A Dissertation On

PAINTING LIFE FROM CINEMA : A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FILMS OF VINCENT Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of BA Journalism & Mass Communication program of Navrachana University during the year 2017-2020

By

RIYA KHOYANI Semester VI 17165018

Under the guidance of

Dr. JAVED KHATRI

NAVRACHANA UNIVERSITY Vasna - Bhayli Main Rd, Bhayli, Vadodara, Gujarat 391410

NAVRACHANA UNIVERSITY Vasna - Bhayli Main Rd, Bhayli, Vadodara, Gujarat 391410

Certificate

Awarded to

RIYA KHOYANI

This is to certify that the dissertation titled PAINTING LIFE FROM CINEMA : A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FILMS ON

has been submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirement of the

Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication program of

Navrachana University.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the dissertation titled,

Painting life from cinema : A comparative study of films on Vincent van Gogh prepared and submitted by RIYA KHOYANI

of Navrachana University, Vadodara

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor

of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication program is hereby accepted.

Place: Vadodara Date: 15-05-2020

Dr. Javed Khatri Dissertation Guide

Dr. Robi Augustine Program Chair

Accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Place: Vadodara Date: 15-05-2020

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the dissertation titled “ Painting life from cinema : A comparative

study of films on Vincent van Gogh” is an original work prepared and written by me, under the guidance of Mrs/Mr/Dr Javed Khatri Assistant Professor, Journalism and Mass

Communication program, Navrachana University in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication.

This thesis or any other part of it has not been submitted to any other University for the

award of other degree or diploma.

Date: 15.05. 2020

Place: Vadodara Riya Khoyani

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude.

I express gratitude and my heartful thanks and acknowledge the support given by Dr. Robi Augustin Program Chair, Journalism and Mass Communication Navrachana University.

I am also extremely thankful to my mentor Dr. Javed Khatri and all the faculty members of Journalism and Mass Communication program.

signature Riya Khoyani

I whole heartedly dedicate this work

To

My friends, family and my guide.

ABSTRACT

100 years and it is not known how Vincent Van Gogh died. 1980’s and 90’s was the period where Van Gogh was in lime light for the film makers. Different films feature different story and ending of his life. Discussing about some main people of Vincent’s life, his art and his letters. The purpose of the study is to know the real Vincent and to study movies about him and how over the years research on Van Gogh has impacted the movies.

Keywords: life, letters, murder, suicide, art, movies

TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE NO.

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 SIGNIFICANCE 1

1.2 BACKGROUND 1

1.3 OBJECTIVE 2

1.4 HYPOTHESES 2

1.5 VARIABLES 2

1.5.1 VAN GOGH IN REAL LIFE 2

1.5.2 VAN GOGH IN MOVIES 3

1.5.3 VAN GOGH : SUICIDE OR MURDER 4

CHAPTER 2 : REVIEW OF LETERATURE 5

2.1 THE PROPERTIES OF IMAGES 5-6

2.2 SCREENING GENIUS 6

2.3 AT ETERNITY’S GATE 6

2.4 VERSIONS OF VAN GOGH 6

2.5 LUST FOR LIFE 7

2.6 AT ETERNITY’S GATE : VAN GOGH’S COLLISION OF PAINTING

AND CNEMA 7

2.7 ’S VINCENT CAN GOGH BIOPIC DOESN’T PAINT

A FULL PICTURE 8

2.8 WILLEN DAFOE SHINES IN FRUSTRATING BOPIC 8

2.9 AT ETERNITY’S GATE HAS IT’S FLAWS, BUT WILLEN DAFOE IS

FLAWLESS 8

CHAPTER 3 : METHODOLOGY 9

3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 9

3.3 TEXTUAL AND ART ANALYSIS 10

3.4 CHARACTER ANALAYSIS 10

3.5 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS 10

3.6 SCHEDULE 11

CHAPTER 4 : CONTENT ANALYSIS 12

4.1 COMPARING MOVIES 12-15

4.2 MURDER OR SUICIDE 15-18

CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION 19

CHAPTER 6 : REFERENCES AND LINKS 20

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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

