Art historians are divided into two camps. Experts from the Amsterdam museum refute the recent statement that the artist was killed by a 16-year-old schoolboy.

Who killed Vincent Van Gogh?

Until two years ago Steven Naifeh And Gregory White-Smith published a comprehensive biography of the artist, it was indisputably believed that during his stay in France he committed suicide. But American authors put forward a sensational theory: Van Gogh was shot by a 16-year-old schoolboy Rene Secretan, although it is unclear whether he did this intentionally. The artist lived for two more days and, according to the authors, “accepted death with satisfaction.” He defended Secretan, claiming it was suicide.

In the July issue Burlington Magazine The Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum joined the controversy. In a detailed biographical article, two of the museum's leading researchers, Louis van Tilborgh And Teyo Medendrop, insist on the version of suicide. What is certain is that he died two days after he received a gunshot wound on July 27, 1890, somewhere in Auvers-sur-Oise. They undertook an investigation based largely on a little-known interview Secretan gave shortly before his death in 1957. Secretan recalled that he had a pistol with which he shot at squirrels. Him and his older brother Gaston knew Van Gogh. Rene Secretant claims that the artist stole his weapon, but does not say anything about the shot. Naifeh and White-Smith considered the interview a dying confession and referred to the late art historian John Rewald, who mentioned rumors circulating in Auvers that the guys accidentally shot the artist. The authors believe that Van Gogh decided to defend Rene and Gaston from accusations.

Conclusions of criminologists

Naifeh and White-Smith paid attention to the nature of the wound and concluded that the shot was fired "from some distance from the body, and not at point-blank range." This is what the doctors who treated Van Gogh testified: his friend Dr. Paul Gachet and local practitioner Jean Mazery. After reviewing the facts, van Tilborgh and Medendrop were convinced that Van Gogh committed suicide. Their article states that Secretan's interview does not "in the slightest degree" support the theory of murder committed intentionally or negligently. All that emerges from the interview is that Van Gogh somehow obtained the brothers’ weapons. The authors emphasize that although Revald recounted rumors about the Secretans, he did not really believe in them. Van Tilborgh and Medendrop point to new data published last year in a book Alena Roana Vincent Van Gogh: has the suicide weapon been found? Dr. Gachet recalled that the wound was brown with a purple rim. The purple bruise is the result of the impact of the bullet, and the brown mark is a burn from gunpowder: this means that the weapon was close to the chest, under the shirt, and therefore Van Gogh shot himself. In addition, Roan discovered new information about weapons. In the 1950s, a rusty revolver was found buried in a field just outside the Chateau d'Auvers, where Van Gogh is said to have shot himself. Analysis showed that the revolver spent 60 to 80 years in the ground. The weapon was found next to the road, which in 1904 the son of Dr. Gachet depicted in a painting entitled Over: the place where Vincent committed suicide. The revolver was found just behind the low farmhouses depicted in the center of the painting.

Article in Burlington Magazine also concerns the last weeks of Van Gogh's life. The authors argue with the generally accepted theory that the artist was depressed after losing the financial support of his brother Theo. Van Tilborgh and Medendrop argue that Van Gogh was more concerned that Theo did not allow him to participate in decision-making. Theo had serious problems with his employer, the Busso and Valadon gallery, and he was planning to start his own business: it was supposed to be a gallery, but Theo did not even consult his brother, which made him feel even more lonely. Van Tilborgh and Medendrop conclude that suicide was not an impulsive act, but a carefully considered decision. Although Theo's behavior played a role, the key factor was the artist's painful thought that his obsession with art had plunged him into an abyss of mental confusion. The authors look for traces of this confusion in Van Gogh's last works and point out that when he shot himself, he had a farewell note to his brother in his pocket. Traditionally, Van Gogh's last work is considered to be the painting Crows over wheat field , but it was completed around July 10, more than two weeks before the artist's death. He himself wrote about this painting: “A huge space under a stormy sky, dotted with wheat. I was trying to express sadness, extreme loneliness.” Van Tilborgh had already suggested that latest works Van Gogh had two unfinished paintings - Tree roots and farms near Auvers. The article puts forward a hypothesis that the first of them is a programmatic farewell work, showing how elms fight for survival.

