Ici Repose | Notes | Van Gogh: The Life Biography

Notes

Chapters

A Fanatic Heart

The Early Years

The Dutch Years

The French Years

Ici Repose

Chapters

862

1. "He will not be forgotten"

Du Quesne-van Gogh, p. 52: Lies quotes from aletter from Theo (dated August 5, 1890) that has not otherwise survived: "Ihave decided to organize an exhibition of his works in Paris within the nextfew months. I wish you could see acollection of his pictures. Onehas to see them together to understand them truly. I presume they will write about him. If I succeed in getting a room, theexhibition is to be in October, when the Parisians are back in town ... He willnot be forgotten."

2. "these masterpieces"

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 235-236: "By permitting these masterpieces to go ignored I would hold myself to blame, nor could I ever forgive myself if I did not do everything in my power to try to bring this about."

3. People must know

Du Quesne-van Gogh, p. 52: "One must acknowledge that he was a great artist; to be a great man often goes hand in hand. Time will bring the honor due him, and many a one will grieve to think he died so young." Jansen and Robert render this obscure passage more closely to the text: "He wrote to his sister Lies that he had a duty to do so in view of Vincent's talent. People must know that he 'was a great Artiste ... In time that will be recognised and many will be sorry that he was taken from us so soon ... !'" (Jansen and Robert, p. 44.)

4. "grieve that he was taken"

Du Quesne-van Gogh, p. 52.

5. "I would hold myself"

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 235-236.

6. condolences that started arriving

b2016 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet,Paul", 8/12/1890: In his letter to Dr. Gachet of August 12, Theorefers to "letters of condolence he has already received, several ofwhich must have been sent on to him in Holland. At this point -- 12 August -- he had already received some 25 letters from Dutch and French sources, and 10 from members of the family."

7. "As often happens"

b0934 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 8/1/1890.

8. "what a strange coincidence"

b1009 V/1962, "Gogh, Willemina van"to "Gogh, Theo van", 7/31/1890.

9. "Oh, how empty"

b2060 V/1982, "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van" to "Gogh, Theo van", 8/1/1890, quoted in Jansen and Robert, p. 279.

10. conversation about Vincent

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 232-233: Theo reported this to Dr. Gachet after his trip to Leyden in early August: "it has done me good to be with my mother and to talk with her about my brother, about whom she has told me even more of those little things that make up the story of a man." Theo apparently also showed his mother a drawing of Vincent in death that Dr. Gachet claimed to have done in Auvers. He wrote, "I must also tell you that it gave my mother immense pleasure to see the drawing you did of our dear Vincent" (ibid.). According to Distel and Stein, Dr. Gachet created this charcoal sketch: "while still suffering from the emotional shock of Vincent van Gogh's suicide (Distel and Stein, pp. 140-141). They also note that: "Dr. Gachet appears to have done a quick sketch of the artist on his deathbed" (ibid.). Wil expressed the same haunted feeling of unfulfilled duty when she wrote Jo in 1892, "I keep hearing Vincent's voice and keep thinking about the things we should have discussed, but that's the way it is, I think" (b1038 V/1962, "Gogh, Willemina van" to "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van", 8/15/1892).

11. haunted his sleep

b0935 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 8/11/1890: "At bedtime of course all that happened lately comes up again."

12. returned to Paris

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 232-233: Theo apparently returned to Paris from Amsterdam on the weekend of August 15-17. That, at least, was his plan as of Tuesday, August 12: "We plan to return to Paris at the end of this week" (ibid.).

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13. seeonly people

Hulsker, Vincent andTheo: A Dual Biography, p. 449: Hulsker identifies two of the people whovisited Theo soon after his return from Holland: Camille Pissarro and CharlesSerret (see Ch. 24, n. 372).

14. "where Vincent was"

Gachet, Deux Amis des Impressionistes: Le Docteur Gachet et Murer, p. 125.

15. tearyremembrances

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 233-234: The image of Gachet that fills Theo's correspondence after Vincent's death suggests the doctor's emotional extremes (he suffered from bi-polar disorder), as well as Theo's eagerness to accept these extremes as tributes to Vincent: "Then we had Dr. Gachet to dinner last Wednesday [August 20]. I will send you a letter one of these days which you should read to see something of what he thinks of him. After the funeral he has been ill from emotion, but he was somewhat better then. ... Dr. Gachet brought me a sketch in pencil after a portrait of Vincent, which he had made as an exercise for the etching he wanted to make later on, as well as a small drawing of a sunflower. He stayed that evening till twelve and there came no end to his admiration for the things of Vincent I was able to show him."

Jo's report of the same evening presents an even more emotional bond between the young dealer and the old doctor: "Yesterday Dr. Gachet came to our house for a meal for the first time and Theo was highly determined that we should give him a very good welcome, because he has been so friendly to Vincent and Theo. The impression Vincent's death has made on him is striking -- he has not experienced anything like it since the death of his wife (20 years ago)." (b4307 V/1984, "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 8/22/1890, quoted in Jansen and Robert, p. 46 [see also p. 59, n. 186].) That tears played a role in these evenings of remembrance is indicated more directly in a letter Theo wrote Dr. Gachet in September. Referring to the projected biography of Vincent by Aurier, Theo wrote: "He seems quite determined to write a book on the man for whom we are still weeping" (b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890).

Here is an extended sample of the kind of empty hagiographic comfort that Dr. Gachet offered -- and Theo eagerly accepted: "The more I think of it, the more I regard Vincent as a giant. Not a day goes by without my looking at his canvases. I always find a new idea in them, something different from the day before, and I return by the mental phenomenon of thought to the man himself whom I think of as a Colossus. ... He was, moreover, a philosopher of the same type as Seneca. This sovereign disdain that he felt for life which was surely a product of his passionate love for art, is extraordinarily suggestive. In my view, it was a sort of mental transposition in which the religious side of his character played an important role.The word love of art is not right -- Faith is the proper word. Faith to the point of martyrdom!!!! A strange idea has occurred to me that I will tell you of while putting a question mark after it. Had Vincent lived, it would still be years and years before the triumph of the art of humanity. His death however means a kind of consecration that results from the struggle between two opposing principles, light and darkness, life and death.I don't mean that he got the idea for his suicide from this or because of it, but he knew mankind and what man is worth and he must certainly have had moments when he glimpsed this idea of the void not in order to stay put in that place, but at least to entertain it energetically as offering some sort of certainty beyond death ... All this is so bizarre that I have to pull myself up short on this slope down which when I think of him (Vincent), he surely lures me." ("Gachet, Paul" to "Gogh, Theo van", 8/15/1890; quoted in Distel and Stein, p. 267.)

16. he barely knew

See Chapter 43. Our view of Dr. Gachet is of an unbalanced, self-dramatizing serial enthusiaste (his son described him as "fanatical")who, with his wife dead, saw Vincent and Vincent's legacy, andespecially his role in the latter, as his last and greatest enthusiasm (Gachet, Deux Amis des Impressionistes, p. 121). In her letter of August 22, Jo says as much: "The impression Vincent's death has made onhim [Gachet] is striking -- he has not experienced anything like it since thedeath of his wife (20 years ago), he says" (b4307 V/1984, "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 8/22/1890; quoted in Jansen and Robert, p. 46).

The tone of Dr. Gachet's "wisdom" on Vincent can be gleaned from a letter he wrote Theo in August 1890: "I think of [Vincent] as a Colossus. He was, moreover, aphilosopher of the same type as Seneca.This sovereign disdain that he felt for life which was surely a productof his passionate love for art, is extraordinarily suggestive." ("Gachet, Paul" to "Gogh, Theo van", 8/15/1890; quoted in Distel and Stein, p. 267; see Epilogue, n. 23.) There is not agenuine insight in this or anything else that remains of Dr. Gachet's "biographical"writing on Vincent. However, asVincent's first hagiographer, Dr. Gachet's fortunes (and hisson's) were the first to rise with Vincent's posthumouscelebrity. This trajectory was setat the funeral, when he presented himself to Theo as both a doctor and aprominent local figure -- that grail of Van Gogh family favor: "goodcompany." It isundoubtedly for these reasons (and because Dr. Gachet insisted that Vincent'sart showed his deep "Faith") that Theo shared Dr. Gachet's graveside "expressions of sympathy"for Vincent so lavishly with his mother and sister in Leiden (b2016 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 8/12/1890; see Ch. 43, n. 194). (See b2850 V/1982, "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van" to "Gogh, Theo en Jo van", 9/12/1890.)