The strange, sad life of Vincent van Gogh has held a strong fascination for many filmmakers trying to give us a close view through Van Gogh’s eyes, on Van Gogh’s canvases. A film about

Van Gogh is incomplete without showing Vincent’s life in , where he painted most of his paintings, where he spent time with his close friend, . In this research paper I’ll be talking about Vincent van Gogh’s character variation and technical aspect in various films. The films which I chose are : Lust for Life (1956) by , Vincent (1987) by Paul Cox,

Vincent and Theo (1990) by , Dreams (1990) by Akira Kurosawa, Van Gogh

(1991) by Maurice Pialat, Loving Vincent (2017) by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman and At

Eternity’s Gate (2018) by Julian Schnabel.

What motivated the filmmakers to make 4 films about Van Gogh in just five years? Why do filmmakers love Van Gogh?

1.1 Significance

To understand the portrayal of Vincent van Gogh in different films and the numerous ways used to enhance the visuals which gives the audience a clearer view into Vincent’s Life.

1.2 Background

From The Lust for Life to At Eternity’s Gate, Vincent van Gogh has been alive in the modern audiences. Filmmakers are making films on him even after his death more than a century ago. What drives filmmakers to do so? How each director portrays his version of Van Gogh? What 2

are the numerous ways used in film making which brings the audience closer to understand

Vincent?

1.3 Objective

To simplify the characters of Vincent shown differently in various movies

To show how technicality plays an important role in conveying the meanings of a particular scene

1.4 Hypothesis

To prove that the story of an individual can be portrayed in different manners and facts

Was Vincent van Gogh murdered or did he commit a suicide?

1.5 Variables

1.5.1 Van Gogh in real life

Vincent was highly fascinated by Paul Gauguin. However, he was also uncertain when it came to him. He considered Paul ‘Master’ and considered him a great artist. At the same time,

Vincent was not ready to take Paul’s criticism on his art.

Van Gogh was homoerotically attracted towards Paul. He also invited Paul to stay with him in Arles, France. Gauguin arrived in October, 1888 and Vincent with all his will, set up a room for Paul. All this affection towards him, but two days before Christmas he flung a glass towards Paul in café and later the well known story about cutting his own ear when he had a fight with Gauguin.

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Other than Paul, Vincent was very close to his brother Theo. Theo helped Vincent sell his paintings and supported him financially. A lot of letters were exchanged between the brothers when Vincent left his home and explored.

Van Gogh loved art. With the same passion he also loved books and literature. In the first ten years of his life he was connected to books and pictures but was not able to combine them. At the age of 19, he was an employee at Goupil and Cei. After a religious crisis, he turned again towards the books. At the age of 23, he left a book shop to follow his father’s footsteps. For a few months, he worked in a book shop. For a lot of time, he was in the company of book and pictures.

His time in the Borinage was finally when he decided to adopt art as his calling.

Vincent’s art will come through his knowledge of literature – was something everyone expected. For Vincent, art was something which is a painting of one’s vision. However, towards the end of 1888, realism in art shifted towards literature and art. Gauguin on his arrival in Arles,

1888 , “Let me give you a hint, don’t paint too much after nature. Art is an abstraction, draw what you can from nature while dreaming before her, and think more of the resulting creation.”

Gauguin tried to convince Vincent to start varying his work and paint from his memory. This didn’t work for Van Gogh. He realized that it was very foolish of him to take the path of abstractions.

1.5.2 Van Gogh in movies

Vincent was quite famous among the filmmakers in 1980’s and early 90’s. In five years, there were four films made about Vincent van Gogh. All these movies talk about his art, his relations with his brother Theo and friend Paul Gauguin, lack of love in his life and his failed attempts on wooing the person he loved and the very famous event of his life – cutting his on ear.

All these films have featured Van Gogh in different ways. One film shows a calm Vincent whereas the other shows an aggressive Vincent. The portrayal of Vincent varies very much in each and 4

every film. While some films show his death as a suicide, the others show it as a murder. Mostly the films in 1980’s and 90’s show a suicide. A lot research has been going on even after the death of the painter. In ‘Loving Vincent’ the ending reveals a log book of Vincent’s sketches discovered in 2016. Earlier films about Vincent were a showcase of his life and paintings, his struggles and his death through his art and letters. The new films were an experiment. At Eternity’s Gate is a movie which shows us how Vincent’s mind worked. It made us connect with the artist and the struggles with his own mind. His paintings and his methods of painting are very beautifully dedicated to Vincent van Gogh through all the movies.

