Van Gogh's Lifetime Successes: The Untold Facts
Challenging the legend that Vincent van Gogh never exhibited his art and never got recognition.
The myth that Vincent van Gogh died unrecognized is false
The enduring legend of Vincent van Gogh is one of tragedy: a mad genius, a lonely artist who committed suicide, having sold only a single painting, and whose modest dream of displaying his art in a café never came to pass.
This could not be further from the truth. Vincent van Gogh exhibited in his own lifetime not only in cafés but also in four major art exhibitions in Paris and Brussels.
He received a dozen newspaper mentions, including one that called him “a rare genius.” His peers, including Monet, recognized that a new talent had emerged.
Thanks to a dive into original French sources rarely, if ever, translated into English, we will here reveal the documented facts of Van Gogh’s lifetime successes, proving that reality often is more fascinating than fiction.
Within one year of his arrival in Paris, van Gogh exhibited in cafés
Vincent arrived in Paris in spring 1886 to stay with his brother Theo. A few months later, he mentions having found dealers already:
At this present moment I have found four dealers who have exhibited studies of mine. And I have exchanged studies with several artists.
Now the prices are 50 francs. Certainly not much but, as far as I can see one must sell cheap to rise, and even at costing price.
Exhibiting with art dealers does not yet mean selling, but it is a step in the right direction.
Le Tambourin exhibition and disaster foreclosure sale
Now, for the first time translated into English, is Vincent’s good friend Émile Bernard’s description of the display at the first café exhibition, at Le Tambourin, on the boulevard at the foot of Montmartre.
Around a hundred of Vincent’s canvases hung on the walls, the overall impression of the room derived directly from him, and it was a cheerful, vibrant, harmonious impression.
But Le Tambourin was losing money and was foreclosed. Vincent’s paintings were on the walls and became part of the foreclosure auction. Translated into English for this story:
It went on for several months, then the establishment declined, was sold, and all those paintings were put into a heap and auctioned off for a pittance.
The pittance is estimated to have been “between fifty cents to one franc per bundle” of ten canvases. It meant that one could purchase ten van Goghs for the value of one blank canvas. It is no surprise that about 100 paintings from the Parisian period were scraped off and resold as blank canvases.
The Grand-Bouillon Restaurant Exhibition
Vincent turned into an exhibition curator, organizing a show for fellow painters and himself. He explained about both café exhibitions:
The exhibition of Japanese prints that I had at the Tambourin had quite an influence on Anquetin and Bernard, but it was such a disaster.
For the 2nd exhibition at the showroom on boul. de Clichy, I have fewer regrets about the time and effort. Bernard having sold his first painting there, Anquetin having sold a study there, and I having made the exchange with Gauguin, we all got something.
Vincent’s dear friend Émile Bernard describes how this was also a failure:
There was a violent altercation between the owner and Vincent, which made Vincent decide to take a hand-barrow without delay and cart the whole exhibition to his studio in rue Lepic.
Was Vincent a poor and struggling artist?
When you read that Theo sent his brother an allowance of 100 to 150 francs, it sounds, today, like pocket money. Yet in the 1880s, a laborer made about 120 francs a month, a seamstress 60 francs a month, for at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
In other words, Theo gave Vincent roughly the minimum wage. And Theo did that for ten years, investing about 20% of his income in his brother’s career. Vincent then spent 80% of what Theo gave him on art supplies, leaving little for boarding and food.
Vincent van Gogh exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants and at ‘Les XX’ in Brussels
The official Salon refused Manet, Monet, Renoir, and many others, prompting the 1874 self-organized show that gave birth to the Impressionist movement. A dozen years later, artists created the Salon des Indépendants, without a jury actively working to ruin their careers.
To imagine what they looked like, think of the temporary exhibitions in Parisian gardens or on the Champs-Élysées today. Vincent van Gogh’s paintings were exhibited at the 1888, 1889, and 1890 Salon des Indépendants.