Dr. Gachet provided rehabilitation of Vincent's reputation -- the only kind that Anna van Gogh recognized -- just at the moment of his death, when Theo (and his mother) needed it most. In Theo's breathless letters to Leiden, one can hear his deep sigh of relief saying, "You see, mother, he was not such a bad person after all. He earned the respect of people like Dr. Gachet." This feeling was so strong that Theo gave Dr. Gachet extraordinary liberty immediately after the funeral to pillageVincent's studio -- shocking for a brother who otherwise cosseted his brother's legacy in words and images. As Adeline Ravoux recounts, Dr. Gachet, with his son's help, took almost all of the works that remained in the studio immediately after the funeral: "On the way back [from the funeral] ... They entered the 'artists' room' where the coffin had been and where the canvases were exhibited. Theo, wanting to thank those who had taken care of his brother, offered to let them take as a remembrance several canvases by theartist who had just passed away. Father was happy with my portrait and that of The Town Hall of Auvers, which M. Vincent had given to him whilst alive. When the proposition was put to Dr. Gachet, he chose numerous canvases and gave them to his son, Paul: 'Roll them up, Coco,' he said, to make a package of them." (Carrié, "Recollections on Vincent van Gogh's Stay in Auvers-sur-Oise," in Stein, ed., pp. 216-217.)

In another account, Adeline's recollection of the incident has more of an edge: "M. Theo asked myfather to choose the pictures he would like, but as he already had La Mairie (The Town Hall) and my portrait, he refused. M. Theo invited Dr. Gachet to take therest. He didn't need to be asked twice and with the help of hisson rolled up canvas after canvas." (Ravoux, quoted in Gauthier, in Murger, ed., p. 413; emphasis added.)

This act, of course, gave Dr. Gachet a huge stake, bothmonetary and emotional, in Vincent's reputation, even at the same timeas Theo's emotional (and medical) needs inflated Dr. Gachet'srole. It was out of this symbiosis that Gachet's desire to write a biographical piece about Vincent --and Theo's enthusiasm for it -- quickly emerged (b2016 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 8/12/1890). Dr. Gachet continued to be Theo's connection to Auvers -- and a salve to his conscience for not coming to visit his brother's grave (see b2015V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890). The unhealthy dynamicsset in motion in August 1890 were not helped by the obsessive limelight-seekingof Dr. Gachet's son Paul, also a doctor, in subsequent generations. His relentless efforts to portray his father as Vincent's most ardent, earliest fan ("No one amongst his contemporaries understood him better") left many scarson the record, although it did eventually bring a treasure-trove of Vincent's work to the Louvre beginning in 1949 (Gachet, Deux Amis des Impressionistes: Le Docteur Gachet et Murer, p. 121).

Undoubtedly the creepiest episode in this long, sad, parasitic relationship came in 1905 when the fifteen-year lease on Vincent's grave in Auvers expired and the body had to be exhumed. Gachet (fils) wrote triumphantlyof his ghoulish privilege: "In the new coffin, the bones were laid outin their respective positions, while the doctor studied the massive skull withits protruding cheekbones and eyebrow-arches. We were replaying the scene with the grave-diggers from Hamlet ... I can now reveal that I personally laid his skull at the head of the bier that, after some minutes of recollection, was then sealed and buried in its present location." (ibid.) In 1954, Gachet (fils) left a large bequest to maintain the graves of Vincent and Theo in the Auvers cemetery (see Distel and Stein, p. 23, n. 90). "After my father passed away," he wrote around the same time, "I have kept my promise to Mme [Jo] Van Gogh that no mercenary hand should play a part in the upkeep of the double grave. Were not the hands that held Vincent's skull the most suited to this care?" (Gachet, Souvenirs de Cézanne et de van Gogh à Auvers, p. 8.)

17. "I find such"

b0937 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/8/1890.

18. "a book that has to be written"

VanGogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," inStein, ed., pp. 235-236; emphasis added: "I also received a visit fromM. Aurier, who came by one evening to discuss the book that has to be written."

19. solicited Paul Gachet

b2016 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 8/12/1890: Even as early as August 12, less than two weeks after the funeral, the subject had obviously already been discussed between them. Theo wrote Gachet on that day: "These letters will be of great service to us if we want to describe how someone becomes a painter and how the idea develops that one cannot do otherwise but follow this road."While visiting his mother and sister in Leyden, Theo had uncovered some old letters of Vincent's from the 1870s that showed "his religious preoccupations" (ibid.). Because they were in Dutch, Theo offered to translate them into French for Gachet. On August 15, Gachet replied with a long letter celebrating Theo's find and adding religion to his appreciation of Vincent's art: "The word love of art is not right -- Faith is the proper word. Faith to the point of martyrdom!!!!" ("Gachet, Paul" to "Gogh, Theo van", 08/15/90; quoted in Distel and Stein, p. 266.)

And the book project was clearly launched: "I am glad to hear that you now have all the additional information you need to make, not a catalogue but a complete biography -- for a man who was so exceptional something commonplace would be inappropriate" (ibid.). By August 22, when Jo wrote her parents about a dinner with Gachet, she reported that the doctor was "working on a biography" (b4307 V/1984, "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 8/22/1890). Theo reported on the same dinner to his mother and sister: "We had Dr. Gachet over for dinner last Wednesday [August 20]. I will send you a letter for you to read his opinion.He became ill from the emotion after the funeral but was somewhat better then. He wrote (the article) about Vincent when he was ill and in a while he will publish it in a journal. It can be good. Aurier is not home yet." (b0936 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van en Gogh, Willemina van", 8/24/1890.) The last sentence shows that Theo's thinking had already moved on to a more ambitious plan for a biographical tribute to his dead brother. While he continued to encourage Gachet's efforts, he began a separate negotiation with the critic Albert Aurier only a week after his dinner with Gachet.

20. set his sights higher

b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890: Theo continued, however, to encourage and solicit Gachet's "biographical piece" on Vincent. In mid-September, he wrote the doctor: "Now I must also tell you that I have had a visit from Antoine, the brother of the actor who is an editor with 'Art et Critique' ('Art and Criticism') and seems to have some influence there. If you want to publish something on Vincent he says there is always the option of printing it in his publication and he is sure that you could have as much space as you wanted. There is no need to tell you that I would be happier than I can say to read in print what you thought of him, and you have already expressed it so well in your letter; I have sent it to my mother so that she could see what some people thought of him. If you have continued your study of him it really should not be left in a drawer where only a privileged few will be able to read it."

21. the critic Albert Aurier

b2016 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 8/12/1890. Theo's letter to Aurier shows his shrewd -- if not entirely truthful -- side as a negotiator: "Many men of letters have evinced a desire to write something about [Vincent], but I have requested them to wait, and the reason for this was that I wanted to leave you time to be the first to speak, and, if you should like to do so, to write a biography, for which I could furnish all the material, which would be all the more veracious because I have in my possession a nearly consecutive correspondence with him from '73 onward, as well as several interesting documents" ("Gogh, Theo van" to "Aurier, Albert", 8/27/1890; quoted in Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume III, p. 590).Aurier responded quickly (apparently) and positively, as Theo wrote his mother on September 8: "Three times last week we had a painter or an acquaintance of Vincent for dinner, Aurier among others. He thinks he will write a biography of Vincent and promised to come over frequently to rummage through his letters. He is somebody who makes a good impression."(b0937 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/8/1890.)

22. few, terse obituaries

"Gogh, Theo van" to "Aurier, Albert", 8/27/1890; quoted in Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume III, p. 590: Theo especially did not like the obituary by Julien Leclercq that appeared in the September Mercure de France, in which Leclercq wrote about the anticipated exhibition of Vincent's work: "perhaps [Vincent] will have the moment of celebrity that is owed to him -- posthumously, alas! -- before joining the ranks of the rare daring and personal artists of the end of the century. We must add that this exhibition will take place through the initiative of M. Th. van Gogh, the qualified expert of the Boussod & Valadon gallery, the subtle connoisseur who did his brother's talent complete justice by providing him with the means to dedicate himself entirely to his art." (Leclercq, "Vincent van Gogh," in Stein, ed., pp. 240-241.) Theo informed Aurier of his disapproval partly, no doubt, to ensure that Aurier did not make the same mistakes: "I received Mr. Leclercq's notice, which no doubt you know: I do not like it very much, for I think it rather undignified to combine the announcement of the death of a great man with the downright advertisement of a picture dealer, which was out of place especially in this case. I should prefer all that may be done for him to be free of the taint of advertising, and I feel sure you will understand this." ("Gogh, Theo van" to "Aurier, Albert", 8/27/1890; quoted in Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume III, p. 590.)

