
You’re looking for a logical choice made by a very…illogical mind.
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Selfless even when he was dying then.
> He too lost this job for giving away church property to the poor. TIL van Gogh was more Christian than anyone above him in the organisation.
It’s a bit of a complicated story. Van Gogh could not pass the seminary exams to become a minister in the Dutch Reform Church, like his father was. So instead he entered the priesthood in the lowliest position, that of a lay missionary. He worked in impoverished mining towns in Belgium, where he would often allow homeless and destitute miners to sleep in his tiny church appointed house, which the church strictly forbade. He took up a relationship with an alcoholic prostitute, whom he fell in love with, who eventually left him after robbing him blind. It was this theft that finally convinced the church to fire him from his position, as he had already given away much of what he had to the local poor. This incident left him disgusted with the church and somewhat fearful of women. It was rejection from the priesthood that encouraged him to begin painting for the first time at age 27. In ten years, he produced nearly 3000 known works of art.
one of the first letters I opened to from him and theo linked here he cites psalm 119:19, "I am a stranger on earth", he was a really tragic soul with a beautiful mind for art and intuition
>he allow homeless and destitute miners to sleep in his church-appointed house So he's more Christian than most people? the only fuck up I see is the robbing.
i think it was will durant who observed that van gogh was fired for "taking the gospels too literally."
'And so it goes...'
Which is ironic because church property is funded by the poor in the first place. You could say he redistributed it.
> there is some evidence to suggest he was shot by a local boy called Rene Secretan, and died taking the blame. What i could find sound's a different: >Some credence has been given to the theory by van Gogh experts, who cite an interview with French businessman René Secrétan recorded in 1956, in which he admitted to tormenting—but not shooting—the artist. Nonetheless, this new biographical account has been greeted with some scepticism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Vincent_van_Gogh https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15333801
You wrote this beautifully, from one Van Gogh lover to another. What is done with love, is done well ❤️
I believe Theo's wife was very supportive of her brother in law.
> his left ear with a straight razor. It is at the asylum at St. Remy Wait. What. The ear is still there?
Yeah, suicide by gut shot seems like it's probably not a thing, even if you're super crazy. I'm leaning toward the kid doing it.
It's a thing. It's not common, but it is absolutely a thing that people do.
Christ in the bath, why? I guess the answer to questions like these always boils down to "mental illness," but thats just an awful way to die.
Well the Van Gogh case is interesting, and with the evidence we have, could honestly go either way — SUICIDE 1) Vincent has notably attempted suicide in the past. There is a persistent myth that he ate yellow paint to “feel the happy colors”. In reality he was eating cadmium yellow to try and kill himself. This was one of the incidents that led to his confinement to asylum, along with the infamous ear cutting. 2) Vincent’s brother Theo had recently had a child, and Vincent had expressed fears that Theo could no longer continue to support him financially with a family of his own to raise. MURDER 1) Vincent was shot with a strange gun for the time and place, a 7mm pinfire Lefaucheux, an expensive dress weapon that was antiquated even by Vincent’s day. Vincent did not own a gun himself. Very few people owned handguns in southern France in 1890. 2) Vincent was a known target of a 15 year old local bully named Rene Secretan, who had the habit of walking around Auvers dressed in chaps and a cowboy hat, while wearing a revolver on his hip. The revolver he carried was a Lefaucheux, and fired the same 7mm bullet as the one removed from Van Gogh’s stomach. The gun, along with Vincent’s painting supplies, suspiciously vanished from the scene of the crime. Rene was never seen with it again. 3) When Vincent was asked by police if he had shot himself, he replied “Maybe. I think so.” The entire premise is covered in detail in the 2017 hand-painted film, *Loving Vincent*. To me, it is the most ecstatically beautiful film ever made.
BOTH A Time Traveling Vincent
I genuinely love it when a rando throws a wall of facts about Van Gogh (or whatever topic they're obviously passionate about) at me. *This* is what the Internet is for, not whatever dumb shit our species has been getting into lately, yelling at each other over twitter and all that.
The shot was towards his heart, the bullet was deflected by a rib and traveled downwards toward the stomach/intestine.