Van Gogh claimed that he shot himself. His relatives also supported the same version. Nyfe and White-Smith argue that the artist lied, while van Tilborgh and Medendrop believe that he was telling the truth. In all likelihood, we need to more carefully study the testimony of contemporaries about suicide.

Dr. Gachet immediately sent Theo a note saying that Vincent had "injured himself." Adelina Ravu, whose father kept the hotel where the artist lived, later recalled that Van Gogh told a policeman: “I wanted to kill myself.”

Terrible wound

Vincent was very close to his brother. It's hard to believe that he lied to his brother about his horrific injury just to save two teenagers who were teasing him from the police. In the end, Theo found suicide much more difficult to bear because he felt some of his guilt about it. The last words of Vincent van Gogh sound heartbreaking: “This is exactly how I wanted to leave.” In his letter to his wife, Theo says: “A few minutes passed and it was all over: he found the peace that he could not find on earth.”

British art historians spent more than 10 years examining documents and letters unknown to the general public related to the artist Vincent van Gogh, and came to the conclusion that the master, contrary to the official version, was not a suicide. Researchers believe that the great Dutch artist shot dead, the British broadcaster BBC reports.

Shortly before his death, Vincent Van Gogh settled in one of the hotels in the French city of Auvers-sur-Oise. The master went to work in a nearby field, which is depicted in his last painting, “Wheat Field with Crows” (1890). It is believed that during one of these walks, the great post-impressionist shot himself in the chest, but the bullet did not hit his heart, so the artist was able to, pressing the wound, get to the bed in his room and ask to call a doctor. However, it was not possible to save the great artist.

For a long time, this version of Van Gogh’s death was considered official, although many researchers of the artist’s work and life noted that there were many blank spots in this story. This point of view is also shared by British art critics Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith, whose book “Van Gogh: The Life” was published on Monday.

Nayfeh and Smith spent more than 10 years studying the artist's little-known letters, as well as various documents related to him. Including police reports from 1890 and testimony from Van Gogh’s acquaintances and neighbors. British art historians have processed more than 28,000 documents, most of which have never been translated into English or other languages. Nayfekh and Smith were assisted by four professional Dutch philologists.

While working on the book, British researchers concluded that Van Gogh, who until today was believed to have shot himself, was in fact murdered. The British note that, according to police reports, the bullet entered the artist’s stomach at a sharp angle, not at a right angle, which is unlikely to have happened if Van Gogh had actually committed suicide.

According to eyewitnesses, Van Gogh loved to socialize and drink with two 16-year-old teenagers from Auvers-sur-Oise, who were seen in the artist’s company on the last day of his life. Van Gogh's neighbors said that one of the young men was dressed in a cowboy costume and had a faulty pistol. Nayfeh and Smith believe that Van Gogh was accidentally shot from it during the game.

A similar version of the master’s death was expressed by the famous art critic John Renwald back in the 1930s. British researchers believe that the artist made the incident look like suicide in order to protect young people from punishment. According to Gregory Smith, Van Gogh did not strive for death, however, when faced with it, he did not resist. Smith writes that the master was very worried about being a burden to his brother Theo, who fully supported the artist, whose works were not selling. Van Gogh decided that his death would relieve his brother of hardships, the British believe.

Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith also write that Van Gogh was so bad relationship with his father, a pastor, that when he died, many of the artist’s relatives began to accuse Vincent of murdering the head of the Van Gogh family. Vincent van Gogh died on July 29, 1890 at the age of 37.

As it turned out, Vincent Van Gogh did not die from his own bullet. He was shot. A correspondent for The Moscow Post talks about this.