1.5.3 Vincent van Gogh : Suicide or Murder

Vincent died on 29th July, 1890 due to a shot in his stomach. It is still not known if he was shot or he committed a suicide. Few films show his death a suicide and few show it as a murder.

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CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Neale, S. (2010). The Properties of Images: Lust for Life (1956).

Lust for Life, a movie about a Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh, based on a novel by Irving

Stone talks about the struggles of a painter who is not accepted by the society because of his different perspective and painting style. The ability of film makers to select and edit in sequence a number of different views of any setting, staging or subject, the properties of Ansco Color, and the proportions of Cinemascope in particular, played key roles in Lust for Life’s aesthetic concerns.

The movie reflects Van Gogh’s aesthetics as most of the time the background is the blurred image of Van Gogh’s painting. The color scheme of the movie also changes with the change in

Van Gogh’s color palette.

Taking the scene where Vincent is painting a full-length portrait of Christine on the beach in consideration, it pretty much sums up Vincent’s life where nothing is in his favor. Vincent is shown as struggling, and often failing, to realize his aims, to control his life and his environment, and to engage successfully with those he loves, admires or depends on.

Vincent fails to complete the portrait, he is not able to persuade Christine to pose a little longer, he is not able to convince Paul to stay a little longer with him nor he is able to change

Kay’s mind to marry him.

The sequential and simultaneous contrasting in the scenes are used to highlight the ways in which framings determine not only what we see, but also what we do not see, not only what framings include, but also what they exclude.

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2.2 Nead, L. (2014, October). Screening genius. Apollo, 180 (624), 74+.

This write up talks about Vincente Minellis’s most salient visual feature, intensity of the color. The film was shot in Metrocolor, which was the trade name used by Metro Goldwyn Mayer for films processed in their laboratories and shot on Kodak’s Eastmancolor film, developed in the

1950s. The film exploits this new color film to almost hallucinogenic levels.

Biopics are very tough to make, especially of a person this famous. Making a biopic of an artist needs a great change to make it look different from the others, because at last the story remains the same – an artist in front of a blank canvas preparing to paint his another masterpiece.

Lust for Life is a persuasive movie as it uses familiar paintings in a resembling way. The way

Minelli played with the visual aspects of the film makes it different.

2.3 Collier, S. (2018, December 4). The 400-Word Review: At Eternity's Gate

The film doesn’t start with Vincent in his early stages, but in the last times of his life where he’s only shown broke, emotionally and mentally unstable and painting. Unlike, in Lust for Life, there is no explanation of the event where he cuts off his ear, this film gives us a conclusion on why he did that, which is a hit here. We don’t see much of his sufferings here because Julian

Schnabel tried to create a cinematic version of Van Gogh’s mind, showing us what was happening inside that brain.

2.4 Proyect, L. (2018, November 29). Versions of Van Gogh.

The early period in Van Gogh’s development was of no interest to Schnabel whereas it was to Minelli. Unlike “At Eternity’s Gate”, “Lust for Life” is so much melodramatic. Dafoe’s voice, compared to Douglas, is very much calm and soft. These movies potray two different personalities of Van Gogh because these are just two aspects of the artists personality that would be difficult to convey simultaneously. 7

With different versions of Van Gogh, there are also differences in Paul Gauguin’s portrayal. He’s shown very much aggressive in “Lust for Life”, whereas in “At Eternity’s Gate” he’s opposite of Minelli’s Gauguin.

2.5 Ressler, C. (n.d.). Lust for Life.

Lust for Life succeeds both as a presentation of Vincent Van Gogh’s life and of his paintings. The camera couldn’t show the thick, expressive brush strokes of paint, but managed to capture beautiful coloring, especially the electric yellows which Vincent regarded as brilliant light of God and his sun. The movie focuses upon the man as an artist than upon his mental divergence.