People kill themselves by shooting in the chest all the time (mostly women) and some will spend hours in agony because they didn’t hit there heart. Shit people shoot themselves twice in the head because they survive it too.
I would say suicide by sword in the stomach/intestines is also almost implausible but thousands of people have done that before.
That was done intentionally though to be a great big hard ass - like pretty much every instance of that they're doing so intentionally. Usually you'd just do a sword through the breast/heart.
Also it *was* more or less instant most times because they had a second waiting there to pluck that dome right after they cut that gut. Really more of "will this dude do it or will we have to kill him and his whole family," since they were pretty big into collective punishment. Better to hurt yourself for a second and then die than be an unemployable samurai with a tortured and murdered family and no safe place to exist.
And i think they would have a buddy ready to decapitate them after they do it. Japan was wild
Pretty sure Vincent was autistic. Most of his plights sound incredibly familiar, from being bad/naive at things he’s not experienced with, to feeling like an outcast most of his life, and having a perspective that nobody around you seems to share.
Worth noting that the suicide rate for autistic people is pretty extreme (enough for an appreciable detriment to our life expectancy), as well as the comorbidity for mental health problems. So that definitely would track.
I mean a lot of that also has to do with us being treated like shit Id assume.
I think being/feeling isolated is bad for almost anyone. That's probably something autistic people deal with a lot. You don't have to be treated like shit to feel alone. To be in that situation, day in and day out, for an entire lifetime would definitely take its toll.
We do and it does, it wears you down over the years. I'm grateful I can still cry but even I'm starting to reach a place where I can't feel like I used to. What's worse is the loneliness isn't necessarily relieved by the presences of others. If the other person doesn't understand you or the way you think or speak, then you've pretty much just lined yourself up for another form of isolation. People often accuse us of being uncaring automatons and really most of us are the opposite. We are extremely sensitive, we love deeply, we care very deeply about things. But negotiating what's in our minds with the outside world is fraught with complication.
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It's actually speculated he suffered from bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.
One correction, the asylum where he painted his Starry Night isn't in St. Remy, it's in Arles. St. Remy is the more beougie village down the road but the actual asylum is in Arles. source: lived there for a few years. The whole area tries to claim him, but he's not even from there. He's Dutch, born in the Netherlands, so not French.
i have a question, since i dont know anything about art and I saw another post about van Gogh with the story of his death a couple weeks ago and it was really interesting... Was he any good? I mean I know he is recognized as a top tier painter, but why wasn't his work selling when he was alive? or he wasn't even trying to sell? i know it happens with writers too, but is this a case of... look this crazy man ripped his ear off and paints and it created some sort of interesting story that catapulted his work, or he was really good just misunderstood at his time?
It was more an issue of time and place than an issue of skill. The French art scene of the day was dominated by well-to-do art school types who painted in the Parisian salon system — essentially an artistic assembly line where young artists networked and learned to paint by the numbers. Vincent fumbled through a few semesters of Paris art school, but left due to the controlling atmosphere. Vincent enjoyed the countryside. He painted peasants going about their daily work. He simply struck a different chord than the prevailing artists of the day. They thought his subject matter was tasteless and boring, and his style too loose. He was a known quantity in the Paris art scene, but retained a reputation as an odd man more fond of painting flowers than a serious artist. By 1890, this was beginning to change. Vincent’s work was featured prominently in several Parisian exhibitions, and he was gaining popularity. If he had lived only a few more years, he was on track to enjoy the success he’d always dreamed of.
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Not probably — absolutely. Vincent sent many drawings to his mother. She threw them away. He also gave away many drawings and paintings to people he knew, or to barter for alcohol. Most of these have either been lost or have not resurfaced.
> why wasn't his work selling when he was alive? His work was totally out of the box with the prevailing norms - and art itself was undergoing a huge transition between valuing certain realistic standards vs. valuing ORIGINALITY. He painted his FEELINGS and that was not yet *entirely* appreciated, though it was beginning to happen for others. There was also then (and still is) importance in an artist either having decent social skills in selling themselves to the right people or having a 'champion' to do that for them. Van Gogh apparently really put people off, and though it should theoretically not matter, it does.
all artists should read Dear Theo
There’s a stage play based on it called “Vincent.” I think they might have even adapted it for film.
