More than a century after his death, Vincent van Gogh continues to make the news as ongoing research brings different aspects of his life and his art to light, or raises new questions for further research. Because McMaster’s Van Gogh painting is currently on view in A Cultivating Journey, we thought we’d share some of the updates and resources that we’ve pulled together from scientists, scholars and artists… ones that make our discussions about Van Gogh in the Museum fresh and interesting:

ABOUT VINCENT

For some recent theories about Van Gogh, read Dr. Howard Markel’s recent PBS article, Diagnosing Vincent Van Gogh, which includes:

• The ear debate – notes from one doctor report that Van Gogh’s entire ear was gone, while another account claims that only the lobe was gone …. This article suggests the injury was somewhere in between.
• His lover/mistress – some report that she was a prostitute, some that she was a maid at the brothel
• Theories about his diagnosis – reports from doctors/historians vary widely, from depression/anxiety, epilepsy, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, to the possibility that he contracted syphilis at one of the brothels he frequented which “attacks the central nervous system in its end stages and can make one quite mad.”
• Controversy over how he died – it’s commonly thought that he shot himself. He died two days after a gunshot wound. However, a 2011 biography suggests that he was accidentally shot by a friend’s son but was so depressed and unwilling to press charges that he claimed to have done it himself.

Or read an in-depth biography about Van Gogh in Van Gogh: The Life

• Leo Jansen, curator at the Van Gogh Museum, and co-editor of Vincent van Gogh: The Complete Letters, describes this 976 page book as “The definitive biography for decades to come.”

ABOUT SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF HIS PAINTINGS

Discover more information on McMaster’s painting specifically and recent news about his practice of painting over top of his own paintings:

Check out this TED-Ed talk, which explains how Van Gogh’s work from his time at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum captures light in a way that make his paintings move:
 

• The way our brain sees colour, light, and movement, in conjunction with the short, bold brushstrokes characteristic of Impressionist work, is why Van Gogh’s later work seems to flicker and radiate light
• This movement is referred to as luminance – the intensity of light in the colours used in a painting