The character arc of Vincent van Gogh
Born 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert. Died 29 July 1890 at Auvers, at thirty seven. Between the two sit a firing from the art trade, a rejection by the church he tried to serve, a start at painting at twenty seven, ten years and roughly two thousand works, near total obscurity, and a brother who never stopped sending money or belief. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Vincent van Gogh?
Obscure his whole life, beloved ever since.
He failed at the two careers he tried first. The art dealership let him go for arguing with customers; the church turned him down for the ministry, and then a mining district turned him down as a lay preacher for giving away too much of his own coat. At twenty seven, broke and unqualified, he decided the failures had been pointing somewhere, and picked up a pencil.
What followed was ten years and about two thousand drawings and paintings, funded almost entirely by his brother Theo, who believed when no one else had reason to. He moved to Arles for the light, dreamed of a community of painters, invited Gauguin, and the winter they shared ended with a razor, a severed ear, and the first of the breakdowns that put him in the asylum at Saint Remy.
From inside the asylum he painted The Starry Night. In seventy days at Auvers he made about seventy more works, then took his own life at thirty seven, believing he had failed, having sold, by the usual count, almost nothing. His line is worth reading for the gap between how it felt from inside and what it turned out to be: the most loved painter of his age never knew.
The moments
Vincent van Gogh's timeline.
The 1860s
Joined the art dealers
Milestone. Sixteen, at Goupil and Cie in The Hague, learning the trade his uncle had built.
The 1870s
Fired from Goupil
Setback, and it changed his direction. Dismissed for arguing with customers about which pictures were any good.
The church said no
Setback, and it changed everything. The mission board dropped him for excess zeal: he had given the miners his own clothes.
The 1880s
Keep searching, or paint
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: commit to painting, taken, or find another respectable trade. He wrote that a caged bird in spring knows there is something it is meant to do.
Decided to paint
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Twenty seven, broke, and certain at last that the failures had been aimed at this.
The Potato Eaters
Milestone. His first painting he judged finished and true, in the dark browns of the Dutch peasants.
Moved to Paris
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The Impressionists and their colour reached him at last. His palette caught fire.
Arrived in Arles
Milestone, and it changed his direction. For the light of the south, and a dream of a house full of painters working together.
Gauguin came to Arles
Everyday. The painters' community, briefly real. Nine weeks of great work and rising strain.
The night of the ear
Setback, and it changed everything. The winter with Gauguin broke. It was the first of the crises, not the last.
Entered the asylum
Setback, and it changed his direction. He committed himself at Saint Remy, and kept a studio in a spare cell.
Painted The Starry Night
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The view from the asylum window, remade. Painted from inside the hardest year.
The 1890s
A first real review
Milestone. A critic finally praised him in print, and one canvas sold in Brussels. The tide was turning too late.
Moved to Auvers
Everyday. Seventy days near Paris, near Theo, and about seventy more paintings.
The line ends 29 Jul 1890, at Auvers. What it set moving has not ended: the paintings he could not sell now draw crowds around the world, and every artist working in the dark holds his proof that the line can matter long after it feels like it does not.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
His took thirty seven years and ten of them painting. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- The Van Gogh Letters, the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
- Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Van Gogh: The Life, 2011.
- The Van Gogh Museum collection catalogue.
- Albert Aurier, Les Isoles: Vincent van Gogh, Mercure de France, January 1890.
- The Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum records, Saint Remy.