2.6 Desowitz, B. (2018, November 19). ‘At Eternity’s Gate’: Van Gogh’s Collision of Painting and Cinema.

The director, Julian Schnabel wanted to show the audience how Vincent viewed the normal world. It is beautifully shown in the scene where a POV is shown changing the color gradually to yellow as Vincent is approaching a young lady on the road. Later, towards the end of the movie, the same scene is repeated where further Vincent asks the lady to pose for him. On not able to pose the way he guides her, he becomes harsh on her. This gives us an idea that he is so impractical, so demanding and so single minded that he alienates the person on whose love and co-operation he here depends.

Van Gogh’s frightened state of mind was shown by splitting the camera image.

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2.7 Lawson, R. (2018, November 14). Willem Dafoe’s Vincent Van Gogh Biopic Doesn’t Paint a Full Picture.

This article talks about Willam Dafoe (aged 63) playing Van Gogh (age 37) in “At

Eternity’s Gate” and how this age difference might affect some audiences to relate. The film seems more the story of an old-timer reaching the end of a long, squiggly line than that of a young enough man snatched from his prime by terrible circumstance.

2.8 Archer, S. (2019, January 3). AT ETERNITY'S GATE: Willem Dafoe Shines In

Frustrating Biopic

The best thing about this movie is Willem Dafoe’s outstanding acing. Apart from acting and technicality in the film, a new thing comes out. Van Gogh didn’t die by committing a suicide but was murdered by young men in the town. This movie also gives light to the event where

Vincent cut off his ear by explaining the purpose behind it. Also the movie shows a lodger full of

Vincent’s sketches being discovered in 2016. A good amount of effort has been put into the research.

2.9 Review: 'At Eternity's Gate' Has Its Flaws, but Willem Dafoe is Flawless.

The film is a contrast of two painters – Van Gogh and Paul Guaguin. While Vincent likes to paint in a hurry, Paul needs a calm environment to use the canvas. Gauguin likes to live in the city whereas Vincent loves the country side. With only good visuals, aesthetic shots and soothing piano track, the film conveys the torture Van Gogh goes through.

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CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Philosophy

Van Gogh is considered one of the most influential artists of modern times. But there is a lot more to him than just few popular paintings that most of the people in the world can recognize so easily. Over the years, there has been arguments about certain events in his life, especially his death and his episodes of mental confusion and emotional instability episodes. This extremely consumed artist was shaped by numerous aspects of life, society, art, along with his ambiguous mental illness. Vincent was extremely close to his brother, Theo Van Gogh, and due to this relation, after the death of Vincent and his brother, Theo’s wife Johann Van Gogh-Bonger, made passionate efforts to make this genius’ work in-front of the whole world. This story of effort, passion and trauma interested the world into this eccentric artist, that inspired more artists around the world.

Cinema is no exception. Cinematic imagery inspired by his works, inspired filmmakers around the world. This study aims to understand his works along with every aspect that played the part in the shaping this creative genius

3.2 Research Design

The study aims to analyze certain events of his life with the prominent works and its resulting interpretations in cinema. This process would be done by setting real events of his life as the foundations of the study. Further, the comparison of its cinematic interpretations and effects will be studied through 6 feature films:

 At Eternity’s Gate (2018)

 Loving Vincent (2017)

 Lust for Life (1956)

 Vincent and Theo (1990) 10

 Van Gogh (1991)

 Dreams (1990)

3.3 Schedule

It took me around 7-8 weeks to find the correctly related research papers and all the research work got completed within 2 weeks.

3.4 Textual and Art Analysis

The content chosen for the study describes deeper and layered aspects of his life and work.

These texts studies Van Gogh’s life events, his relations, his inspirations, his early life, his direct and indirect effects of his work life, the places his travelled and lived in, other artists, the art scene and movements prevalent in those times, along with his internal life: his inner turmoil, emotional instability, mania and his productive choices. The result of which are his paintings and sketches, the intent of it, the methods he used, the subjects of his painting, et cetera. Alongside, are the review, studies and comparative analysis of the movies that this study aims of understand.

