Afterword Burial, Reburial, and the Thuja Tree Dr. Gachet placed a small ornamental tree on the first grave of Vincent van Gogh. The initial burial arrangement was for a fifteen year, nonrenewable concession, and on June 9, 1905, a new and bigger site was arranged by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, to be held in perpetuity. On June 15, 1905, Vincent's remains were duly transferred. Dr. Gachet's son recalled how the roots of that ornamental tree had completely entwined the casket, and it was indeed remarkable that the shrub survived extrication and transplanta­ tion to the Gachet garden. When I first saw that ornamental tree it was almost one hundred years old and almost as tall as the three-storied house. It is a thuja tree, Thuja occidentalis, source of thuja oil and namesake of thujone. The most toxic constituent in absinthe was thujone. * Vincent was enamored of cypress trees in the south of France and he incorporated symbolic, flame-like renditions of them in several canvases from St. Remy. The cypress does not grow as far north as Auvers, but Vincent maintained the same style and symbolism when he painted the ornamental trees in Dr. Gachet's garden. This had undoubtedly inspired the choice of grave decoration. It was indeed an unwittingly pathetic choice to have a thujone-bearing plant on his mortal remains for fifteen years. * Arnold WN. 1988. Vincent van Gogh and the thujone connection. Journal o/the American Medical Association 260: 3042-3044. Acknowledgments Special thanks are due to my colleague Loretta Loftus for sharing ideas about the illness ofVincen t van Gogh, making her extensive library available to me, and checking quotations. I appreciate her enthusiasm for the subject and her help with this book. Louise Arnold, Roy Baynes, Allan Cooke, Robert Garrison, Chi-Wan Lai, Brian Lawrence, Loretta Loftus, Stuart Munro, Manuel Pardo, Ken Schmitz, Barry Skikne,Jill Warnock, and Fred Whitehead offered useful suggestions on one or more drafts of various chapters. Several scholars gave expert technical advice, materials, or both; they include Conrad Arnold, Herbert Bonkovsky, Blair Bowers, Bruce Bradley, AJ. Collet, John Doull, Remo Fabbri Jr., R. Gelius, Jessie Gifford, Carla Green, Jan Hellings, Jessica Hellings, John Kepes, Jemshed Khan, James Kutney, Brian Lawrence, Russell Monroe, William Ober, Henry Peters, Mike Pronko, James Ravin, Andrew Salter, Fred Samson, Charles Sittler, Jack Valdovinos, Lutz Weber, Robert Wiles, and Burt Zerner. My thanks are extended to Patrick Conan, Nadine Dormoy, Christian Ferri, Eveline Gueho, Claude Millon, Alain Mothe, and Gilbert and Ursula Vandenbroucke who assisted in France; as did Jan Langeveld, Robert Na­ born, Cindy Pronko, and Paul Wilson in Holland; Barry Artist and Hubert Britton in England; and Brita Velghe in Belgium. The Kansas City artistsJim Gubar, Lynn Huber, Hugh Merrill, Jane Pronko, Mike Stack, and David Strout participated in the studies with yellow filters. The editorial acumen of George Adelman, as well as his encouragement and sustained interest in this project, are greatly appreciated. The expertise of Dorothee Engel in the production of both the English and the German editions of this book is gratefully acknowledged. List of Figures and Tables Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait. Musee d'Orsay, Paris 2 Figure 1.1. Vincent van Gogh, Garden in Winter. Szepmiiveszeti Museum, Budapest 12 Figure 1.2. Drawing of the arm, illustration after Charles Brague, Cours de Dessin 15 Figure 1.3. Perspective apparatus 16 Figure 1.4. The letters of Vincent van Gogh 18 Figure 2.1. Vincent van Gogh, Entrance to the Public Gardens in ArIes. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 22 Figure 2.2. Three generations of van Goghs 24 Figure 2.3. Occupations 28 Figure 2.4. Time line 30 Figure 2.5. Vincent van Gogh, The Moulin de la Galette. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 45 Figure 2.6. Vincent van Gogh, Garden with Weeping Tree. The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas 51 Figure 2.7. Vincent van Gogh, Wheat Field with Rising Sun. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Miinchen 60 Figure 2.8. Vincent van Gogh's crises 61 Figure 2.9. The domiciles of Vincent van Gogh 65 Figure 2.10. Art work: duration, in tensi ty and production at ten locations 68 Figure 3.1. Vincent van Gogh, The Sower. Foundation E.G. Biihrle Collection, Ziirich 74 Figure 3.2. Emile Wauters, The Madness of Hugo van der Goes, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels 86 Figure 4.1. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Portrait of Vincent van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh Stiftung/Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 102 Figure 4.2. Artemisia (the genus of Wormwood) 117 Figure 4.3. Examples of chemicals found in essential oils 122 Figure 4.4. Camphor, pinene, and thujone 123 Figure 4.5. Portrait of Friedrich Semmler 124 Figure 4.6. Chemical structures of selected terpenes 126 Figure 4.7. Chemical structures of selected terpenes 127 Figure 4.8. Vincent van Gogh, Still Life, Drawing Board with Onions, 314 Raspail's Book, Absinthe Bottle etc. State Museum Kroller-Muller,Otterlo 132 Figure 4.9. Proposed metabolic pathway for camphor 134 Figure 5.1. Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Japanese Print. Dr. h.c. Emile Dreyfus-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum Basel 140 Figure 5.2. Portrait ofJosef Stokvis 144 Figure 5.3. Age of onset of acute intermittent porphyria 149 Figure 5.4. Incidence of symptoms in acute intermittent porphyria 150 Figure 5.5. The heme pathway 154 Figure 5.6. Vincent van Gogh, A Corner of the Asylum Garden. Museum Folkwang, Essen 161 Figure 6.1. Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait. Osterreichische Galerie, Wien 166 Figure 6.2. The heme pathway 191 Figure 7.1. Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Dr. Gachet. Musee d'Orsay, Paris 198 Figure 7.2. Dr. Paul Gachet, Portrait ofJean Baptiste Lamarck 209 Figure 7.3. Portrait ofF.V. Raspail 215 Figure 8.1. Vincent van Gogh, The Night Cafe. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven 220 Figure 8.2. Normal ageing of the human lens 224 Figure 8.3. Santonin 232 Figure 9.1. Fernando Gallego and assistants, The Betrayal of Christ. Samuel A. Kress Collection, University of Arizona, Tucson 244 Figure 10.1. Vincent van Gogh, Marguerite Gachet at the Piano. Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kunstmuseum 258 Figure 11.1. Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night. The Museum of Modern Art, New York 280 Figure 11.2. Vincent van Gogh, Portrait ofJoseph Roulin.J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California 301 The thuja tree that grew on van Gogh's grave for fifteen years 310 Table 1. Books read by Vincent van Gogh 53 Table 2. Preference among alcoholic lunatics III Table 3. Plants used in the preparation of absin the 113 Table 4. Chemicals associated with the primary herbs of absinthe 126 Table 5. Terpenes causing epileptiform convulsionsof 131 Table 6. Liver metabolismand 155 Table 7. Examples of the three types of paletteand 227 Table 8. Exhibitions of the Impressionistsand 282 Table 9. Some participants in the Exhibitions of the Independents 284 Name Index The relatives of Vincent van Gogh are in boldface. Abbreviations: b. = born, c. = circa (about), d.= died, fl. = flourished. Anquetin, Louis [artist] (1861-1932) 44,46 Apollinaire, Guillaume [poet] (1880-1918) 109 Aquinas, Saint Thomas [theologian] (1225-1274) 260 Artaud, Antonin [artist / writer] (1896-1948) 260,261,292,293 Augstine, Saint [theologian] (354-430) 260 Aurier, Albert [art critic] (1865--1892) 48,55,67,71,94,283,284 Baillarger,jules [physician] (1809-1890) 175,201,203,207 Balzac, de, Honore [writer] (1799-1850) 53,302 Bargue, Charles [artist] (d.1883) 14,15,32,287 Baudelaire, Charles [poet] (1821-1867) 108,300 Bayle, Antoine [physician] (1799-1858) 183,201 Begemann, Margot [friend to Vincent van Gogh] (1841-1907) 26,41 Bernard, Claude [physiologist] (1813-1878) 104 Bernard, Emile [artist] (1868-1941) 17,44,46,47,51,52,70,71,75,84,87,94,183, 205,250-253,284,302 Bierre de Boismont, Alexandre [physician] (1797-1881) 203 Bing, Siegfried [art dealer] (1838-1905) 47 Bismarck, von, Qtto [statesman] (1815-1898) 79,81 Blanche, Antoine [physician] (fl. 1890) 95 Blanche, Emile [physician] (1820-1893) 95 Blanche,jacques-Emile [artist] (1861-1942) 95 Boch, Anna [artist] (1848-1933) 283 Boch, Eugene [artist] (1855-1941) 49,52,96,283 Bonger, Andries [brother-in-law to Theo van Gogh] (1861-1936) 46-48,67,70, 93-95,146,183,184,204 Boussod, Leon [art dealer] (1826--1893) 26,44,48,50,67,70,95 Boyle, Robert [chemist] (1627-1691) 207 Bredt, K.julius [chemist] (1855-1937) 123 Breitner, George [artist] (1857-1923) 52 Breton,jules [artist/ writer] (1827-1906) 31,39,53 Bronte, Charlotte [writer] (1816--1855) 53 Browne, Thomas [philosopher] (1605-1682) 260 Brunschwig, Hieronymus [scientist] (c.1450-c.1512) 118 Bruyas,].L. Alfred [art collector] (1821-1877) 56,65 Bunyan,john [writer] (1628--1688) 53 Capuron,joseph [physician] (1767-1850) 43,211 316 Carbentus, Willem [grandfather] (1792-1845) 23 Carbentus-van der Gaag, Anna [grandmother] (1792-1835) 23 Carlyle, Thomas [writer] (1795-1881) 53 Cassatt, Mary [artist] (1844-1926) 282 Cavenaille, Hubertus [physician] (fl.1885) 43,77 Cervantes Saavedra, de, Miguel [writer] (1547-1616) 53 Cezanne, Paul [artist] (1839-1906) 64,65,208,282,287,289,294 Chopin, Frederic [composer] (1810-1849) 206 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor [poet] (1772-1834) 300 Collin de Plancy,Jacques [writer] (1794-1881) 53 Collins, William [poet] (1721-1759) 300 Corman, Fernand [artist] (1845-1924) 14,43,44 Corot,Jean [artist] (1796-1875) 64,271 Crabbe, George [poet] (1754-1832) 300 Daubigny, Charles [artist] (1817-1878) 64,209,269 Daudet, Alphonse [writer] (1840-1897) 52,53,206 Daumier, Honore [artist] (1808-1879) 64,109 Davy, Humphry [chemist] (1778--1829) 289 Defoe, Daniel [writer] (1659-1731) 246 Degas, Edgar [artist] (1834-1917) 44,46,52,95,109,282 Delacroix, Eugene [artist] (1799-1863) 42,46,302 Delarbeyrette,Joseph [art dealer] (fl.