I
Vincent was leaning on the wall of St. Paul Asylum. It has been one month since Vincent got admitted to the asylum by his brother, Theodorus Van Gogh. You can't blame theo for this misfortune, it's not like your brother has so many options available after you cut off your ear with a razor and sent it to a prostitute. Oh,Theo could send Vincent to a bigger asylum at Marseille.1 But it would just exacerbate the insanity of Vincent even more.
The window was wide open. Relatively speaking, the iron-barred view from the window was the only ‘good thing’ about St. Paul. Of course, how open and how good an iron-barred view can be is debatable.
The moonlight on that night couldn't stop emerging itself in the room through the window. As if the full moon was summoning Vincent to draw himself near the window. Vincent's eyes were not only captivated by the moon alone, the illuminated sight of St. Remy evoked his childhood memory of the Dutch sky. He had a sudden urge to paint the empyrean sky view. But accessing the painting tools will not be possible till morning. In the morning, he will have to paint it from the memory of this night and from the memory of countless nights from his childhood. Or, maybe he can paint it from his imagination rather than depending upon deceitful memory, just like his post-impressionist friend Paul Gauguin advised him to,
"Don’t paint from nature too much. Art is an abstraction. Derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it, and think more of the creation that will result"2
Optical reality rarely varies, perceptual reality always does. Later that day, Vincent painted one of the most famous paintings in art history: Starry Night.
II
Nevertheless, you can't wonder but ask, a painter who sold only one painting(The Red Vineyard) during his lifetime, whose paintings weren't even appreciated by his peers, becomes synonymous with art itself. Vincent's fame traverses the barrier of the art world. You don't have to be an art enthusiast to know about Vincent. There's a strong possibility that someone on your Facebook friend list, has shared something related to Vincent or you've encountered 'Starry Night' either online or offline in the previous week. Now the question raises instinctively - how Vincent has become the pop culture artist as we know it?
For this posthumous reputation, Johanna, Theo's wife played a significant role. She inherited all the paintings of Vincent as Theo died only six months after Vincent. Johanna inherited another crucial thing in art history: more than 600 exchanged letters between the brothers. These letters provide a roadmap to the scattered mind of Vincent. We are not gonna repeat the history here. The NYT article by Russell Shorto is a magnificent read. Rather I'll try to answer it within the framework of modern times from a psychological perspective. These grounds which I'm going to state, are only additional grounds and do not cover it wholly.
Before attempting to answer this question and going off-track from Vincent for a few paragraphs, two things need to be said-
1. I, myself, am an admirer of Vincent. Vincent's Starry Night, Vinci's Salvador Mundi and Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates hooked me with art.
2. Bear with me. It will not seem absurd.
III
Precondition
Before establishing my hypothesis and ascending to the stairs of polysyllogism, an essential precondition requires to be substantiated: Millenials and Gen Z are more depressed than any other cohorts. No, this isn't going to be another online diatribe against the younger generations. I'm no exception to the things which I'm about to say.
American Psychologist Association(APA) in its annual stress survey of 2018( Covid being an ultimate stress factor, I choose the pre-covid survey to have the proper view on this) reported,
Millennials and Gen Z demonstrates a higher stress level of 5.7 and 5.3 respectively( On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is 'little or no stress' and 10 is a 'great deal of stress'. Though it has to be considered that Gen Z is significantly more likely to report their mental health.
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2020, Millenials tend to have a higher rate of depression than other generations.
IV
Depressed People Associate Themselves With Depressed Artist
Depressed people tend to associate themselves with another depressed person. When a depressed person comes within the magnetic field of a happy person, the jovial personality doesn't automatically make the despondent soul a happier one. Rather the jovial personality is a constant reminder of his pain and suffering. What he is missing in his life; the realization of the monochromic soul of how bereft of color his life has become. While the jovial personality repels a depressed person, another depressed person attracts.
In 1991, a study conducted by A Rosenblatt & Greenberg J found that depressed people prefer others who also tend to be depressed. The interpersonal world of the depressed person finds comfort in the mutual melancholy. It reminds me of a scene from the HBO series, Succession. In the episode called Tern Haven( Season 2, Episode 5), Wayster Royco visited the Pierce family to take over their media giant company PGM. That chaotic night couldn't stop two recently met depressed souls, Naomi Pierce and Kendall Roy coming together.
Depression becomes the core personality trait you can trust. Extending this line of argument, as a generation, we are not confined in preferring the company of depressed people alone, we adore and love the depressed artist. It might feel like I'm overstretching Rosenblatt & Greenberg's study. But if you delve into the study, it will not feel like that.