23. "expression of a sick mind"

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., p. 237: Referring to his brother's art, Theo writes: "contrary to what Mr. Beanbourg [Beaubourg] says (I will send you his article), that it does not express a sick mind, but all the ardor and all the humanity of a great man." The article in question remains unidentified.

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24. "You were the first"

Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume III, p. 589.

25. gallery of the pioneer

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 232-233: This grand plan emerges as early as August 12, before Theo's return from Holland. He writes Dr. Gachet on that day: "As soon as I return, I intend to call on Durand-Ruel to see if it is possible to hold an exhibition in one of his galleries." True to his word, soon after returning to Paris, Theo brought Durand-Ruel (père) to the apartment to see Vincent's paintings (b0936 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van en Gogh, Willemina van", 8/24/1890). The dealer praised the work ("What he saw he found very artistic and very remarkable" [ibid.]), but already expressed reservations: "he is still hesitating about an exhibition in his gallery as he is afraid that it will start a controversy, particularly amongst the artists and literary people, whether he is either a great artist or not and that the general public, which is unable to understand this, may take sides against him and Durand-Ruel" (ibid). The dealer offered to continue the discussion, however, and agreed to see more of Vincent's Auvers-period work at Tanguy's.Apparently, he never honored that agreement.

On September 12, Theo reported to Gachet: "As for the exhibition, I saw Durand-Ruel, senior, who came by my house and found the drawings and several paintings 'very interesting'; this was his expression. But when I spoke of the exhibition, he told me that the public would hold him forever responsible if anybody were to laugh, so he was postponing his decision until he had seen the canvases at Tanguy's. He promised to come and get me the following week, but he didn't show up."(b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890.) Theo continued to pursue the cause with Durand-Ruel fils (Charles Durand-Ruel and Georges Durand-Ruel, sons of Paul Durand-Ruel who were French art dealers): "Later, I saw the son, who told me that he didn't think his father was reluctant and that in the winter he would have no objection to lending the gallery for this purpose" (ibid.). But one can hear his discouragement as he begins to contemplate alternative scenarios: "Which seems preferable to you, the exhibition with the Durand-Ruels (or) if we could get it, a separate room in the Paris pavilion at the Independents exhibition?" (b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890; quoted in Gachet, Deux Amis des Impressionistes: Le Docteur Gachet et Murer, p. 125).

By the end of September, the plan for an exhibition of Vincent's work by Durand-Ruel was definitively dead, as Theo informed Pissarro: "As for the exhibition of my brother's works, the latest news is that it will not take place at Durand[-Ruel's]. He does not see any financial benefit in it, thus it would only be some [adverse] public opinions that he would have to listen to." ("Gogh, Theo van" to "Pissarro, Camille", 9/30/1890; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 68). But Theo was entertaining yet more options: "I am going to try to hold the exhibition at the Theatre d'Application where Cheret and Renouard exhibited. Let us hope it's feasible." (ibid.)

Rewald offers a marvelous explanation of Durand-Ruel's refusal to sponsor a memorial retrospective of Vincent's art: "Durand-Ruel's position was indeed somewhat awkward.Theo was, after all, a competitor who, despite restricted means, had managed to become friendly and do business with some of 'his' artists, especially the most successful ones, Monet and Degas; besides, Vincent's style could hardly appeal to the man who had barely succeeded in imposing the Impressionist vision. Durand-Ruel was at that moment trying to reconcile himself with the various painters who had left his fold and at the same time take advantage of improved economic conditions. He was preparing the first issue of a periodical supporting the Impressionists, on whose behalf he now deployed a more confident activity both in France and the United States. He had at last re-established commercial contacts with Monet who, without abandoning Boussod & Valadon, promised to exhibit his series of haystacks in Durand-Ruel's gallery." (Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 68.)

26. with lithographs

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 235-236: "I also received a visit from M. Aurier, who came by one evening to discuss the book that has to be done. He appears entirely determined to do a book on the one for whom we still mourn, and M. Manzi told me that he would be happy to etch the plates for it."

27. excerpts from his letters

Jansen and Robert, p. 46.

28. "it is essential"

"Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh, Elisabeth van", 8/5/1890; quoted in Jansen and Robert, pp. 44-45.

29. pushed it

Jansen and Robert, p. 45: "But no matter how bad his physical condition might have been, the idea of an exhibition continued to occupy his thoughts."

30. Durand-Ruel balked

b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890: "As far as the exhibition is concerned, I have seen Durand Ruel senior who came to see me and found the drawings and several of the pictures very interesting, those were the words he used, but when I spoke of an exhibition he said that the public would always hold him responsible if there were some who made a fuss, so he would hold off from making a decision until he had seen the pictures at Tanguy's; he promised to come and take me the following week but he did not come. Later I saw his son who said that he did not believe his father was holding back and that he would not foresee any problem is letting the room be used for this in the winter."

31. "large space"

b0937 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/8/1890: "With regards to the showing, nothing is certain yet, but the son of Durand Ruel, who I spoke with, said that come winter his father could probably be persuaded to make a (large) space available. I hope that will happen, because that would do him justice."

32. "to do him justice"

b0937 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/8/1890.

33. elaborate accountings

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., p. 237. Theo wrote his sister Wil on September 27 in an urgent, insistent voice that sounds unmistakably like his dead brother: "Durand-Ruel had more or less promised to spare a gallery, but when I heard no more about it and looked him up he said that he saw no profit in it for him and so could not agree. There are other possible arrangements but let us be glad that, while we wait, I am able to show a good many in this way. I sold two of them for 300 frs., payable in installments, to an artist in whose place many will see them. We thought it would be a good thing that there were some of them in circulation and so make people talk about him. ... I do hope we will succeed in arranging an exhibition, for that will speak more clearly than all this talk, but it will not be easy from the financial side. Just think that the frames will be at least 10 frs. each and then there is the catalogue and the cost of the personnel that will certainly be needed, but many will help me and when I want to there will be people here and there who will be prepared to contribute." (b2055 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh, Willemina van", 9/27/1890.)

34. extravagant details

Jansen and Robert, p. 46: "Even though there was still absolutely no certainty about the exhibition at Durand-Ruel's, its design was worked out in greater detail.If there was to be an extensive presentation of Vincent's work then an accompanying catalogue was essential. This was to be informative and contain a short biography, and might even be brightened up with illustrations and reproductions of a few relevant letters."

35. delusional promises

b0937 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus,Anna C. van", 9/8/1890.In late August or early September, Theo sent his sister Wil a copy ofVincent's lithograph, Sorrow (F 1655 JH 259, November, 1882, lithograph, 15.2 by 11.4 in., 38.5 by 29 cm.,Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum) -- an image that Theo did not care for at the time, both because of its austere style and its disturbing autobiographical subtext (see Chapter 19). But Theo alsoknew exactly how important this image had been to Vincent (see Ch. 18, n. 287), and in his new mania of solidarity, he imagines it as the first in a flood of reproductions ("of drawings and the other lithographs") that will secure his brother's reputation, and he reassures his mother using the same kind of sweeping claims of future success that Vincent had often used (and Theo had often rejected) in the past: "I think many people will be interested."Another example of these inflated, Vincent-like ambitions comes in a letter to Gachet in September, where Theo rejects the idea of a biographical piece in an obscure art magazine and imagines a much wider public for Vincent's story: "If you have continued your study of him it really should not be left in a drawer where only a privileged few will be able to read it"(b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890; quoted in Gachet, Deux Amisdes Impressionistes, p. 125).

36. "He is haunted"

Gachet, Deux Amis des Impressionistes, pp. 125-126.

37. "ill-starred brother"

See Ch. 36, n. 98 and n. 99.

38. against his employers

"Gogh, Theo van" to "Bernard, Émile", 9/18/1890; quoted in Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, p. 383: On September 18, Theo wrote Émile Bernard: "Next week my time is taken by a foreigner to whom I must try to sell some awful pictures."

39. "association of artists"

"Pissarro, Camille" to "Pissarro, Lucien", October, 1890;quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 69: In October, Pissarro wrote his son Lucien: "As a result of all this, in a moment of exasperation, he thanked the Boussods and suddenly went mad. He wanted to rent [the Café] Le Tambourin in order to form an association of artists."

40. café Le Tambourin

"Pissarro, Camille" to "Pissarro, Lucien," October, 1890; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 69.

41. his wife and child

Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, pp. 453-454: Camille Pissarro went to Theo's firm to inquire about events and related the account he was given to his son Lucien: "As a result [Theo] has, in a moment of exasperation, taken his leave from the Boussods, and all at once he has become mad, he wanted to rent the Tambourin in order to found an association of painters. He then became violent; he who loved his wife and his son so dearly, he wanted to kill them."

