The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
45 pages • 1-hour read
Vincent van GoghThe Letters of Vincent van Gogh
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Index of Terms
Jesuitism
After his early period of religious devotion, Van Gogh made a sharp turn towards despising the clergy and all things having to do with religious infrastructure. This attitude is reflected by his frequent use of the insult “jesuitism,” which traditionally refers to the practices of the Jesuit Order, and the negative stereotypes of cunning and deception sometimes associated with them. Van Gogh did not limit his use of the term in reference to just the Jesuits, however, but rather applied it to any Christian group he perceived negatively. In reference to his own father and uncle, both ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, for example, he told Theo that their “slanders are nothing more nor less than Jesuitisms” (206).
At times, his intolerant language took on an even more hostile tone. In a letter to Anthon van Rappard, he insisted, “the reasoning of the artless fellow who asked of your work, ‘Does he paint for money?’, is the reasoning of a bloody idiot… a common trick of bloody idiots and idle little Jesuits” (376). As can be seen here, Van Gogh used references to the Jesuits as a catch-all insult against anything that made him angry.
Despite this hostility, however, there are many instances of him relying on Catholic community members, including in Nuenen, where he rented a room from a local presbytery, and at Saint-Rèmy, where the asylum was housed in a Franciscan monastery.
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism refers to a movement of painting popular in France between 1886 and 1901, which responded to the naturalist tendencies of the Impressionist movement by reemphasizing the importance of symbolic content in art. The term “Post-Impressionism” became commonly accepted roughly a decade after this artistic movement ended, so it should not be misconstrued as a label that the artists of the time identified themselves under. Instead, the Post-Impressionists can be divided into several sub-movements—the neo-impressionists, Les Nabis, and Cloisonnism, among others—all with slightly different styles and artistic ideals, by which the artists self-identified.
Some of the most famous Post-Impressionists include Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri Rousseau, and Vincent van Gogh. Although Van Gogh had close relationships with many of his post-impressionist contemporaries, including Gauguin, Émile Bernard, and Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec, he never fully understood himself to be part of a cohesive “post-impressionist” movement. During his years in Paris between 1886 and 1888, he felt a great sense of inspiration from his exposure to these artists, but shortly afterwards, during his time in Arles, he wrote to Theo that he would, “preserve a certain passion for impressionism, but I feel I’m increasingly reverting to the ideas I had before I went to Paris” (594-595).
Furthermore, Van Gogh’s failed attempts to establish a formalized artists’ collective in Arles dashed all hopes for him of being part of a coherent school of painting. From Saint-Rèmy, he would later conclude, “I find it very difficult to make a distinction between impressionism and other things. I do not see any use for much of the sectarian thinking we have seen these last few years, but the absurdity of it frightens me” (653). In many ways, this loose association with Impressionism is emblematic of the entire post-impressionist movement, which clung to Impressionism’s use of color and technique while simultaneously rejecting its more nuclear social organization.
The Illness
As Van Gogh’s mental health declined in the later years of his life, he repeatedly referred to his “illness,” a vague descriptor for an affliction that was never adequately diagnosed. At the asylum in Saint-Rèmy, Dr. Peyron suggested that the illness was a form of epilepsy, but this diagnosis has been contested by many experts in the decades following Van Gogh’s death. Posthumous diagnoses have included bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, Ménière’s disease, schizophrenia, and acute porphyria. Ultimately, however, it is impossible to reach a definitive conclusion about what specifically was causing Van Gogh’s mental health issues.
Van Gogh’s relationship with his own illness varied throughout his life, and as de Leeuw notes, “His ambition to become known as a painter of peasant life and as ‘the painter of modern portraits’ is at odds with the prevailing image of a madman who died a martyr to art” (15). Indeed, in his letters, Van Gogh expresses a determination to not let his illness get in the way of his painting. In a letter dated September 1889, he told Theo, “Life passes in this way, time does not return, but I am working furiously for the very reason that I know that opportunities for work do not recur. Especially in my case, where a more violent attack could destroy my ability to paint for good” (624).
In short, Van Gogh demonstrated no inclination in his writings to romanticize his illness as a symptom of artistic genius, instead viewing it as one of the greatest obstacles to his art. This determination to try to seek treatment and go on painting shows that Van Gogh did not want to be defined by his illness, but by his artistry.
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