Vincent Van Gogh: Affliction, Anguish, and the Value of Art

One of the most prevalent stereotypes about artists has always been people’s tendency to call them “tortured artists”. By definition, it can be described as an artist so damned by their own circumstances that they turn to art for refuge. Most times, said artists can also be traumatized people, may have problems with addiction, and sometimes are the laughingstock of town. Ironically, it is only after their passing that other people manage to find value in what they have created. All of this leads one to wonder whether their worth comes from the beauty of their creations or the tragedy of their own lives.

VINCENT VAN GOGH

A lot of artists, writers and creatives have actually only become famous after their deaths. One of the most prominent examples of this is Vincent Van Gogh, who is the epitome of the ‘tortured artist’. In the biography created by the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, he’s described as having no direction in life, working a variety of jobs and, at several points, becoming increasingly religious then suddenly losing interest in it. 

However, Van Gogh found direction at age 27 after his brother Theo encouraged him to focus more on his art. Almost overnight, he became a painter, but he hardly made any money doing so. In fact, many people believe he only sold one painting in his lifetime, as The Art Newspaper explains, “The Red Vineyard is among Van Gogh’s most dramatically colored Provençal landscapes, but it is also famed for being the only painting that the artist is certain to have sold. It went for 400 francs (then £16 pounds) at a Brussels exhibition in March 1890…” The Van Gogh museum explains how he did sell more than one painting, but The Red Vineyard is likely the only original work that was sold and not commissioned. Despite this, Van Gogh is known to have created more than 2000 works of art in the ten years he created. Sadly and unfortunately, he took his own life just four months after the purchase of The Red Vineyard.

VAN GOGH AND MENTAL/PHYSICAL ILLNESS

During Vincent Van Gogh’s life, there wasn’t a lot known about mental illness or the physical illness that he was apparently afflicted with. As Kalyan B. Bhattacharyya and Saurabh Rai write in their article, The neuropsychiatric ailment of Vincent Van Gogh, “Historians and researchers have variously felt that he might have had suffered from epilepsy, bipolar disorder, sunstroke, acute intermittent porphyria, lead poisoning, absinthe intoxication, Ménière's disease, and digitalis toxicity. The symptoms were poor digestion, regular stomach upsets, hallucinations, nightmares, stupor, absent-mindedness, anxiety, and insomnia.”  According to both aforementioned authors, Van Gogh was in pain and, in several ways, he lived a depressed existence. He spent several periods of time in hospitals and clinics, and often wrote to his brother and friends about his [health] issues. 

It is also suspected that Van Gogh suffered from manic depression. According to Paul Wolf in “Creativity and Chronic Disease”, evidence suggests that he “had manic depression, a chronic mental illness that affects many creative people. Although treatment with lithium carbonate is now available, the drug also dampens creative abilities.” It seems likely that Van Gogh would not have created the same art that he did if he was not ill because as Paul Wolf explained in his article, the vivid colors that he painted with could’ve been a result of the ‘overmedication with digitalis.’ This most likely caused him to experience the world in a yellow-green-ish tint seen in his paintings, like in Sunflowers. His creations were a product of his pain, but also of his attempt to seek freedom from it.  

WORTH OF THE PAIN

An argument I found in corners of the internet and by talking to others about the works of Van Gogh is that his suffering was necessary; that all the pain he went through was worth the pieces of art he left behind. Not only do I disagree with this notion, I despise it. The idea that the pain someone went through was worth it because ‘he made something beautiful’? No painting is worth more than the mental well-being of someone, so to equate someone to just the things they left behind feels as though we are disregarding the person that he was. My favorite creations of Vincent Van Gogh are not his paintings, but rather the letters he wrote. 

Over 820 of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo survive today. Reading these letters, seeing the doodles he made on them for his brother, allows you to see the person he is. He was very observant, describing many things, and very emotional about things he observed about people in particular. In letter 386, (Hoogeven, on or about Friday, 14 September 1883), he describes people he sees, in particular some poverty stricken women with children. The letter states “...it’s a melancholy feeling because it isn’t in my power to do anything about it. Theo, when I see some poor woman in the heath with a child in her arms or at her breast, my eyes become moist. I see her in them; her weakness and slovenliness, too, only serve to intensify the likeness.” Everytime I read some of his letters, it’s clear what a kind and empathetic person Van Gogh was. He was even known as the Christ of the Coal Mine because he gave away his possessions to others and shared the poverty of a small community of people. 

Beyond the kind of person Van Gogh’s letters tell us he was and how he was perceived, his actions also tell us a lot; especially when it came to his mental health.  As noted before, by Paul Wolf, he was overmedicating, and also drank a lot. Generally, this is symptomatic of someone trying to self-medicate. As helpguide.org explains, “Alcohol tends to be the most common method of self-medication—as well as the most commonly abused substance—since it’s so widely available. It may be used to self-medicate stress as well as depression and anxiety…” Sadly, Van Gogh very likely had some form of manic depression and anxiety, which could explain his alcoholism and his overuse of digitalism. He was someone who didn’t want to be in pain, and it’s so clear that he was using these substances to try to not be in pain anymore. As beautiful and amazing as his artworks are, Vincent Van Gogh deserved to not be in pain. 

On July 27 1890, in a field near Auvers (in France), Vincent Van Gogh purposely made an attempt on his own life. With a revolver, he shot himself in the chest, but did not die until two days later, with his brother Theo by his side. He was tormented by his own mind, his pain, and it feels monstrous to say that his pain, his death, was worth it just for a few thousand pretty pictures. 

“I WISH THEY WOULD ONLY TAKE ME AS I AM.”

Artists do not have to be in pain to create beautiful works of art. I see amazing pieces of art created by people who are happy and who are getting help for the pain that they do have. I, myself, am an artist who has experienced some pain in life. I would not say pain has resulted in my increased creativity nor would I say that it is worth any art I have created. Of course, I am no Van Gogh, but I understand that everyone should deserve to be well. 

My favorite quote from Vincent Van Gogh is: “I wish they would only take me as I am” in a letter to his brother, Theo Van Gogh, The Hague, c. 15-27 April 1882. Van Gogh wanted only to be liked as the person he was, beyond the artist he was, by the people he was writing to and about. I believe that this sentiment is really how we should look at him and other artists: as people.