Van Gogh is easily my favourite artist, anyone who knows me is aware of this; his composition, use of colour and the energy within his work is unlike anything I have really come across in my five years of studying art (and lets be real, I’ve seen a lot of art by a lot of artists). It seems the same can be said about a lot of people, but his popularity is often problematic and leads to his mental illnesses being romanticised or used for social media accounts ‘aesthetics’. I wanted to take the time to talk about why this is so problematic, why this is something that in the end has a completely negative effect on his reputation. I’m going to write quite a bit about why the hell this bothers me so much, so be prepared for a long blog post today
Yes, Vincent was a ‘tormented’ artist, he spent much of his life in and out of asylums and ended up shooting himself to end the pain of his life. Of course there is the theory that it was two boys who were playing with a gun in a field who shot him, but for the case of this post I am going to state that I have a much larger belief in the fact that he shot himself. It is said that when a doctor attempted to save his life Van Gogh replied ‘but then I would have to do it again’ this line in itself always hurts me to think about, and of course while there is no full proof of him having said this it also works to have a basis and understanding of Van Gogh and his suicide before I go into the rest of the post.
The biggest issue I have with Van Gogh and his romanticised mental illness is the idea that he ‘ate yellow paint in an attempt to make himself happy’. God this is such a problematic romanticisation that has lead to people saying things like ‘don't make people your yellow paint’, people comparing drug addictions to Vincent eating the paint and so many more things that you will come across on social media at some point or another.
First of all, romanticising a mental illness and using it for something like your accounts aesthetic is something that will always be absolutely ridiculous in my eyes. Why do people do it? Even if Vincent had eaten yellow paint to increase his mood then why would you even publicise that, whats so romantic about the fact that he ate paint? Is it because it was yellow, and of course ‘yellow is a happy colour’? Is it because you don't seem to understand the real extent at which his illness effected him? What happened to society to begin to make this a romanticised idea?
We also need to talk about the fact that he never actually ate yellow paint (source for this info: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/125-questions/questions-and-answers/question-63-of-125) and even if he did it was not for his happiness. It is in the medical notes from his doctor that we discover that he would attempt to poison himself by eating paint and drinking turpentine (for those of you who are unfamiliar with turpentine it is a foul smelling chemical which is used when working with oil paints). This was also followed by/alongside the fact that he would pick up filthy things and attempt to eat them throughout his episodes, which lead to him being stopped from creating/painting during this timeframe. So, you see, there is already more depth to the idea that Van Gogh would eat his yellow paint to try to make himself happy than the people that romanticise the idea realise.
I think that is all for this post, I have a lot more to say but it feels right to end it here. Thank you for reading my ramblings about Vincent. Until next time,
Meg x
PS. If you're interested in learning more about Vincent, then have a look at sites such as Artsy, The Van Gogh Museum and Van Gogh's Letters which both talk about his life and struggles in a much wider depth than I am able to.
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