42. attacks of paranoia

Theo had convinced himself that Boussod & Valadon intended to close the Montmartre branch ofthe gallery (his branch), yet, even after he left, the branch was notclosed. This suggests that hisfears were exaggerated (see Ch. 42, n. 428). It may have been in a fit of paranoia, in fact, that Theo quit his job, preemptively, as Jansen and Robert suggest: "he had beenextremely worried about losing his position at Boussod and Valadon's, now he was handing in his resignation without first securing support fromelsewhere" (Jansen and Robert, p. 47). This paranoid fear of those "out to get him" probably accounts for Andries Bonger's strange instructions to Dr. Gachet when he solicited the doctor to pay a visit on Theo but to pretend thatit was just a spontaneous visit, not the product of plotting: "go and see him tomorrow, as if you were paying him a surprise visit" ("Bonger, Andries" to "Gachet, Paul", 10/10/1890; quoted in Gachet, pp. 125-126).

43. spells of denial

Like his brother, Theo used work as his primary form of denial. He returned from the funeral in Auvers (followed by his two-week trip to Holland in August), and plunged immediately back to work, partly out of desperation to save his job, which he feared, rightly or wrongly, was imperiled. Rewald inventories the robust sales Theo made in the brief interval before his hospitalization in October (Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, pp. 68-69). In addition, he worked tirelessly to realize the exhibition of Vincent's art that he imagined (see Jansen and Robert, p. 45), while he also supervised the move into the new apartment on the ground floor of his Cité Pigalle building (around September 14) (ibid., p. 47). These last two projects merged when the other possible venues for the exhibition fell through and Theo ended up hanging the show (with Bernard) in the new Cité Pigalle apartment.

When it came to his medical care, Theo's denial took more direct, more practiced forms.On September 8, only a month before his emergency admission to the hospital, he wrote his mother: "Jo is getting stronger and looks well. Luckily her toothache is over. As far as I am concerned, I am getting better too. Every day I take the drops that Dr. Van der Maaten has prescribed; I sleep better and the coughing has almost stopped. The lovely weather helps a lot. So we have every reason to be content." (b0937 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/8/1890; quoted in Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, p. 451).

On September 16, Theo wrote his mother again, telling her that his problem "is mainly in my head, I think it must be my nerves that still make me feel so wretched sometimes, and make it so difficult for me to do even the easiest work which involves using your brain" (b0938 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/16/1890; quoted in Jansen and Robert, p. 47). On September 27, he wrote to his sister Wil, blaming all his worst problems on the cough medicine Dr. Van der Maaten had given him ("I had become so sick by the drops of that Dr. that I would have become insane") and reassuring her that the doctors had told him, "'If you would stay home it would be good for your coughing, but your nervousness would come back.' No need to tell you that I listened to him, and I now feel much better" (b0947 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh, Willemina van", 9/27/1890; quoted in Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, p. 451). Two weeks later, he was admitted to the hospital.

Theo also practiced a more modern, nuanced form of medical denial: doctor-shopping. In the brief two months between his return to Paris from Holland and his admission to the hospital, he mentions seeing a number of doctors, including Dr. Van der Maaten, Dr. Gachet, and Dr. Léon Simon (no dates), all, presumably, while he continued to see his regular doctors, Dr. Rivet and Dr. Gruby (ibid.). Even with his doctors, however, his default mode was denial. On September 12, he wrote Dr. Gachet: "The thing is that my health is still not good, my head spins and every time I write I feel quite nauseous. [But] my nerves still have the upper hand."(b2015 V/1982, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gachet, Paul", 9/12/1890.)

44. magical thinking

Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, p. 452: Nothing but magical thinking can explain Theo's telegram to Gauguin as he walked out the door after (or just before) quitting his job at Boussod & Valadon: "Departure to tropics assured, money follows, Théo, Director."According to Hulsker, Gauguin "asked himself whether Théo van Gogh had become mad, or whether it might be a mystification [i.e., prank] in a very bad taste (something which seemed the most likely)."

45. neglecting his health

Stolwijk and Thomson, p. 56: Stolwijk and Thomson quote Theo's September 27 letter to his sister Wil: "Everyone told me to go to bed and take better care of myself, but that was impossible because I still had important work to finish."According to Theo, the "important work" was not the consuming project for a memorial show for Vincent, but closing a deal for Boussod & Valadon, resulting in "a profit for the firm of 10,000 francs -- and a promise of more business" (b0947 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh, Willemina van", 9/27/1890; quoted in Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, p. 451).

46. evenhis clothes

Wolinsky, p. 13: When Theo was admitted to the asylum in Utrecht in November, the hospital report indicated that, previously, in Paris, Theo had "a tendency to tear up his clothes." While this no doubt refers to the previous month in the asylum at Passy, we believe that this dramatic rending of garments must have been preceded by a period of increasing neglect of his appearance -- a particularly pregnant act of dysfunction in the Van Gogh family -- as Theo mourned his brother by assuming his personality.

47. in early October

Stolwijk and Thomson, p. 56: Stolwijk and Thomson pinpoint Theo's breakdown to Thursday, October 9: "On 4 October, Jo's birthday, Theo showed signs of extreme nervous exhaustion. Five days later he suffered a complete mental and physical collapse."This dating would appear to be borne out by Andries Bonger's letter of October 10 to Dr. Gachet: "'Since yesterday my brother-in-law van Gogh has been in such a state of over-excitement that we are seriously worried. ... The excitability has been caused by a dispute with his employers, as a result of which he wishes to set up his own business without delay." ("Bonger, Andries" to "Gachet, Paul", 10/10/1890; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 69.)

48. urged him to do

Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, p. 384: "Theo's first impulses were to do precisely the things he, and especially Vincent, had always wanted to do."

49. show of shouting

"Pissarro, Camille" to "Pissarro, Lucien", October, 1890; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 69: According to Pissarro's report, Theo had "a violent discussion with his owners in connection with a canvas of Decamp's." The reference is to Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. In fact, this dispute was no doubt a surrogate for the many grievances that had built up on both sides. The extent of Theo's employers' dissatisfaction with Theo's performance can be gauged from the later account of Theo's replacement, Maurice Joyant, who wrote that one of the gallery owners, Boussod (Léon Boussod, or one of his sons, Étienne Boussod or Jean Boussod ), told him: "[Theo Van Gogh] has accumulated appalling things by modern painters which are the shame of the firm. As a matter of fact there are also a few Corots, Rousseaus, Daubignys, but we have taken away that stock from there; as you are inexperienced they would not be of any use to you. You will also find a certain number of canvases by a landscape painter, Claude Monet, who is beginning to sell a little in America, but he makes too many.We have a contract to buy his whole production and he is busy to encumber us with his landscapes, always the same as to the subject. All the rest are horrors; try to manage and don't ask us for anything, otherwise we'll close the shop." (Joyant, quoted in Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, pp. 450-451.) This account can be read to indicate that the argument with Theo over the Decamps may have been triggered when the owners tried to pull the transaction away from Theo, perhaps as a prelude to terminating his employment.

50. slamming of doors

Perruchot, p. 369: "Normally so composed, mild and prudent, he rose up against his employers in one final argument, gave them his resignation and departed to an accompaniment of slamming doors."

51. "Departure to tropics assured"

Hulsker, Vincent and Theo: A Dual Biography, p. 452.

52. a hospital in Paris

Gachet, Deux Amis des Impressionistes, p. 126: The hospital is referred to in the record as the "Maison Dubois," located at 200 Faubourg Saint-Denis (tenth arrondissement). This hospital, proximate to the Gare du Nord, was originally founded in the seventeenth century as a Catholic charity hospital. By the mid-nineteenth century, as part of Haussmann's remaking of Paris, a new limestone building replaced the smaller, older hospital, and it became a favorite of the bourgeois, boulevard classes. The hospital was commonly referred to by the name of its most prominent eighteenth-century doctor, Antoine Dubois. In 1959, it was renamed Hôpital Fernand Widal.

53. walk at all

b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890: Andries Bonger wrote on October 16, "[Theo's] physical condition has improved a lot.On Sunday and Monday [October 12 and 13, at the time of his admission to the hospital] he could not walk at all and now he walks very well."

54. wilderand more dangerous

"Pissarro, Camille" to "Pissarro, Lucien", October, 1890; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 69: According to Camille Pissarro's report to his son, Theo "became violent. He who so loved his wife and child wanted to kill them."(Quoted in Rewald, p. 69.) It appears that this threatening behavior took place in the days immediately after Theo quit his job (following a "violent argument" with his employers (ibid), and was probably the extreme event that licensed Andries Bonger to override Jo's objections (see Jansen and Robert, p. 48) and have Theo taken to the hospital, the Maison Dubois.

