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Why Vincent Van Gogh is Still a Mental Health Advocate
Trigger warning: This post discusses suicide and self-mutilation.
I think it's safe to say that I'm obsessed with Vincent Van Gogh and his life and works. I even made a video about him on my YouTube channel after going to a really cool interactive Van Gogh exhibit at my local art museum. His paintings (especially "Starry Night" and "Café Terrace at Night") are some of my absolute favorites, and his life is so fascinating.
Vincent Willem Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in the Netherlands. As the son of a minister, he spent a lot of time struggling to find his calling, and he didn't become an artist until 1880, when he was 27 years old. He then traveled throughout France perfecting his craft and trying to find his big break. He was highly influenced by Dutch, French, and even Japanese artists, and he ended up becoming integral to the post-impressionist art movement. In the last 10 years of his life, he created over 1,000 drawings, 900 paintings, 150 watercolors, nine lithographs, and one etching. However, he couldn't sell many of his works during his lifetime and died in 1890 considering himself a failure. He was never able to see the huge impact he made on the art world.
In addition to being an amazing artist, Van Gogh is also known as a patron saint of mental illness. No one knows for sure what Van Gogh suffered from, but his mental health issues sent him to a hospital in Arles and an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence about a year before he died. Several theories about Van Gogh's issues have been thrown around over the years. His periods of intense highs (characterized by obsessions with religion and art) and lows (characterized by exhaustion and depression) point to bipolar disorder. He worked outdoors and often suffered from stomach problems and hostility, which points to sunstroke. He was born with a brain lesion and was treated for seizures, so he could've suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. He also could've gotten lead poisoning from the lead paints he worked with.
In September 2016, a conference of 30 international medical experts gathered in Amsterdam to examine his life and try to determine what he suffered from. They considered schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, borderline personality disorder, psychosis, etc., and they determined that it was a combination of factors, including alcohol, lack of sleep, work stress, and attachment issues, that contributed to his erratic behavior.
One of these erratic behaviors was the infamous story of Van Gogh cutting his own ear off. The story goes that he got in a fight with his colleague Paul Gauguin, who was staying with him at the time and wanted to leave because tensions were running high. Van Gogh, dealing with an intense fear of abandonment, threatened him with a razor and ended up cutting his own ear off, maybe by accident, maybe on purpose. He then wrapped his ear up and gifted it to a prostitute. He was taken to the hospital the next day. Van Gogh did not remember doing this, but he did say he was suffering from auditory hallucinations at the time. However, some historians believe it might have been Gauguin, who cut Van Gogh's ear off with a sword, and that Van Gogh made up this story to cover for him. Regardless, Van Gogh admitted himself into the Saint-Remy asylum shortly after the incident.
Van Gogh's mysterious death is also frequently talked about. All we know for sure is that he was shot in the stomach, in a wheat field or a barn. Afterwards, he was able to walk back to the inn he was staying at, and he died of infection two days later. Most people believe it was suicide, especially since that's what he told everyone on his death bed, and he had tried to kill himself before, but there are others who believe he was shot by a 16-year-old boy who used to bully him. Again, Van Gogh could have been covering for his attacker.
We will never know how Vincent Van Gogh died, whether he cut off his ear, or exactly which mental illness(es) he suffered from, but he is now regarded as the archetypal tragic artist. He is a classic and beloved example of a tortured creative person who was able to channel his pain into beautiful art. Art is a great way to healthily deal with issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. He also serves as an example of self-care. He checked himself into an asylum for two years, he sought the help of Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet after he was released, and he often wrote to his brother Theo about his hopes for recovery.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness keeps his memory alive with the Iris Project. Vincent Van Gogh was able to paint a lot during his stay at the Saint-Remy asylum. One of the most famous works he painted there was "Les Irises" in May 1889. The iris has since been adopted as a symbol of hope for mental health. The Iris Project is a fundraiser where volunteers give out silk irises and mental health pamphlets for a small donation.