Furthermore, the fourth exhibition was held in Brussels at Les XX, the Belgian equivalent of the Indépendants Salon. Being exhibited meant that artists and critics started to take note.
Vincent van Gogh received praise in his lifetime from poets and critics
For the 1889 exhibition, Vincent is deemed “a remarkable hero”:
But who is the interpreter of the dazzling, stormy life of the nineteenth century? Who becomes conscious of it in form and colour? I know one, a unique pioneer: he stands alone, struggling in the great night, his name, Vincent, is for posterity.
With ten paintings on display at the 1890 Salon, there are more reviews. Some by imbeciles:
If Mr. Vincent van Gogh sees nature as he paints it, we pity him. He must find it quite ugly.
Mr. Van Gogh paints his landscapes, and that is his excuse, in an asylum.
But others that were glowing.
What a great artist! ... Extraordinary power of expression... There are ten Vincent van Gogh paintings at the Indépendants that attest of a rare genius.
Then there is a six-page article so beautiful it deserves a story of its own. The poet and critic Albert Aurier wrote a superb endorsement of Vincent’s talent.
Vincent van Gogh is indeed not only a great painter, he is also a dreamer, an exalted believer, a devourer of beautiful utopias living on ideas and dreams.
The poet then asks about the odds of Vincent being recognized.
Vincent van Gogh is at once too simple and too subtle for the bourgeois spirit of our time. He will never be fully understood except by his brothers, the very artistic artists...
In his letters to Vincent, Theo tells him of the recognition he is gaining:
Many people came up to ask me to give you their compliments. Gauguin said that your paintings are the key to the exhibition.
You have a real success among the artists.
Fellow artists, including Monet and Gauguin, praised Vincent
Gauguin wrote to Vincent to say:
I offer you my sincere compliments, and for many artists you are the most remarkable in the exhibition.
And Theo wrote to repeat Monet’s compliment:
Monet said that your pictures were the best in the exhibition.
Vincent van Gogh did sell more than one painting
Let us not forget that Vincent came from an art-dealing family. His uncles were art dealers, and he worked as a salesperson in art galleries in the Netherlands, Paris, and London. Theo was, of course, an art dealer.
Aside from the disastrous auction at which his paintings sold for one franc per bundle of ten, Vincent traded paintings for supplies or sold them to bric-a-brac dealers, who resold them as blank canvases.
Then there is Père Tanguy’s wife’s portrait, which Vincent acknowledges in a letter was sold for 20 francs, enough to invite friends to a nice dinner. Since the picture of Mère Tanguy has never been found, perhaps it was scraped off as well…
A few months later, Theo sold a self-portrait of Vincent. This is known from an invoice that Theo sent to British dealers. The invoice, for two paintings, states:
A landscape by Camille Corot, and a portrait of himself by V. van Gogh.
The fate of that painting is unknown. At the Brussels exhibition, Vincent finally made a modest sale: a canvas for 400 francs, not a large amount but equivalent to over two months of wages for the average worker.
The end under a sun that floods everything with a light of fine gold
Vincent spent the last two months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise. One afternoon, alone in a field, Vincent shot himself. What he previously wrote about The Sower eerily foreshadowed his end.
But in this death nothing sad, it takes place in broad daylight with a sun that floods everything with a light of fine gold.
Vincent’s last letter, the day of the suicide:
Well, my own work, I am risking my life for it and my reason has half foundered because of it.
Theo describes the end:
One of his last words was: this is how I wanted to go and it took a few moments and then it was over and he found the peace he hadn’t been able to find on earth.
Vincent van Gogh’s staggering creativity and resilience
One should contemplate Vincent’s stylistic evolution over a short period and his productivity despite the difficulties. Let us summarise Vincent’s career, discounting the many lost paintings.
- In the Netherlands, in five years, he painted about 245 paintings—4 per month.
- In Paris, in two years, 227 paintings—10 per month.