55. threw furniture

Wolinsky, p. 13: Wolinsky quotes from Van Heugten's translation of the medical records at the asylum in Utrecht: "[He] has a tendency to tear up his clothes.[Theo was given a medication, which the translators read as 'chloralomied']." We are assuming that Theo showed the same symptoms in Paris, although no detailed records from that hospitalization have emerged.

56. toreat his clothes

Wolinsky, p. 13.

57. chloroformedinto passivity

Wolinsky, p. 13: According to Wolinsky, Theo's admission report to the hospital in Utrecht noted that Theo was given a medication, "which the translators read as 'chloralomied.'" Voskuil says that Theo was given "chloralomide" for restlessness and makes a distinction not recognized in the text: "Chloralomide was used as the time as a tranquilizer and especially as a narcotic and was related to the better known chloralhydrate. In most synonym-lexicons it is equated to chloralformamidatum, that is chloralformamide, though possibly this is not quite correct chemically. The advantage of chloralomide over the more often used chloralhydrate is that it is tasteless and odorless. Its effect is a bit weaker than chloralhydrate." (Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779.) We have used the more widely-recognized "chloroform."

58. Dr. Antoine Blanche

Gachet, "Les Médecins de Théodore and de Vincent van Gogh," p. 35: Gachet makes the point that the famous asylum was founded by the father of Antoine Blanche, Silvestre Esprit Blanche (1796-1852; French doctor), who had been dead for thirty-eight years by the time Theo was admitted.

59. aprominent artist

Dr. Blanche's painter-son was Jacque-Émile Blanche. Rewald notes that "a couple of years before [Blanche fils] had purchased an important painting by Degas from Theo" (Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 69). This was The Dance Class, which Blanche bought in November 1888 (see Stolwijk and Thomson, p. 202, n. 136).

60. Jean-Martin Charcot

See Gelfand, pp. 215-229.

61. Wil traveled

b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890: "This afternoon Net and Wil will be visiting [Theo in the asylum].Wil is so deeply saddened."

62. unspeakable concern

b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890: In his visit in mid-October, Tersteeg reported to Andries Bonger and his sister on a visit he had paid to Theo's stoically hopeful mother: "Tersteeg said that she carried all the suffering of the past few years in an exemplary way and he is not afraid that she will not be able to overcome this grief. She is still hoping for recovery of health." Andries, who had spoken to the doctors, was more pessimistic: "In my opinion there is next to no hope at all -- Rivet has said that this case is much more serious than that of Vincent and that all hope is lost."

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63. rushed from The Hague

b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890: Andries Bonger reports this visit to his parents at some length: "The day before yesterday [Tuesday, October 14] we telegraphed Tersteeg in The Hague. ... Yesterday morning he arrived and he has been extremely sympathetic.He was the only one who could gain information about the mood of the gentlemen B[oussod] V[aladon] & Co.He told me that, fortunately, he had only come across the old Mr. Boussod, who had been very kind.He told me that they would not even consider letting Theo take his leave and that he would stay their manager until the end of the year no matter what. It was not a matter of them being put out by Theo; it had been very clear to them during the last few days that he was not well and they had reassured him as much as possible. His situation is as follows: At the moment the amount due to him is fr.1800 -- and in addition the benefit over the current year (which he would never touch before the next) which is at least [the amount of] 200 [francs] in case the previous and the amount until now will add up to a close fr 7000. He can claim about 9000 fr so it is not a matter of being pressed for money. Tersteeg had lunch with us (with Dr. Gachet who came to hear how things were going) and together they went to Auteuil [i.e., the asylum at Passy].The doctor did not allow them to talk to him [Theo] but they have seen him in the garden, where he had been since 10 o'clock that morning."

64. "is a rotten break"

Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, pp. 71-72: "'[Theo] van Gogh's stroke of madness,' he wrote to Bernard, 'is a rotten break for me, and if Charlopin does not give me the wherewithal to go to Tahiti, I am washed out.'"Rewald also quotes a letter from Gauguin to Redon: "Unfortunately everything misfires for me at the moment.My departure; the planned affair did not come off. [Theo] van Gogh has gone mad and the Goupil Gallery no longer wants anything to do with us. It's a real catastrophe!" As it turned out, Gauguin had some reason for anxiety. Only a month after Theo's commitment, Boussod & Valadon's owners wrote Gauguin "asking him to take back all his canvases; the employees do not like this kind of painting at all and laugh at it! I think the gallery will be closed to the Impressionists! ... that's it!" (Eugène Boch to Octave Maus, 11/04/90; quoted in Rewald, p. 71.)

65. saw his fortune

For more details on Bernard's collaboration with Jo in furthering Vincent's art and reputation at this precarious moment, see Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, pp. 385-386; Zemel, pp. 71-73; and Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume III, pp. 473-474.

66. Vincent's champion

Van Gogh and Aurier, "On Posthumous Tributes to Vincent," in Stein, ed., pp. 233-234: About a month after Vincent's death, Theo wrote his mother and sister: "Bernard had said to Dries [Bonger] when they went to Paris after the funeral, that he absolutely regarded Vincent as a master."

67. "What blundering!"

Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, p. 385.

68. "No one can replace"

"Pissarro, Camille" to "Pissarro, Lucien", October, 1890; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 70: "M. Boussod's son told me that I should not count on any continual purchases; nobody can replace this poor Theo van Gogh who, he said, would not hear talk of any painting but ours-and more and more persisted in believing only in the Impressionists. It is a great loss for all of us." Lucien, the recipient of this letter, then wrote his fiancée Esther Bensusan in London: "You probably remember the young man who showed us some pictures at the Maison Goupil at the time of your journey to Paris. This poor man has just gone mad. It is all very sad for his family and for all the Impressionist painters, for he was more than a dealer to them. Nobody took more to heart their affairs and at this moment there is not in Paris a man able to replace him." ("Pissarro, Lucien" to "Bensusan, Esther"; quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, p. 70.) For more on the impact of Theo's madness and death on avant-garde art, see also Stolwijk and Thomson, pp. 61, 141, 148; and Rewald, Post-Impressionism, pp. 384-385, 427.

69. refusedto believe

As Jansen and Robert note, Jo's brother Andries had to take the initiative to commit Theo to the hospital -- even after Theo attempted to kill her and her child. This reluctance -- probably fueled by her astonishment that Theo had kept his disease from her for so long -- set the tone of antagonism for all Jo's subsequent interaction with Theo's doctors (Jansen and Robert, p. 48).

70. paralysis and his dementia

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: According to Voskuil, Theo's medical file from the asylum in Utrecht notes that "in Paris the patient was also noted as suffering from paralysie générale progressive, a diagnosis with which we can not do anything else but agree after the first meeting." Voskuil adds: "It was already known at the time that dementia paralytica was a result of syphilis infection." Voskuil connects the diagnosis to Theo's symptoms this way: "Of large importance in connection with the illness history of Theo van Gogh is the course of a dementia paralytica. Already months or years before ... symptoms occur, phenomena can take place that are so vague that their significance is not recognized. In about one third of the cases the symptoms sometimes disappear partially or completely, even after becoming manifest. The time span between the syphilis infection and the break-out of the paralysis is on average 10-15 year, with limits of 2-30 year. After becoming manifest the illness last 2-3 year (without taking into account earlier passing symptoms)."

71. "[Jo] cannot accept"

b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890: Within the Bonger family, Jo was referred to as "Net." We believe that Jo's arguments with Andries (and the doctors) about Theo's treatment, continued after the move to Holland. In this, we disagree with Jansen and Robert when they write: "little is known about how Jo experienced Theo's sickness and death. The visits to the mental hospital and the talks with the doctors had soon made her realise that there was virtually no chance of recovery."(Jansen and Robert, p. 50.)Because of the nature of the diagnosis and her unwillingness to come to terms with it, we suspect that Jo continued to make the "absurd demands" that Andries refers to in his letter. We see Jo's influence in Aurier's report to Dr. Gachet on October 22: "I am told that according to what Dr. Blanche has said not all hope of a cure is lost as yet" (Gachet, p. 36). Aurier's information (no doubt second-hand from Jo via Bernard) was exactly contrary to what the doctors were telling Andries Bonger directly at the time: "Rivet has said that this case is much more serious than that of Vincent and that all hope is lost" (b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890).