Great artist Van Gogh did not die from his own bullet. He died from a gunshot by two drunken young men. This is what Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith, specialist biographers, think.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch. Vincent Willem van Gogh, March 30, 1853, Grot-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) is a world famous Dutch post-impressionist artist.

In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles, where the originality of his creative style was finally determined. Fiery artistic temperament, a painful impulse towards harmony, beauty and happiness and, at the same time, fear of forces hostile to man, are embodied in landscapes shining with sunny colors of the south (The Yellow House, 1888, Gauguin’s Chair, 1888, “The Harvest. Valley of La Croe” , 1888, State Museum Vincent Van Gogh, Amsterdam), sometimes in ominous, nightmare-like images (“Night Cafe”, 1888, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo); the dynamics of color and brushwork fills not only nature and the people inhabiting it with spiritual life and movement (“Red Vineyards in Arles”, 1888, State Museum fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin, Moscow), but also inanimate objects(“Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles”, 1888, Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh, Amsterdam). In the last week of his life, Van Gogh wrote his last and famous painting: Field of grains with crows. It was evidence of the artist's tragic death.

Hard work and riotous image Van Gogh's life (he abused absinthe) in recent years led to seizures mental illness. His health deteriorated, and he ended up in a mental hospital in Arles (doctors diagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy), then in Saint-Rémy (1889-1890) and in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he attempted to commit suicide suicide on July 27, 1890. Going out for a walk with drawing materials, he shot himself with a pistol in the area of his heart (I bought it to scare away flocks of birds while working plein air), and then independently got to the hospital, where, 29 hours after the wound, he died from loss of blood ( at 1:30 am on July 29, 1890). In October 2011, an alternative version of the artist’s death appeared. American art historians Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith have suggested that Van Gogh was shot by one of the teenagers who regularly accompanied him in drinking establishments.

According to brother Theo, who was with Vincent in his dying moments, the artist’s last words were: La tristesse durera toujours (“Sadness will last forever”).

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(Vincent Willem Van Gogh) was born on March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands in the family of a Protestant pastor.

In 1868, Van Gogh dropped out of school, after which he went to work at a branch of the large Parisian art company Goupil & Cie. He worked successfully in the gallery, first in The Hague, then in branches in London and Paris.

By 1876, Vincent had completely lost interest in the painting trade and decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. In the UK, he found work as a teacher at a boarding school in a small town in the suburbs of London, where he also served as an assistant pastor. On October 29, 1876, he preached his first sermon. In 1877 he moved to Amsterdam, where he began studying theology at the university.

Van Gogh "Poppies"

In 1879, Van Gogh received a position as a secular preacher in Wham, a mining center in the Borinage, in southern Belgium. He then continued his preaching mission in the nearby village of Kem.

During this same period, Van Gogh developed a desire to paint.

In 1880, in Brussels, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles). However, due to his unbalanced character, he soon dropped out of the course and continued his art education on his own, using reproductions.

In 1881, in Holland, under the guidance of his relative, landscape artist Anton Mauwe, Van Gogh created his first paintings: "Still life with cabbage and wooden shoes" and "Still life with a beer glass and fruit."

In the Dutch period, starting with the painting “Harvesting Potatoes” (1883), the main motif of the artist’s paintings became the theme ordinary people and their work, the emphasis was on the expressiveness of scenes and figures, the palette was dominated by dark, gloomy colors and shades, sharp changes in light and shadow. The canvas “The Potato Eaters” (April-May 1885) is considered a masterpiece of this period.

In 1885, Van Gogh continued his studies in Belgium. In Antwerp he entered the Royal Academy fine arts(The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp). In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris to join his younger brother Theo, who by then had taken over as leading manager of the Goupil gallery in Montmartre. Here Van Gogh took lessons from the French realist artist Fernand Cormon for about four months, met the impressionists Camille Pizarro, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, from whom he adopted their style of painting.

In Paris, Van Gogh developed an interest in creating images of human faces. Without the funds to pay for the work of models, he turned to self-portraiture, creating about 20 paintings in this genre in two years.