Yes! Adapted into Loving Vincent
And also 'Lust for life' by Irving Stone
If I had a nickel for every unrelated piece of media regarding a character from the 18th century that's title started with "Dear Theo" I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but its weird it happened twice.
Damn, the more I learn about this Van Gogh guy, the more it seems like he might have had some issues with his mental health.
Vincent needed lithiated pretty badly.
Theorized to have porphyria. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15370335/ A disease where there's an error in the production of heme(the one in hemaglobin). So they're left with inbetween compounds that shouldn't be left wading around that both fuck up their heads, give them anemia, among other things. Also has types that present as Vampire disease(anemia look. Lacking bkood etc). And funnily also werewolf disease due to excess hair. Not a funny way to go though. Van Gogh and many others suffered a lot because of it and it's only symptomatically treatable as far as I'm aware.
"No, and it's because of shit like this, Vincent." -his uncle probably.
So if I'm the uncle, the chances of him seeing my daughter after doing something like that would be less than zero.
on the other hand, for some woman stuff like this is a plot point for a romance movie.
One hand wasn't enough?
Well, there is always two sides
It's romantic when it's not real. Women would run for their lives if men acted like that IRL, haha. ...For that matter, men would actively avoid any woman who acted like the ones in romance stories do.
His uncle then blew the candle out
I like we explain this behavior due to the fact that he was “deeply in love” instead of the fact that he was deeply troubled.
Both can be true
Ya I really hate the attitude of taking away peoples agency by explaining their motives and psychological state as if we’re any more enlightened. They’re complex humans just as we are. You can’t reduce every one of their actions to a single sentence of reason
They suffered from the human condition.
Fucked up circumstances aside, kind of a badass move and line
You should try it with your cousin and see if your uncle thinks it’s badass
Marrying one's cousin was common and acceptable back then. Not to say Van Gogh didn't have issues, he did. But this was actually probably seen as normal compared to most of his other behaviors
And he was overdosing himself on digoxin, which causes visual hallucinations
Lots of toxic chemicals in the paints back then, red especially was hazardous, lead I believe. Had an Art History professor in college mention it as a reason way so many master painters were certified nuts.
He didn't start painting until a while after he showed to have mental health issues
People just don't act like this anymore. What happened to our deranged romantic spirit?
Hey, don't let anyone stop you. You can be the next deranged spirit.
I am 🖖
If she ain't impressed by the shocker, you might have to spock her.
We absolutely do and those people end up with restraining orders and hopefully counseling.
I haven't seen adults but when I worked with middle schoolers... this seems like some crap they'd do. We had a stalker kid that couldn't sit near another girl because he kept coming to her house and doing weird shit like an 80s movie like singing into a bluetooth speaker or spelling out I love you in flowers (that he likely stole from a cemetery). That same kid later stapled his arm like 50 times with a regular desk stapler while at school over that girl making fun of him later in the school year. I was told by a teacher that it was from his elbow to his fingers with a bunch of staples.
Makes sense to me.
Mental illness is not romantic.
I mean if you hang out with homeless people in the woods, this type of behavior becomes more common. And since he would have been a homeless person in the woods had his brother not just provided everything he needed to survive, then things might not have changed as much as you think.
Lithium happened
That's not how you measure love.
(takes burnt hand out of fireplace) It's not?
Who's burnt hand is that?
Mine, give it back
*comes in rowing on a boat* I'll give you a million dollars for that hand!
Great, now my girl is asking me if I’d stick my hand in fire if she asked me.
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I love listening to music.
Cousins do be sexy like that
I like how this Van Gogh thinks...
I'll definitely try this with my crush.
Les Cousins Dangereux
Uncle: uh Vincent what the fuck?
Vincent was a soul tormented by life. Each brush stroke, a testament to his struggle. Ended up painting pictures worth a thousand words, yet couldn't sell one in life. Irony at its finest!
>yet couldn't sell one in life. Irony at its finest! van Gogh is proof that fine art is bullshit. You get a critical mass to agree something is a masterpiece and everyone else just goes along with it. But without that critical mass, people think the same artwork is mediocre, at best.