72. counsels of resignation

b1860 V/1970, "Bonger, Andries" to "Bonger, H.C. en H.L.", 10/16/1890: Jo heard this not only from the doctors, but also from her own brother: "We did the only thing we could have done for now we have to resign ourselves to this." Tersteeg wrote in the same vein: "I fear there is little good to report.For you this must be a time of angst-ridden tension! How slowly the hours must pass from one day into the other. And on top of that, the knowledge that there is nothing we can do to improve his or your situation! Even writing you a letter seems like torture, because every word of hope or comfort coming from someone else than the doctor attending him, must be worthless to you as long as the doctor's opinion does not support that word." (b1074 V/1962, "Tersteeg, H.G." to "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van", 10/24/1890.)

73. "nerves"

b0938 V/1962, "Gogh, Theo van" to "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van", 9/16/1890; quoted in Jansen and Robert, p. 47: Jansen and Robert quote a letter that Theo wrote his mother on September 16 explaining that his problem "is mainly in my head, I think it must be my nerves that still make me feel so wretched sometimes, and make it so difficult for me to do even the easiest work which involves using your brain."

74. hypnosis might help

b1074 V/1962, "Tersteeg, H.G." to "Gogh-Bonger, Jo van", 10/24/1890: We know this because Tersteeg wrote to Jo in late October gently rebutting her hope of a cure through hypnosis: "But from what I have read about hypnosis, I can hardly imagine that this treatment could have a positive effect so soon.Perhaps later, when the state of the brain starts to normalize and the congestion has eased."

75. drawn to it

BVG 571a, 1/22/1889-1/23/1889: Vincent, of course, had read Frederik van Eeden's early, most famous book, De kleine Johannes (Little John), not long after it was published in 1887. He wrote Wil about it the following year, using it as a reference point in describing one of his self-portraits: "Here's an impression of mine, which is the result of a portrait that I painted in the mirror, and which Theo has: a pink-grey face with green eyes, ash-coloured hair, wrinkles in forehead and around the mouth, stiffly wooden, a very red beard, quite unkempt and sad, but the lips are full, a blue smock of coarse linen, and a palette with lemon yellow, vermilion, Veronese green, cobalt blue, in short all the colours, except of the orange beard, on the palette, the only whole colours, though. The figure against a grey-white wall. You'll say that this is something like, say, the face of -- death -- in Van Eeden's book or some such thing -- very well, but anyway isn't a figure like this -- and it isn't easy to paint oneself -- in any event something different from a photograph? And you see -- this is what Impressionism has -- to my mind -- over the rest, it isn't banal, and one seeks a deeper likeness than that of the photographer." (JLB 626, 6/16/1888-6/20/1888.)

Context:
JLB 740, 1/22/1889: "I believe I've run fairly parallel to Van Eeden in this, and consequently don't regard his style of writing as unparallel to my style of painting in the matter of colour."

76. Van Eeden's blessing

Gortzak, n.p.: The move and the commitment to the Utrecht hospital required both a request from a family member and a declaration from a doctor. The family member who petitioned the Second County Court, District of Amsterdam, was Hendrik Christiaan Bonger, Jo's father; the doctor who declared Theo insane was Frederik van Eeden.Here is the primary text of the petition: "To Your Honor, Judge in the second County Court, District Amsterdam, Makes it known respectfully, Hendrik Christiaan Bonger, residing at Weteringsekant BB 121, that his son in law Theodorus van Gogh, being cared for at this time in the Institute of Dr. Blanche in Auteuil near Paris, as shown in the enclosed declaration from Dr. F. van Eeden, is in a state of insanity, that a move of the patient to the Netherlands is necessary and that his admission into de Geneeskundig gesticht voor Krankzinnigen in Utrecht is desired."

The petition was granted, but apparently only on a temporary basis, as Jo's father had to return to the court less than a month later to request an extension of Theo's commitment "for a period of one year." This second petition was supported by the staff of the asylum: "Respectfully makes it known, Hendrik Christiaan Bonger, residing in Amsterdam, That his son in law Theodorus van Gogh, At the authorization of the County Judge in Amsterdam on the 17th of November 1890 has been admitted temporarily into the Geneeskundig Gesticht voor Krankzinnigen in Utrecht. That according to the attached declaration of the medical professional of this institute dated December 9, 1890, continued care for this insane is necessary. For which reason the requestor respectfully requests: that it may please the Court to authorize the mentioned Unlucky to remain in an Institute for the Insane in this country for the time of one year."

77. asylum in Utrecht

Gortzak, n.p.: The institution was then known simply as the Geneeskundig Gesticht voor de Krankzinnigen (Institute for the Insane). It has since been renamed the Willem Arntsz Huis after the fifteenth-century benefactor who endowed the earliest hospital for the insane on the site.

866

78. in a straitjacket

Gortzak, n.p.: According to Gortzak's version ofthe Utrecht hospital records: "Van Gogh thus makes a lamentableimpression, that first day. Nowonder. The patient, 'broughtby two officials from the institute at Auteuil where he had been cared for fora few weeks,' had to travel for several hours 'in a straitjacket which he often had on over there.'"

79. accompaniedby guards

Gortzak, n.p.

80. same train home

Jansen and Robert, pp. 48-49: According to Jansen and Robert, Theo's sister Wil accompanied Jo and her son on the train.Her brother Andries and his wife Annie bid them goodbye at the station and the latter wrote to her parents afterwards: "You have no idea how heart-broken we were to see him on Monday at the gare du Nord. I would so much have liked to go up to him and say goodbye, particularly because he can no longer speak any French nor comprehend it, and the men could not understand him either. But it was better not to. The journey must have made him dreadfully tired." Jansen and Robert offer some additional explanation for Jo's departure from Paris: "There was nothing to keep her in Paris, furthermore since Theo's illness her relationship with Andries had been very strained" (ibid., p. 50).

81. she would settle

Jansen and Robert, p. 50: "In May 1891 Jo rented the Villa Helma on the Koningslaan, number 4, in Bussum, where she started to run a boarding house."

82. a mash of languages

Lutz, n.p.: According to Lutz's reading of the hospital's admission report: "He speaks all kinds of languages mixed together, but he is very difficult to understand."

83. incontinent

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: Voskuil summarizes Theo's condition on arrival in Utrecht: "During the admission he is cheerful and confused. He is disoriented in place and time and speaks garbled words.He does not give correct answers to questions and speaks all kinds of languages mixed up. He is difficult to understand. He walks with difficulty and his right foot is swollen due to a fall in Paris. His pulse is weak and fast. The pupils are not the same ... Now and then he is incontinent. He has the tendency to wreck his clothes."

84. barely able to walk

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "He walks with difficulty and his right foot is swollen due to a fall in Paris."

85. couldnot answer questions

This is our way of expressing a passage in the hospital admission report that inventories Theo's perceptual deficits. Different translators report these results in different ways: "He does not have the least space and temporal concept" ("Découverte du Dossier Médical de Théo van Gogh," n.p.); "he has no conception of place and time" (Lutz, n.p.); "[He has] no notion at all of place or time" (Arnold, p. 96).The common current practice is to take these measures by asking orientation and awareness questions like those in the text ("What is your name? Do you know where you are? Do you know why you are here? etc.). Arnold represents that the observation that Theo had "no notion of place or time" was placed in Theo's record by "Dr. Van der Eeden" (sic). While Frederik Van Eeden did file a declaration to support the petition to admit Theo to the Utrecht asylum, and the hospital records show that he did visit Theo on November 27 (see Wolinsky, p. 13), we can find no evidence that Van Eeden was on hand when Theo was admitted to the asylum.

86. days of delusion

Wolinsky, p. 13: "The hospital records stated Theo had dementia paralytica and describe how he experienced partial paralysis, delusions and mental deterioration."

87. restless, haunted sleep

Lutz, n.p.: According to Lutz, the hospital report "indicates how uneasily Theo sleeps."

88. no sleep at all

Gortzak, n.p.: Gortzak reads the record to say that "many nights [Theo] did not sleep at all."

89. padded cell

"Découverte du Dossier Médical de Théo van Gogh": "Théo Van Gogh died of insanity at 33 years, January 24, in a cell upholstered, according to Arend Pietersma, a municipal archivist in Utrecht."

90. incoherent monologues

Gortzak, n.p.: "It was difficult to get him into his night clothes, he had incoherent monologues in different languages."

91. "cheerful and boisterous"

Lutz, n.p.

92. "dull and drowsy"

Lutz, n.p.: Lutz quotes the hospital reports: "After having been at times either very loud and cheerful or very dull and drowsy, the patient had a seizure."

93. shookwith tremors

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779.