3.5 Character Analysis – Vincent Van Gogh and his characters in Movies

The center of the study would be the artist himself, Vincent Van Gogh, and inquiry of the aspects mentioned above. Moreover, the key person to understand alongside Vincent is his brother

Theo Van Gogh, who played an important role in his life. Their letters show an affectionate bond which was not only emotional but also financial, empathetic and sensitive. Making the character study of Theo Van Gogh secondary character analysis of the study.

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3.6 Situational Analysis – Life and Movies

In pursuit of education, jobs, inspirations, and internal fulfillment, Vincent travelled across

Europe, lived with diverse group of people, sketched and painted variety of landscapes that resulted into a massive oeuvre. Through these events, the study will inspect certain situations which defined this artist. The comparison of these events in movies would not solely be of linear nature, but also that of magical realism and abstractionist nature to understand defined work of

Akira Kurosawa in his movie Dreams (1990), which is the product of his own dreams that consists visuals stirred from Van Gogh’s post-impressionist imaginations.

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CHAPTER FOUR ANALYSIS AND DATA INTERPRETATION

4.1 Comparing movies

At Eternity’s Gate is exactly what I mentioned above : through Van Gogh’s eyes. This movie doesn’t emphasize on other characters of Vincent’s life but on Vincent, played by Willem

Dafoe. It beautifully showcases the way Vincent saw things and how he immediately without any hesitation asked people to pose for him. He was stubborn when it came to his paintings. The opening shot tells you that you’re kind of looking through his eyes where he approaches a shepherdess and asks her if he can sketch her. A beautiful shot that is repeatedly shown in the movie is when Vincent runs through the crop fields and all we can see are his shoes. This ordinary motion was shot magically. In my opinion, Julian Schnabel tried to put the audience in Vincent’s place through this shot.

Van Gogh is as famous as Picasso, however Picasso was mythologized as a monster of control, while Van Gogh, lay powerless before nature. In his later years, he suffered serious seizures, which have since been ascribed to different causes, including epilepsy, syphilis and schizophrenia. The fact of that suffering, isn’t in uncertainty, and the successors has both felt sorry for him for his exhausting mental fight and worshiped the outcome, without the fighting, we would not have this art.

Lust for Life’s opening shot is not what the audience expects. Vincent’s face is shown through a door where he’s waiting for the church authority to call him and get him trained to be a minister, unfortunately for which the religious leaders find him unsuitable. On requesting them, they give Vincent a small position in the Borinage – a very poor mining community. This is the place where he first starts sketching daily life.

Altman’s Vincent, played by Tim Roth , to me, is the most reasonable where we can feel that Vincent can live by paint alone. A scene from this movie which justifies the above statement 13

is when he’s drawing a Dutch prostitute and out of the blue, licks his brush which ends up giving

Vincent a grassy green mouth. Later, in Arles, he’s shown heavily drinking turpentine and spreading blue pigment on bread as if it were cheese.

Willem Dafoe’s Vincent was the calmest, Kirk Douglas in Lust for Life was self torturing, exact opposite of Dafoe, and Roth’s was the last Van Gogh you’d like to meet. Whereas, Van

Gogh, played by Jacques Dutronc, in Pialet’s movie was the most normal one, yet extraordinary, thoughtful, was sorry for the trouble he caused, and enjoyed himself when his health allowed to.

Akira Kurosawa’s “Dreams” leads an art student to Vincent’s work and he follows him through the fields. Guess who’s playing Van Gogh here. . “Vincent” a documentary by Paul Cox, features John Hurt, in his soft voice reading out passages from the letters. Loving Vincent is composition of 65,000 oil paintings created by 125 artists from all around the world using the same technique as of Vincent van Gogh.

At Eternity’s Gate, Loving Vincent and Dreams are three movies which differentiate from the other movies on the basis of story. The other movies mainly revolve around Van Gogh’s art, the life changing events in his life, and his brother Theo. At Eternity’s Gate for me is the most outstanding movie out of all. Mainly focusing on Vincent and making us look through his eyes.

It is more of a spiritual movie rather than a drama. Two things which I was shocked to see in the movie was that Vincent didn’t commit a suicide but it was a murder committed by two teenagers.

It also revealed why he cut his ear as a result of his heated argument with Paul Gauguin. It was an act of apology for Paul.