- In Arles, in 14 months, 189 paintings—14 per month.
- Saint-Rémy, in one year at the asylum, including the four months when crises prevented him from working, he painted 143 canvases—about 18 per month when able to work.
- In Auvers-sur-Oise, in 70 days, he painted 74 canvases. That’s over one per day.
Since time travel is impossible, we cannot attempt to stop Vincent from taking his own life. Yet, what we can do is stop diminishing the man by repeating that he was mad and died an unrecognized failure. We should instead take some comfort in the fact that he did not die without knowing that he was appreciated.
After all, the pioneers born a dozen years earlier, Monet, Renoir, and Rodin, had to wait a long time for recognition and financial success. Vincent was on the verge of a breakthrough, which only makes committing suicide more tragic.
That man was a powerhouse of sensitivity and productivity: over the course of five years, while Monet painted 280 canvases, Vincent painted over twice as many. In the last two months, he created one masterpiece per day.
Vincent van Gogh left knowing he was appreciated, and became eternal through his art
In the face of doubt, crises, and guilt at being a drag for his brother, he kept going until he could not take it any longer. A wake was held at the inn, decorated with Vincent’s paintings. Sunflowers and yellow dahlias covered the coffin. Allow me to translate Vincent’s dear friend Émile Bernard's words:
The sun was scorching as we climbed the hills of Auvers, talking about him, the thrust he gave to art, the great projects he always had in mind, and about the good he did for each of us.
Docteur Gachet wanted to say a few words, but he was weeping so much that he could only say a confused farewell. He was, he said, an honest man and a great artist; he had only two aims: humanity and art.
It is art, which he cherished above all else, that will keep him alive...
Behind the myth of the failure was a great artist who strived for humanity and art. His art made him eternal, and that’s the Moment of Wonder.
Sources
Translated from French for this story by the author:
Émile Bernard, article pour le Moderniste in Émile Bernard 1868-1941 : A Pioneer of Modern Art.
Lettre d’Émile Bernard à Albert Aurier, Paris, Jeudi 31 Juillet 1890.
Émile Bernard, Vincent van Gogh, Mercure de France, 1er Avril 1893.
G.-Albert Aurier, « Les Isolés, Vincent van Gogh », Mercure de France, t. I, n° 1, janvier 1890.
Le Mercure de France, Mai 1890, Julien Leclercq; Beaux-Arts, aux Indépendants.
La Lanterne, 21 mars 1890
Le XIXe siècle, 21 mars 1890.
Paul Gauguin et Vincent van Gogh : 1887-1888 : lettres retrouvées, sources ignorées / Victor Merlhès.
“Destin de ses tableaux”, François Duret-Robert, Van Gogh,Camille Bourniquel, 1968.
Martin Bailey, Van Gogh’s first sale: a self-portrait in London Apollo (London. 1925), 1996-03, Vol . 143 (409), p.20-21.
Martin Bailey, Is a Van Gogh self-portrait hidden in a London attic?
How Many Paintings Did Vincent Sell during His Lifetime?
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let569/letter.html#translation
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let640/letter.html#translation
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let718/letter.html
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let800/letter.html
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let858/letter.html#translation
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let860/letter.html
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let862/letter.html
https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/RM25/letter.html#translation
Theo van Gogh. Letter to Elisabeth van Gogh. Written 5 August 1890 in Paris.
Joseph Jacob Isaacson, in ‘Parijsche Brieven III’, De Portefeuille*, 17 August 1889 and https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let815/letter.html
Vincent van Gogh par Théodore Duret.
Émile Bernard, Le Père Tanguy, Mercure de France, 16 Décembre 1908.
Lettres de Vincent van Gogh à Émile Bernard.
Thank you so much! Here’s to researchers and translators!!
Terrific bit of writing! Well done. He was a remarkable man, must have been very intense. A singular focus. Would it be that we could all be like that, at least for a period! Many thanks!