94. paralyticattacks

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "Besides these psychic symptoms there also are neurological problems, such as paralysis phenomena, inability to coordinate, pupil deviations and difficulty speaking. Among the last, leaving out, doubling, or changing of letters and syllables (the so-called "Silbenstolpern"). The timbre of the voice changes and becomes trembling. Characteristic also are the quick muscle vibrations in the face around the mouth and of the tongue. The tremor sometimes can affect the whole body."

95. epilepticseizures

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "With 'paralytic attacks' is meant the paralysis phenomena, but also the stimulant phenomena of the brain in the form of epileptic attack."

96. timbreof his voice

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779.

97. whole character, changed

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "In the framework ofthe dementia there occurs a general mental deterioration and fatigue withchanges in character, difficulty in concentrating and blunting of ethical andmoral judgments."

98. clawedat his underclothes

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779. The hospital records contain more than one notation of Theo "wrecking his clothes" (see Lutz, n.p.). Voskuil catalogues Theo's destructive impulses more completely: "Later also destructions are mentioned, such as his mattress, straw mattress and undershirt."

99. rippedup the sheets

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779.

100. torethe straw

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779.

101. tranquilize him

Lutz, n.p.: According to Lutz, the hospital records report "the tranquilizers that are being administered, the number of times he is locked into the 'solitary room' or into the 'padded crib.'"

102. facetwitched

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779. Voskuil reports that, according to the hospital reports: "The day after Frederik van Eeden's visit Theo appears drowsy after a restless night and complains (in French) about headache. His speech is very unclear due to a strong tremor of the tongue."

103. trouble swallowing

Wolinsky, p. 13: Wolinsky reads the hospital reports to say: "He grows ever more blank -- is sometimes very noisy. For some days, swallowing was difficult and he had to be fed again."

104. he vomited

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "There are problems with the stool, he does not eat well, and he vomits."

105. bowels malfunctioned

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: This was a problem from the time Theo arrived in Utrecht: "Now and then he is incontinent. He has the tendency to wreck his clothes." This is probably what the records are referring to when they record that Theo "wrecked" his clothes.

106. Urination was painful

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "Because of pain when urinatingan effort is made on December 1 to insert a catheter, which fails."

107. couldn't feed himself

Wolinsky, p. 13.

108. dress himself

Lutz, n.p.: According to Lutz's reading of the hospital records: "The doctor indicates ... how often he wrecks his clothing and how difficult it is 'to get him into his night clothes.'"

109. asleep in the bath

Lutz, n.p.: "Many nights did not sleep at all, [or] fell asleep in his bath."

110. padded "crib"

Lutz, n.p.The records refer to a device that is variously rendered as a "padded crib" or a "covered crib" (Wolinsky, p. 13) or a "padded cot" (Jansen and Robert, p. 50).The records are silent on the issue of whether Theo was locked into this bed, as Vincent was chained into his.

111. "heredity, chronic illness"

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779.

112. Jodemanded

We infer this from the sudden and otherwise inexplicable outcry against "private care" (i.e., home care) in the record.

113. theyrose up

Jansen and Robert, p. 49.

114. "His general condition"

Lutz, n.p.

115. "appalling"

Jansen and Robert, p. 49: Jansen and Robert quote from the hospital report: "His physical condition did not disappoint [Jo] -- his mental condition did, a lot. We ourselves think both appalling & have said this quite openly."

116. "deplorable"

Jansen and Robert, p. 49: "The prognosis written on 9 December ran 'the man's condition is in all aspects utterly deplorable & at this moment his chances are poor.'"

117. "lamentable in all respects"

Gortzak, n.p.

118. stony silence

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: This is Voskuil's description of one of Jo's early visits to the Utrecht asylum: "On November 24 he is a bit calmer and his wife is allowed to visit. But this does not last long. Theo does not speak a single normal word and throws a couple of chairs and a table." According to Jansen and Robert, Theo greeted Jo's last visit with the same, stony silence: "A week later, on Tuesday 13 January Jo and Wil visited him once again. The circumstances were favourable, Theo was calm at that moment, but he entirely ignored them, he 'could not care less.'"(Jansen and Robert, p. 50.)

119. threw chairs

Voskuil, pp. 1777-1779: "Theo does not speak a single normal word and throws a couple of chairs and a table."

867

120. tore them to shreds

Jansen and Robert, p. 49: "[Theo] destroyed theflowers she had brought 'almost immediately he was given them.'" Wolinsky renders the hospital recordthis way: "Dec. 23.Johanna brings him some flowers, which he destroys immediately." (Wolinsky, p. 13.) It is possible to speculate that thesight of flowers, especially around Christmas time, reminded him not only of thefamily holiday which he was missing, but also of his brother whose floral still-lifeswere often painted as tributes of fraternal love.

121. brooded for days

Jansen and Robert, p. 49: According to Jansen and Robert (quoting the hospital records) the visit by Jo and Wil in December "excited [Theo] 'a great deal quite quickly' and made him 'even more upset', so that 'the adverse effects were felt for several days afterwards.'"

122. deemed too provocative

Jansen and Robert, p. 49: "Jo's presence only aroused feeling of aggression in him. ... Later that month Jo was not admitted to see Theo because he was too nervous."

123. reading to him

Lutz, n.p.: Lutz tells this story based on the hospital records: "What is clear, is that the doctor has little or no idea of the special bond between Theo and Vincent. Only once did the doctor use this information: 'I tried to read to him an article in het Handelsblad about his brother the painter who passed away, but it turned out that it was impossible for him to keep his attention on it, although he immediately read the date and the name.' That was on January 6, 1891. Aside from that there is no mention of the intense bond between the brothers." (Roughly the same version of the hospital record is given in Wolinsky, p. 13.) Hulsker tells an older version of the story based not directly on the hospital records, but on a lecture given by Dr. G. Kraus (no dates) who had access to the clinic records decades before they were made public: "In a lecture published by the Kroller-Muller Foundation in 1954, these words were devoted to Theo's illness and death: 'The doctor, who treated him with great devotion, tried in vain to get his attention by reading to him an article in the Handelsblad about Vincent. The only interest he had was for the name Vincent.'" (Hulsker, pp. 454-455.)

124. eyeswent vacant

Lutz, n.p.

125. mutteredto himself

Lutz, n.p.

126. finalhaze of mystery

Jansen and Robert, p. 50: According to Jansen and Robert: "The [hospital] file gives no information about his last days and hours." Stolwijk and Thomson agree that there is an inexplicable gap in Theo's hospital records: "The pages describing Theo's last four days are missing from the medical report" (Stolwijk and Thomson, p. 197).

127. dateof his death

Lutz, n.p.: Lutz sees the contradiction in the official record: "two dates of death are mentioned: in the report it says January 25, 1891. But in an official document of the Institute for the Insane in Utrecht it says: 'Removed on January 24, 1891 as deceased.'" (See also Wolinsky, p. 13.) Voskuil claims "[t]here is no official death certificate" (Voskuil, n.p.).But the Van Gogh Foundation files contain a document that purports to be such a certificate ("Death Certificate for Theo van Gogh, No. 187"). In it, two "carriers" (i.e., porters) who, presumably, removed the body from the hospital, attest as follows: "both resident here, who have declared to us that on the twenty-fifth of this month, in the evening at eleven-thirty, at the age of thirty-three years, passed away Theodorus van Gogh, art dealer, born in Zundert, living in Paris, married to Johanna Gezina Bonger, son of Theodorus van Gogh, deceased, and Anna Cornelia Carbentas [sic], without profession, living in Leiden. And we have drawn up this certificate, which after being read has been signed by us." By assigning the death to January 25, this account concurs with the hospital records quoted by Lutz.

128. beingremoved

Lutz, n.p.

129. one account

Lutz, n.p.: Lutz reports the final entry in the hospital record, dated January 26, 1891: "After having been at times either very loud and cheerful or very dull and drowsy the patient had a seizure on the 23rd, as is often the case with his illness; he recovered somewhat, was very difficult to treat -- on the 24th in the afternoon there was a repeat seizure ... patient noticeably remainedtotally unconscious, with significant irregularity in breathing and a barely perceptible pulse/problems in breathing/he succumbed yesterday evening at eleven thirty, after his wife and other relatives could be warned in time and visit him." From a very early date, there were rumors that Theo committed suicide in the asylum. Stolwijk and Thomson address those rumors skeptically, but do not dismiss them definitively: "The pages [of the hospital records] describing Theo's last four days are missing from the medical report. It is therefore far from certain that Theo committed suicide, as Vincent had done, and as has often been maintained." (Stolwijk and Thomson, p. 197, n. 174.)

