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Appreciation to Vincent van Gogh

From D.B. Pacini-Christensen About Vincent van Gogh:

Many people believe that Vincent van Gogh committed suicide. I have read much of what he wrote, and I have loved his art for most of my life. I have also read many books about van Gogh, his art, and his writings. I have never believed that he committed suicide.

In 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith published their excellent book, Van Gogh: The Life. They broadly address the circumstances surrounding van Gogh's death. Thousands of previously untranslated letters written by the artist were among documents studied by the authors to create a research database containing 28,000 notes. After ten years of study with more than 20 translators and researchers, the authors strongly believe that van Gogh did not commit suicide.

It was very clear to us that he did not go into the wheat fields with the intention of shooting himself. The accepted understanding of what happened in Auvers among the people who knew him was that he was killed accidentally by a couple of boys, and he decided to protect them by accepting the blame. Renowned art historian John Rewald had recorded that version of events when he visited Auvers in the 1930s, and other details were found that corroborated the theory. They include the assertion that the bullet entered van Gogh's upper abdomen from an oblique angle - not straight on as might be expected from a suicide. These two boys, one of whom was wearing a cowboy outfit and had a malfunctioning gun that he played cowboy with, were known to go drinking at that hour of day with Vincent. So, you have a couple of teenagers who have a malfunctioning gun, you have a boy who liked to play cowboy, and you have three people probably all of whom had too much to drink. Accidental homicide was far more likely. Steven Naifeh

Van Gogh did not actively seek death but when it came to him, or when it presented itself as a possibility, he embraced it. His acceptance of death was really done as an act of love to his brother Theo, to whom he was a burden. Gregory White Smith

YOUR BLUE EYES NEVER ONE LIE TOLD
By D.B. Pacini-Christensen
Email: latenightwriter53@gmail.com


Verse One:
You were born in March, 1853,
I was born one hundred years later in February.
We are separated by a century,
But on starry starry nights you come to me.

Verse Two:
Many people were cruel I know,
Where a million tulips grow in a row,
Where strong winds make windmills go,
Where canals gently ebb and flow.

Verse Three:
Canvases of black crows and vibrant bales of hay,
Golden wheat fields warmed by a bright blue-skied day,
Cottages, churches, and cypress trees that sway,
Each still have so much to say.

Chorus:
Your blue eyes never one lie told,
Even though sorrow dwelled in your soul,
Your hand made yellow sunflowers glow like gold,
From your humble palette true love flowed.

Verse Four:
Did you know that in a future time,
You’d be celebrated by a world that treated you unkind?
Did you know your art would masterfully entwine,
Every color of nature in a perfect rhyme?

Verse Five:
Your paintings had no demand when they were new,
How much they are worth today would astonish you.
I’m not the only one who hopes that you somehow knew,
They’d be windows of beauty we would always look through.

Verse Six:
Your mother and father couldn’t see beyond your scars.
Your brother and sister-in-law believed you would go far.
Today you are one of the art world’s greatest super stars.
Thank you Vincent van Gogh, wherever you are.

Chorus:
Your blue eyes never one lie told,
Even though sorrow dwelled in your soul.
Your hand made yellow sunflowers glow like gold,
From your humble palette true love flowed.

(Repeat Chorus)

The Van Gogh Museum is dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The museum opened on June 2, 1973. The museum's collection is the largest collection of van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. In 2017, the museum had 2.3 million visitors. It was the most visited museum in the Netherlands, and the 23rd most visited art museum in the world.

Van Gogh Museum

From age 27 until his death at age 37 (ten short years), van Gogh produced more than 900 paintings and numerous sketches/drawings. If you do the math that represents a new piece of art produced approximately every 36 hours. He also wrote copious letters.

Van Gogh sold one painting in his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, to the impressionist painter and heiress Anna Boch. On May 15, 1990, "The Portrait of Doctor Gachet" was sold within three minutes for $82.5 million (U.S.) to Ryoei Saito, Japan's second-largest paper manufacturer. At the time it was the most expensive painting ever sold at auction.

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night painting is one of the most recognizable and beloved artworks in the world. It hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, New York, USA. It is estimated that the value of Starry Night is more than 100 million dollars. Some experts suggest it is worth 300 million dollars. It is believed that if Starry Night were brought to auction it would break all records.

Appreciation to Vincent van Gogh

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