La Belle Epoq - Story of the Day

On display in the world's most prestigious galleries, van Gogh's paintings spark an immense passion that few artists could replicate. He became a universal brand, but behind this huge posthumous notoriety in the popular imagination, he incarnates the figure of the tortured artist.

A legend has been constructed around his life, his time in a psychiatric hospital, the incident during which he cut off his own ear, and his absence fuelled altercations.

Yet behind this unstable character capable of every excess, the immense artist created a fantastic body of work.

How did van Gogh, the son of middle-class Dutch parents, become Vincent, the painter? Why did he wait until the last two years of his life to finally sign his first name on his most significant masterpieces?

In this book, we will cast light on the fascinating process of his slow maturation that made van Gogh the ultimate painter.

Contrary to the idealised image of the poor tortured artist Vincent van Gogh came from a prominent family. Born on the 30th of March 1853, he spent his childhood in the south of the Netherlands, in a rural region that lived mainly from agriculture.

Vincent developed a strong affinity with nature from a young age. As a child, he went for long walks alone through the Dutch countryside. For the future painter, his discovery of this environment was an aesthetic shock, a revelation.

In 1869 the young man was sent to the country's capital, the Hague, to another Vincent Van Gogh, his beloved "uncle Cent", as he used to call him, a prosperous art dealer. Cent directed the Dutch branch of the art dealership Goupil & Co2.

This international auction house dominated the European art market, where a rapidly expanding middle class started buying the works of fashionable artists.

He was 23 years old when he gave it all up, persuaded that his vocation was to become a preacher. He finally obtained an evangelist mission in Belgium close to the coal mines in the Borinage1, home of the black faces, land of misery.

It was the start of a new life for him and another break from his family.

In his thirties, van Gogh keenly frequented sailor's bars, abusing absinthe until he became lost in the sordid atmosphere of evenings of drink and debauchery.

It was at this time that van Gogh's alcoholism took hold, never to let go. Addiction added to the artist's torment would play tricks on him.

Vincent, who regularly frequented the brothels at the port of Antwerp, contracted what was known there as the French disease, syphilis. He was very ill during the first few months remaining in Antwerp.

Vincent arrived in Paris at the start of 1886. He was 33 years old. His stay in Paris was to offer him new horizons. On arrival, he did not yet know that he would find his inspiration in the capital and perfect his apprenticeship finding his own inimitable style.

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