In Loving Vincent the story starts after Van Gogh’s death. An investigation is carried to know the exact reason behind Vincent’s death. A local boy Rene is suspected for the murder but later Dr. clears all the doubts. It is concluded that Vincent shot himself after an argument with Dr. Gachet. Van Gogh accused Gachet of being a coward for not pursuing his 14

dreams, to which Gachet angrily accused Van Gogh of deteriorating Theo's health by overly depending on his brother.

Pialet didn’t want to show his Van Gogh as a saintly person as Kirk Douglas in Lust for

Life. He wanted to show a self absorbed Vincent, who only loved his work and nothing else. In this movie, unlike At Eternity’s Gate, sometimes other characters overshadowed the character of

Vincent. The other movies show how much his brother Theo appreciated his work but here we see something different. Theo is shown to dislike his brother’s work and no doubt, supported

Vincent financially. Both Vincent’s character (from Lust for Life and Van Gogh) are very opposite to each other. A heroic, not giving up Vincent is shown in Lust for Life whereas a very sad, how to end my life Vincent is shown in Van Gogh. In Lust for Life, where almost everything was going in Van Gogh’s favour, in Van Gogh, he was turning away from everything which prevented self destruction.

Vincent and Theo is a bit different from Vincent and Lust for life where the whole subject is about the letters exchanged between the two brothers and the finished paintings. This movie is about love between two brothers and the love-hate relationship between them. At the end of the movie, we realise that it’s not from Vincent’s point of view nor Theo’s. There are alternating cuts in the movie where the director plays with mirrors and paint. In one sequence it is used for eroticism and in the other for grief. These sequences also let us know that these two are leading twin existences, not known by either of them. The main events like cutting the ear and committing suicide are shown realistic whereas small gestures are shown lyrically.

It’s been more than a century to Vincent’s death, and he still interests the modern audience.

Nine films are made about Van Gogh but Loving Vincent was a breakthrough. Extraordinary out of all. A different story and a different way to present the audience. An , not by using

CGI, but by using actual oil paintings. The genre of the film was quite complicated. As it is a murder mystery, it picked up elements from film noir, which is contradicting because the visuals 15

are full of colors. Mixing film noir and animation is not something common in cinema. However, the use of film noir is apt in the film as it focuses on the final years of Van Gogh and his death.

The fact that Loving Vincent is the only film which showcased Van Gogh through Van Gogh’s art is really commendable. An imaginary world is created through these paintings – the story begins with and as the camera slowly pans down we see The Night Cafe. Now, in reality The Night Cafe was painted in Arles and The Starry Night in Saint-Remy.

Few color palettes were also changed in order to set the mood in various scenes. ‘Railway

Bridge over Avenue Montmajour’ is originally painted in calm and cool shades, but in the movie it is shown in dark colors. Though the essence of Van Gogh’s painting is maintained. The characters in the movie are actually non-fictional, however the events that take place are fictional.

Armand Roulin is the protagonist and he is the son of Joseph Roulin, a postman. His family 5 volunteered to sit for Vincent’s portraits in Arles. All the different characters in movie are the portraits of people Vincent painted.

4.2 Murder or Suicide?

It’s been more than a decade since Vincent van Gogh died. In all these years, researchers are still finding the cause of his death. Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith are the authors of

Van Gogh : The Life. The book was published in 1994. Since then they have been researching about his death. They questioned the circumstances of his death in their book and concluded that it was a murder by Rene Secreten.

In 2011, a new theory was published by the US which said said Vincent committed a suicide and was not assassinated. In an interview with a Dutch newspaper NRC Next, White said,

“The version of the suicide is not credible. While Steven said, “Why would he had ended his days”? “This was not the most difficult period of his life.” 16

According to Steven and White, Vincent would not have committed a suicide, but was killed by two teenagers, one of which had accused Vincent of stealing his gun. “ It was either an accident or a deliberate act”, Steven said.

The curator of in Amsterdam, Leo Janson had to day, “To believe in this new theory, I would need new evidence but it is very difficult, it has been so long.” Ann

Dumas, curator at the Royal Academy of Arts in London said that according to her version of facts, Van Gogh left with his brushes and easel on 27th July, 1890. He returned within five hours wounded and died thirty hours later. According to innkeeper’s daughter, Vincent would have replied ‘yes’ when the doctor asked him if he had shot himself. But, the two authors deny this and might have interpreted this situation different. According to them, he might have replied a yes to save the two teenagers. The question was, why?

