Johanna Van Gogh 10 hrs · On the evening of July 27, 1890, in the small town of Auvers-sur Oise, in France, Vincent van Gogh shot himself with a revolver. He lingered until the morning of July 29, his beloved brother Theo at his side. He was only 37 years old. His last words to Theo were, “La tristesse durera toujours” (the sadness will last forever). Six months, later, Theo too died at just 33 years of age. Left behind, and with the awesome task of preserving a legacy virtually unmatched in the history of art, was one of the least celebrated souls in the extraordinary and tragically brief life of Vincent Van Gogh, his sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. Had it not been for this remarkable woman, virtually nothing of the illustrious Vincent we know of today would remain, for she became heir and keeper of his immense collection of over two thousand paintings, sketches, and illustrations. Moreover, she was to preserve and chronicle at least 900 hand-written letters without which we would never have come to understand the devoted relationship and inter-dependency Vincent had with his brother Theo, nor the remarkable beneficence that lay at the very core of the Van Gogh family as a whole. Most importantly, we would never have come to know the uncommon genius that was Vincent van Gogh. The letters, publicly exhibited for the first time at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in November, 2009, were also to prove crucial in dispelling many of the apocryphal stories that were later to surround the artist’s life—stories that crassly portrayed him as some madman whose art betrayed his fractured and frenzied soul rather than the highly intelligent man he in fact was. Johanna had realized that Vincent’s letters to Theo were crucial to our understanding of Van Gogh yet she did not want their powerful message to eclipse his art, withholding them from public scrutiny for nearly twenty-four years until his reputation as an artist was safely established. Johanna’s astute care and dedication to preserving the very essence of Vincent van Gogh were manifested in a way of which he would have approved: through action. Author of the acclaimed book Van Goghs Untold Journey William J. Havlicek, Ph.D. and publisher David A. Glen are completing a new full-color biography of this amazing woman to be released for the 125th Anniversary of Vincents death in July 2015. More information is available at creativestorytellers
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:49:33 +0000