We are already aware of what the study found. However, what's the reason behind that specific companion selection? The idea that which I'm feeling exists within another person, is reassuring and comforting at the same time. And if the 'other person' is a celebrity or an artist, then this fact alone assuages your sadness. If a person like him goes through such extent of suffering, then maybe I'm not an outcast - our minds think like this. The wall between the celebrity artist and just another sad person slowly erodes and you start to feel the mutual melancholia. The depression of the celebrity artist corroborates your deepest core personality trait. While it's comforting when you find this trait within your surroundings; it's affirming when it comes from a celebrity.
V
Paul Wolf, a clinical professor of pathology at the University of California, writes in his article, ‘Creativity and Chronic Disease Vincent Van Gogh(1853-1890)’, that there is substantial evidence to call Vincent a manic depressed artist, who also had a bipolar disorder. In addition to the ear-cut incident, most of the art historians believe that he attempted to kill himself with a gun, failed, two days later, the gun wound led to his death. Though there's veracity about both of the incidents, we are going along with the majority of historians as it accords with the previous mental history and letters of Vincent.
Whenever an art enthusiast comes across Vincent's mental depression, they sympathize with him as well as romanticize their own depression. Their depression gets validation from a faction of social hierarchy called 'Greatest Artist'. This validation brings them closer to the mind of the masses. In this fashion, Vincent, without his consent, enrolls himself in the front marcher of celebrities who are synonymous with depression. Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Robin Williams, Chester Bennington and Vincent Van Gogh obtain another identity apart from their 'celebrity artist' one. I wonder even if they like this additional identity, how much they would like to validate other people’s depression.
VI
Depressed People Prefers Sad Art
Recently several studies have been published, that inquiries the reason behind our propensity to like sad art, especially sad music. Most of the studies found both biological and psychological reasons behind it. Empathy towards the suffering of others releases a hormone called Prolactin. By calming and consoling, prolactin helps us to withstand true grief and sadness. This homeostatic function also works during the sad-film enjoyment paradox. Psychologically, apart from empathy, this sad-art enjoyment paradox triggers nostalgia; the familiar suffering didn't relax tormenting the soul, it still inhibits in it.
Painting unlike movie, music, and novel, doesn't fully convey the sadness of it without the story behind it. The story enhances the pain, the painter is trying to demonstrate. Hence, we look beyond the painting, the person who is giving the brushstroke on the canvas. That's what happened in the case of Vincent, the impasto of him, carries a lot more than a thick layer of a brushstroke: the excruciating torment of existence. The torment which is known to all living persons, is intensified by the communal sharing of collective depression. You can't detach his art from Vincent's vale of tears. You love him through his art and his sadness.
VII
If these are the psychological grounds that bring him to the pop culture arena, pop culture itself is another inviting ground to aggrandize his fanbase. All of these psychological trends I related with the aggrandized fame of Vincent, doesn't strip away a bit of greatness from him as a painter.
During his time in the St. Remy Asylum, along with the Starry Night, another three of his paintings had a motif: Cypress.
A common cemetery tree in Muslim and European world, cypress symbolizes death and immorality of the soul. Maybe Vincent thought both of the symbolism, his immorality goes beyond the Starry Night of Saint Remy Sky. Once considered as a ‘failure’, now, glimmering brighter than the art world. May Vincent Van Gogh Forgive Me, the Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky, father of the influential director Andrey Tarkovsky, asked for forgiveness in his poem. Maybe we all owe a pardon from Vincent: May Vincent Van Gogh Forgive Us.
Arts Recommendation Relating To This Blog
* Movie/Series - Loving Vincent, At Eternity's Gate, Vincent and the Doctor(Doctor Who Season 5, Episode 10)
* Song - Vincent by Don Mclean
* Poem - May Vincent Van Gogh Forgive Me by Arseny Tarkovsky
* Art - Georges Seurat A Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte, Claude Monet Rouen Cathedral Series.
Martin Bailey, Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum(2018)
Marilyn StokesTad, Art History, 5th Edition. P-999
Vincent has always been my favourite and his starry night has been my fascination. Your article gave me new perspective to look into his artworks. How beautifully you started the article with a climax of our painter's life as a short story does! Loved your style of combining fiction and facts and also your analysis on how his personal life reflects in his paintings. Thanks for writing such an informative article on Vincent and his arts with such fine details.
Will wait for your next article on new topic.
PS: thanks for the recommendations. Will watch the movie soon! 😊