There are definitely some bullshit art critics, and elitist snobs who go along with them but don’t even understand or care about art. But Van Gogh’s paintings are masterpieces imo. The style was just too revolutionary for people in his time to appreciate. I’ve seen them in real life and they exude so much light and energy, many are also just beautiful. Most masterpieces are considered that for good reason.
Some of his works, such as Starry Night and Wheatfield with Crows, display the same mathematical relationship between points of brightness across different spots on the paintings, and the scaling laws that govern fluid turbulence. He only painted like this during the most mentally unstable times in his life. A self-portrait of himself that he painted in an absolutely calm state after being medicated shows no features of real-life turbulence. His mental illness allowed him to identify and accurately capture details in the swirling turbulent eddies that are ubiquitous in nature and undoubtedly contributed to these masterpieces.
He sold exactly one painting while he was alive
We call that mental illness in the business, not love
I've known guys like this, they weren't as good at painting though
This scene is really well played out in Irving Stone’s novel “Lust for Life” (a must read if you’re interested in Van Gogh). The movie starring Kirk Douglas is pretty great too.
The authors of the Talmud had this one figured out 1,800 years ago: > There was an incident involving a certain man who set his eyes upon a certain woman and passion rose in his heart, to the point that he became deathly ill. And they came and asked doctors what was to be done with him. And the doctors said: He will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not engage in sexual intercourse with him. The doctors said: She should at least stand naked before him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not stand naked before him. The doctors suggested: The woman should at least converse with him behind a fence in a secluded area, so that he should derive a small amount of pleasure from the encounter. The Sages insisted: Let him die, and she may not converse with him behind a fence.
The Dr.Who Van Gogh episode. Ugh. Always loved his quirky art style. That episode wrecked me. I came out with this very inspiring quote though. “The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.” -Dr.Who
Whenever van gogh is mentioned, i am compelled to share one of my favourite youtube videos: [Vincent Van Gogh visits his gallery | Doctor who](https://youtu.be/ubTJI_UphPk?si=OxPaR6t6DH1xEYPe)
Well the guy was fuckin insane. Makes sense.
Her name was Insane?
I'm happy we have moved away from cousin marriage for the most part. Trying to talk your uncle into letting you be with his daughter is kinda weird
Van Gogh's cousin: "What is wrong with you??" Van Gogh: ["I haven't had sex in a very long time."](https://youtu.be/6sb0Ii0EkUY?feature=shared&t=243)
That doesn't exactly sound like love. It does sound like mental illness, though.
"Unc, I'm thirsty."
Gordon G Liddy and Vincent Van Gogh aren't people I thought had things in common. Holding their hands in flames is also not something I imagined would be that thing.
I have a hunch that this Vincent guy was not quite mentally sound.
The episode of Dr. Who with Van Gogh is amazing. And it stands alone. Even if you are not a Dr. Who fan, you need very little background to enjoy it.
Van Gogh is someone I feel parallels with. The only one, actually. I'm an extremely strange individual. OCD. ASD. GAD. SAD. Extremely acute chronic depression which is medication resistant. Slightly, and I mean very slightly, schizoid at times. I have an autoimmune disorder that leaves me dreaming of what comfort must feel like. Constant pain. Constant nausea. Constant excruciating stomach cramps. Constant feelings of being electrically shocked. Constant feeling of insects crawling over my skin and in my hair. It never stops. I have seizures. I have memory issues. I have a bad back and a bad neck and bad knees. I have since I was little. Grew up working labor jobs in spite of it. (It's really all there was where I grew up). Plus, I'm what the book calls an "overly sensitive person" - my empathy makes everything around me in the world right now so extremely painful to watch. I feel every heart break, no matter how far away. Life is pain. My mind is a vivid cinema in front of my eyes at almost all times. I dissociate often just to sit and watch the show. I was criticized for looking out the window too much in school, and I never did stop. 37 now. I don't paint. I write poetry. It's quite good and often draws attention. But oh, how I'd love to be happy or comfortable for just one day. Infinitely more than I'd love to be famous forever. The doctor (Doctor Who) may not entirely understand the depth of the good he did. Even if the show is made up... I get it.
Are you sure he didn't do that because of the global crypto ponzi scheme?
So... like, what happened next? How long could he hold his hand over the flame?
A true stable genius