The Parisian period (1886-1888) became one of the most productive creative periods artist.

In February 1888, Van Gogh traveled to the south of France to Arles, where he dreamed of creating a creative community of artists.

In December, Vincent's mental health took a turn for the worse. During one of his uncontrollable outbursts of aggression, he threatened Paul Gauguin, who came to see him in the open air, with an open razor, and then cut off a piece of his earlobe, sending it as a gift to one of his female acquaintances. After this incident, Van Gogh was first placed in a psychiatric hospital in Arles, and then voluntarily went for treatment at the specialized clinic of St. Paul of the Mausoleum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The hospital's chief physician, Théophile Peyron, diagnosed his patient with "acute manic disorder." However, the artist was given a certain freedom: he could paint in the open air under the supervision of staff.

In Saint-Rémy, Vincent alternated between periods of intense activity and long breaks caused by deep depression. In just one year of his stay at the clinic, Van Gogh painted about 150 paintings. Some of the most outstanding paintings of this period were: " Starry night", "Irises", "Road with cypresses and a star", "Olive trees, blue sky and white cloud", "Pieta".

In September 1889, with the active assistance of his brother Theo, Van Gogh's paintings took part in the Salon of Independents, an exhibition contemporary art, organized by the Society of Independent Artists in Paris.

In January 1890, Van Gogh's paintings were exhibited at the eighth Group of Twenty exhibition in Brussels, where they were enthusiastically received by critics.

In May 1890, Van Gogh's mental condition improved, he left the hospital and settled in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise in the suburbs of Paris under the supervision of Dr. Paul Gachet.

Vincent actively took up painting; almost every day he completed a painting. During this period, he painted several outstanding portraits of Dr. Gachet and 13-year-old Adeline Ravoux, the daughter of the owner of the hotel where he stayed.

On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh left his house at the usual time and went to paint. Upon his return, after persistent questioning by the couple, Ravu admitted that he had shot himself with a pistol. All attempts by Dr. Gachet to save the wounded were in vain; Vincent fell into a coma and died on the night of July 29 at the age of thirty-seven. He was buried in the Auvers cemetery.

American biographers of the artist Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith in their study “The Life of Van Gogh” (Van Gogh: The Life) of Vincent’s death, according to which he died not from his own bullet, but from an accidental shot committed by two drunken young men.

Over the course of ten years creative activity Van Gogh managed to paint 864 paintings and almost 1200 drawings and engravings. During his lifetime, only one painting by the artist was sold - the landscape "Red Vineyards in Arles". The cost of the painting was 400 francs.

The material was prepared based on information open sources

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VAN GOGH Vincent

(1853-1890) Dutch artist

It is known that Van Gogh suffered from bouts of madness, one of which even led to him cutting off part of his ear. A little over a year before his death, Van Gogh voluntarily decided to settle in a shelter for the mentally ill in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole (France). Here he was given a separate room, which also served as a workshop; he had the opportunity, accompanied by a minister, to wander around the surrounding area to paint landscapes. Here they bought a painting from him for the first and last time in his life - a certain Anna Bosch paid 400 francs for the painting “The Red Grapevine”.

On July 29, 1890, after lunch, Van Gogh left the orphanage alone, without a minister. He wandered around the field for a bit, then went into a peasant's yard. The owners were not at home. Van Gogh took out a pistol and shot himself in the heart. The shot was not as accurate as his strokes. The bullet that hit the rib bone was deflected and missed the heart. Pressing his hand over the wound, the artist returned to the shelter and went to bed.

Doctor Mazri from the nearest village and the police were called. Either the wound did not cause Van Gogh much suffering, or he was insensitive to physical pain (remember the story with the cut off ear), but only when the police arrived did he calmly smoke a pipe while lying in bed.

He died that night. Van Gogh's body was placed on a billiard table, and his paintings were hung on the walls. Doctor Gachet, who treated the artist, sketched this scene in pencil.