In 2014, White and Steven, with the help of a forensic expert, came up with something related to the mystery of Van Gogh’s death. It took five years for the authors to get entry in ‘the

Vault’ in Van Gogh Museum. The senior curator of drawings, Sjraaar van Heugten, unlocked the door for them. They found Vincent’s sketches from his early career life, and his actual letters.

Van Gogh wrote nothing about his final days. There was not a single indication to his suicide or not a suicide note. The only thing which was after his death was a final letter to his brother Theo. He wrote about ordering more paints to Theo.

Vincent lived in Auvers. None of his neighbours admitted having seen Vincent found with a gun or any of his other things after his death. Even his doctors were not sure about his wound.

And, anyway, what kind of person, no matter how unbalanced, tries to kill himself with a shot to the midsection? And then, rather finish himself off with a second shot, staggers a mile back to his room in agonizing pan from a bullet in his belly?

The only person who’s testimony mattered was the daughter of the Ravoux Inn. She did not speak until 1953. Even then, she reported what her father said. Her story kept changing and it 17

made the mystery more confusing. Later, one more witness came in, Dr. Gachet’s son, who introduced the idea of Vincent shooting himself in the white felids.

Rene Secretan was suspected for Vincent’s death with his brother Gaston. he modelled his hero, Wild Bill Cody and because of that he had a small pistol, which sometimes misfired. He found his target in Vincent as he was mainly talked about being a mad person and drank heavily.

Nothing new was here. Vincent was bullied even before Rene came into picture. Rene later committed that he had no part in Vincent’s murder. In fact, he has to say that he wasn’t even present in the town during Vincent’s death.

Jaun Rewald had travelled to Auvers in 1930, when the memory of Vincent’s death was freash. The locals had to say that two boys had shot Vincent accidently. The boys never came forward and Vincent chose to protect them by not telling the truth.

On meeting Dr. Vincent Di Maio he said , “it would be extremely difficult to shoot oneself in this location [i.e., on the left side] with the left hand. The easiest way would involve putting one’s fingers around the back of the grip and using the thumb to fire the gun. One might grasp the gun with the right hand to steady it… Using one’s right hand is even more absurd. You would have to put the right arm across the chest and again place one’s fingers on the back of the grip and use the thumb to fire the gun. One might then grasp the gun with the left hand to steady it.” Van

Gogh was right handed.

He also noted that the powder guns in 1890 were loaded with black powder. “Black powder is extremely dirty,” Di Maio wrote. “On burning, 56% of its mass is solid residue. Close range wounds from black powder are extremely dirty.” If the gun was in contact with the body, there would be powder and searing of the skin around the entrance. There is no such thing talked about in the forensic reports. At last, Dr. Maio concluded that Vincent did not shoot himself and was rather shot from a distance.

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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION

All the movies about Van Gogh show suicide except the two acclaimed new films – At

Eternity’s Gate and Loving Vincent. These two movies show Vincent’s murder. However, all the things discussed above are just theories, facts are also important to solve this mystery about his death.

Vincent’s doctor, Paul Gachet believed that it was a suicide. Gachet wrote a letter to Theo about Vincent wounding himself. He tested Vincent and had even talked with him. Even if there was a small doubt to Gachet, he would have not rested. After two weeks of Vincent’s death, he used the word suicide in a letter to Theo.

Theo, the closest to Vincent, was by his death bed in the last 12 hours of his life. He conversed with Vincent and in a letter to his wife Jo, he wrote : “One of his last words was: this is how I wanted to go & it took a few moments & then it was over & he found the peace he hadn’t been able to find on earth.”

Vincent’s one of the closest friend, Emile Bernard believed that it was a suicide. He even wrote to Albert Aurier about the suicide. Paul Gauguin, Vincent’s another close friend, wrote in the memoir that it was suicide. Who could be aware of Vincent’s fragile mental condition other than Paul, with whom Vincent spent most of his time with.

20

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