130. allow an autopsy

Gortzak, n.p.: According to Gortzak: "The relatives refused an autopsy, 'which therefore did not take place.' The doctor regretted this, 'as this autopsy would have been very important for several reasons.'"

131. Four days later

Jansen and Robert, p. 50: "He was buried on Thursday 29 January in the Algemeene Begraafplaats (City Cemetry) in Utrecht." It is strange that Jo did not have him buried closer to her family (and to her at the time), in Amsterdam. Moreover, the cemetery in Utrecht was harder for Theo's mother and sister Wil in Leyden to reach than it would have been in Amsterdam. One possibility is that Jo knew by the time of Theo's death that she would move to Bussum, where Van Eeden lived.Bussum was closer to Utrecht than Amsterdam. She moved there four months after Theo died: in May 1891.

132. family silence

Jansen and Robert, p. 50: Jansen and Robert note that "there are almost no family letters preserved from this last period [of Theo's life], so little is known about how Jo experienced Theo's sickness and death." Nor can we locate any other family letters that contain any description of or reference to Theo's funeral at the Algemeene Begraafplaats in Utrecht on January 29, 1891. If Jo received condolences, they were not preserved. If other family members were invited to the interment, they left no record. Although the four-day interval between Theo's death and his burial would have allowed ample time for friends from Paris to attend, none left any record of doing so, or of being invited to do so.Many -- such as Pissarro and Bernard -- would have made the trip. There were many painters, dealers, and collectors in Paris (and in closer-by Amsterdam and The Hague) who owed debts of gratitude to and felt genuine fondness for Theo. None, apparently, were given an opportunity to bid him a final farewell. All these signs point to a deliberate effort to slip him into the ground with the least ceremony possible and thus avoid bringing attention to the sordid circumstances of his death. In the "obituary" that appeared in the Dutch weekly, De Amsterdammer, Weekblad voor Nederland, on January 29, Jan Veth passed over Theo's illness with a brief mention of "the quick culmination of a fatal disease" before launching into a long, fulsome account of Theo as an art dealer "infinitely more artistic in his aspirations and actions than so many so-called artists with famous names, who in point of fact seek only to produce a marketable commodity by the speculative manufacturing of their skillful hands" (quoted in Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume III, pp. 590-591).

Albert Aurier (another potential attendee at a funeral) published a short notice in the Mercure de France in March of 1891: "We learn of the death of Theo van Gogh, the sympathetic and intelligent expert who worked so diligently to acquaint the public with the works of the independent and most audacious artists of today!" (quoted in Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, pp. 72-73). This imputation of a campaign of public silence in no way minimizes Jo's private grief. On the first anniversary of Theo's death, she visited the grave in Utrecht and entered this note in her diary: "I went back to the spot where he rests -- a ray of sunshine caught the roses I had left, the same sort of rose he gave me when we had been married for just one day" (Jo Bonger diary, entry of 1/28/1892; quoted in Stolwijk and Thomson, p. 57).

133. sister Lies married

Bailey, "Vincent van Gogh, the Writer," p. 16: Our account of Lies's illegitimate daughter, Hubertina Normance, is taken largely from Bailey. Lies had been working for Jean du Quesne van Bruchem, a French lawyer employed in Soesterburg, and his wife Louise, since around 1880, both as a governess and then as a nursemaid to the sick Louise.Bailey takes up the story from there: "In 1886 Lies was sent to Normandy, ostensibly for a summer holiday, but so that she could give birth without anyone else in the family suspecting what had happened." Apparently, neither Theo or Vincent knew, although the former's ignorance is hard to credit. After Louise died in 1889, Lies and Jean hastily married and had four legitimate children. However, neither parent acknowledged Hubertina's existence until Jean, on his deathbed, revealed the secret. Still, not until after Lies's death in 1936 did her legitimate children reach out to their destitute sibling. Wilkie takes up the story from there, recounting the awkward confrontation between Hubertina and Vincent Willem van Gogh -- Theo's son and the head of the Van Gogh Foundation -- in the 1950s at an exhibition of Vincent's work in Arles (Wilkie, pp. 167-171).

134. brief, unhappy marriage

Hulsker, Vincent and Theo, p. 457: Cor married Anne Catherine Fuchs, a twenty-two-year-old German girl who had been raised in the Transvaal, in 1898. According to Hulsker, "[she] left him within the course of the same year" (ibid.). Vincent Willem Van Gogh (Theo's son) later recalled having met "Uncle" Cor as a child and later hearing stories from others who had known him in Pretoria, South Africa. One of these friends told him that "Cor was violent; his wife was not very special -- He had committed suicide" ("Gogh, Vincent Willem van" to "Bax, Professor", 1953). The same letter includes some information from the December 1981 issue of a South African publication named Lantern in which the author, a Col. Dr. Jan Ploeger, gives Cor's wife's full name as "Anna Catherine Fuchs" and her age as twenty. It also mentions that Cor's will left all his possessions to his mother in Holland upon his death on April 12, 1900. It adds: "His wife seems to have died on April 14, 1900. There is mention of complications resulting from this." (ibid.) The close proximity of suicide and death certainly suggests the possibility of other scenarios for Cor's suicide and undermines the narrative of marital separation reported in other sources.

135. he shot himself

Bailey, "Vincent's Other Brother," p. 218. The document reads: "Cornelis Vincent van Gogh. Born on May 17, 1868, in The Hague (1). Official with the Nederlands Zuid-Africaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij. Lived in Pretoria. Married to a miss Fuchs. Enlisted in a Volunteer Corps under Blignaut. Took his own life on April 12, 1900, at Branford, Orange Freestate, during a bout of fever. His widow received his certificate of faithful service on March 13, 1903." (Van Gogh Foundation Archives.)

136. an insane asylum

"Notes on Wilhemina van Gogh," n.p.: Theo's son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, left these notes about his Aunt Wilhelmina: "In December 1902 [she] was transferred to the psychiatric institute in Veldwijk. [She] passed away in pavilion Sparrenheuvel, buried at the cemetery of the institute. Stone on the grave. Spoke little or not at all during her stay. Tried to commit suicide. Was fed artificially." In a 1922 letter to Coquiot, Andries Bonger referred to Wil's euphemistically as "alive and living in a nursing home near Elburg" (b0899 V/1973, "Bonger, Andries" to "Coquiot, Gustave", 7/23/1922). In the same letter, Bonger mis-remembers the sequence of events, reporting that Wil fell sick "shortly after" her mother, Anna, died.In fact, Wil fell sick in 1902; Anna died in 1907.

137. several suicide attempts

b4382 V/1990, "Gogh, Willemina van."

138. "Trust in God"

b1123 V/1962, "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C. van" to "Cohen Gosschalk-Bonger, Jo", 10/16/19--.

139. "though His solution may be"

b1094 V/1962, "Gogh-Carbentus, Anna C.van" to "Cohen Gosschalk-Bonger, Jo", December,1902.

140. "Yes, it's true"

BVG 317, 8/22/1883-8/23/1883.

Context:
BVG 317, 8/22/1883-8/23/1883: "Then she says openly, 'Yes, I am careless and lazy, and I have always been that way, and it can't be helped,' or 'Yes, it's true I'm a whore, and the only end for me will be to drown myself.'"
JLB 379, 8/23/1883-8/29/1883: "Then she says frankly, well, yes, I am indifferent and lazy, and I always have been and there's nothing to be done about it -- or, well, yes, I'm a whore, or 'it's bound to end up with me jumping into the water.'"

141. widowed a second time

Jansen and Robert, pp. 50-51: In August 1901, a decade after Theo's death, Jo married Johann Cohen Gosschalk, a young painter and writer on art, eleven years her junior.A "sickly, neurotic" man, Cohen-Gosschalk provided her little consolation. In 1912, he died and freed her to finish the first great work of her mourning over Theo, the Dutch edition of Vincent's complete letters (Vincent van Gogh, Brieven aan zijn Broder [Vincent van Gogh, Letters to his Brother]). The spirit in which this project was undertaken is clear from one of Jo's earliest extended discussions of it in her journal. This is a passage from the entry for September 26, 1892: "The letters have taken a large place in my life already, since the beginning of Theo's illness. The first lonely evening which I spent in our home after my return I took the package of letters. I knew that in them I should find him again. Evening after evening that was my consolation after the miserable days.It was not Vincent whom I was seeking but Theo. I drank in every word, I absorbed every detail. I not only read the letters with my heart, but with my whole soul. And so it has remained all the time. I have read them, and reread them, until I saw the figure of Vincent clearly before me." (Van Gogh, Vincent Willem, n.p.)