How Did Van Gogh Really Die?
I know, I know, the title is a little clickbait-y but it actually is a subject that is hotly debated in the art community. Officially Vincent van Gogh’s death has been ruled a suicide but there is also compelling evidence that points to a tragic accident.
The Official Ruling
Let’s start with the widely accepted, and official ruling of suicide as there are strong pieces of evidence that point to this being correct. As I am sure many people know, van Gogh had a long and difficult struggle with mental illness for much of his life. In 1889, at 36, he had a serious deterioration in his mental health which lead to him asking to be confined to an asylum. He entered in May 1889, his condition was shortly stabilized and he was able to work outside and create some truly iconic paintings (like Starry Night and Irises). However, he suffered a serious relapse at the end of July, and again in December. In May 1890 his condition was deemed stable enough for him to be discharged and he decided to go live in Auvers-sur-Oise, an artist community north of Paris.
This move seemed to come at the perfect time as he was writing letters to his brother Theo telling him about how much he hated the asylum and that he needed to get out. “The surroundings here are beginning to weigh me down more than I can say… I need some air, I feel overwhelmed by boredom and grief” (van Gogh, 1890). So seems to me like the perfect time to get out of the city, get some fresh air and paint. That’s exactly what he did and it seemed to be working! He continued to write letters to friends and family members about how his mood had improved and how much he loved what he was painting and ideas for the future. Unfortunately, this didn’t last for too long, Theo began to see problems in letters he was getting in July 1890. They were talking about how van Gogh had been painting works to express extreme loneliness and sadness and that he didn’t see a happy future for himself at all.
Then came July 27, 1890. Van Gogh left to paint after breakfast and didn’t return at his usual time (terrible sign), when he did show up at 9:00pm he was holding his stomach and in his room, he showed the innkeeper a gunshot wound saying that he had tried to kill himself. He reiterated this when the police visited him saying yeah I shot myself, oh by the way, don’t accuse anyone else, it was me (not a direct quote).* Just saying, normally when you actually chose to do something you don’t have to add in a little part about not accusing anyone else. He sadly died shortly after this on July 29, 1890.
An Alternate Theory
Now you know a little about the suicide theory, let’s chat about the other possibility; an accidental shooting. As mentioned above, van Gogh was writing many positive letters to Theo and other friends as well as the negative ones. He talked about plans for the future and how much he loved his art and his life and he had placed a huge order for more paints. Why do this if you know you’re about to die?
There are a couple of more points that also make me think here.
If you were trying to die by suicide why would you shoot yourself in the stomach? And even if you did do that why not shoot yourself a second time when you realized the first shot didn’t kill you?
If he was painting in the field, as he had claimed, he would have had to walk a mile (A MILE!!) back to the inn where he was staying with a gunshot wound, how did he do that?
Van Gogh said that he had been out in the field painting where he normally did but no trace of his painting stuff (easel, paints, canvasses, brushes, etc) was ever located, where did it go?
With his widely known history of mental illness, it is surprising to me that van Gogh was able to get a gun.
So where does that leave us? Well, there is a potential other explanation and that is that some boys that had been tormenting van Gogh had shot him accidentally. René Secrétan was also in Auvers-sur-Oise that summer with his family and he was known to be a bully. He loved Wild Bill Cody and he often dressed like him in a cowboy costume complete with a pistol (sorry, what?), and he and his bunch of friends taunted, teased, and played mean pranks on van Gogh regularly. The thing that sticks with me is the gun that was used in the shooting was Secrétan’s gun from his costume (!!!!!!). John Rewald, a noted scholar, even travelled to Auvers-sur-Oise in the 1930s to interview the locals and heard a rumour that some “young boys” had shot van Gogh accidentally and never came forward, van Gogh chose to protect them in his last moments.
The final thing I find very compelling about this alternate theory is that in 2014 a handgun expert reviewed the forensic evidence surrounding this shooting to try and come to a definitive answer. Dr. Di Maio noted that in order to shoot himself where he did van Gogh would have had to hold the gun at an extremely weird angle, additionally, there would have been black powder burns on his hands as well as ‘tattooing’ and marks on the skin around the wound and none of this was noted in the report. He ended up officially concluding that “It is my opinion that, in all medical probability, the wound incurred by van Gogh was not self-inflicted. In other words, he did not shoot himself” (Smith, Naifah, 2014).
Now, I’m not going to tell you what to think, and I will say that there are a TON of sceptics who believe that this accidental shooting theory holds no water and that may be true. It is just interesting to think that there could be a completely different explanation to all of the things people have always found odd about van Gogh’s death.
*A quick note here to say that most of this information comes from the innkeeper’s daughter who was 13 at the time and who’s story continually changed with each retelling so idk what to think about her credibility.
Works Cited
Van Gogh, Vincent. “Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh”. 4 May. 1890. Van Gogh’s Letters. Translated by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, number 631.
White Smith, Gregory and Steven Naifah. “NCIS: Provence: The Van Gogh Mystery”. Vanity Fair. 7 November. 2014.