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Valuing Vincent

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Do you know that song? It was one of the songs on our multiplex tape when I was a child. I didn’t like it then. Whenever the tape came around to that song, I would always stop the tape and rewind it back one song to my favorite, the jollier Puff the Magic Dragon.

But now? Now whenever I hear that song, it breaks my heart and sometimes moves me to tears.

Just listen to it. And look at the paintings that accompany the song on the video below.

The song is the story of Vincent van Gogh. He is one of the most famous painters in the history of the world, and he painted all those paintings in the video above. Though I’m no art expert and I’m not really a fan of paintings, I’m in love with his painting of a starry starry night. It goes so well with the song. It’s so stunning, isn’t it?

Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night over the Rhone
Source: Wikimedia Commons

It’s so tragic that everyone in the world admires his works of art and everyone knows how beautiful and valuable they are except the artist himself. He died a poor man, having sold only a few of his paintings which are worth millions now. No one appreciated him while he was alive.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me 
And how you suffered for your sanity 
And how you tried to set them free 
They would not listen, they did not know how 
Perhaps they’ll listen now

I knew about him before, vaguely, knew the story of the brilliant painter who went crazy and cut off his ear to give to a woman. Unfortunately, his brilliance was eclipsed by his madness, this same madness which was perhaps the reason why people did not understand him then. But I only knew his whole story when I discovered BBC’s Vincent Van Gogh – Painted with Words.

“Nothing can be said about van Gogh that he didn’t say himself,” a narrator intoned onscreen in a serious, semi-sad voice. “There are 902 letters here, the vast majority written to his younger brother Theo, who became his confidante and his lifeline. This is Vincent thinking aloud, taking us through his life step by step, documenting his struggles as an artist and as a man. It’s from these letters that this film is made. Using only van Gogh’s words and those of the people around him. Nothing is imagined. Every word spoken is true.”

And so after that intro, I watched Vincent, portrayed by my favorite actor Benedict Cumberbatch, as he goes through aforementioned struggles. And what struggles they are!

I am not going to detail the almost three hours’ worth of words here, so I’m just going to jump to the end.

Vincent painted almost his whole life, but since few people bought his paintings, he had no income and therefore had to rely on his brother Theo. He also had a problem in the head and was in and out of mental facilities, so he couldn’t really find any other form of a living.

In July 1890, he returned to Paris to visit Theo and his sister-in-law Jo, and to see, for the first time, his recently born nephew, Vincent. Theo explained to him that he now had responsibilities with a young family to support. Vincent feared that he was becoming a liability, as he said in his own words in a letter to Theo:

I feared, not completely, but a little nonetheless, that I was a danger to you, living at your expense. I’d perhaps like to write to you about many things. I profess the desire has passed to such a degree that I feel the pointlessness of it. I’m applying myself to my canvasses with all my attention. They’re immense stretches of wheat fields under turbulent skies. And I made a point of trying to express sadness, extreme loneliness. Look after yourself and handshakes in thought. Yours truly, Vincent.

This was the last letter he ever wrote to his brother. Four days after writing this, he went into the wheat fields and shot himself in the chest. He managed to crawl back and climb the stairs to his attic room, where he died after two days, with Theo at his side. Vincent was only 37.

Six months later, Theo died of syphilis, at the age of 33.

Neither brother benefitted monetarily from the paintings that became so valuable later on. Ironic, isn’t it? But Vincent himself seemed to know this would happen, when he said:


We must learn to value people while they are still alive.

That is the lesson I learned from watching this film. I felt so sad for Vincent, who never felt valued, to the point that he felt so worthless that he killed himself.

What if they had seen his worth then? Perhaps the ending would have been different.

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant
For one as beautiful as you

—;<@
This post is part of the A to Z Challenge, a blog hop that goes through the alphabet for all the days of April except Sundays. I have decided to go with the theme of Alliterations. 

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23 Comments

  1. It is a sad story and one every artist no what what form I thing worries over and at the same time hopes they are doing something that can last like that.

    Reply

  2. Thank you for your research. You depicted Vincent&#39;s life beautifully. I wrote a blog about Vincent on April 22 about a newly released book. Vincent didn&#39;t kill himself but took the blame for two friends during a shooting accident. Being bipolar, he wanted to die. Here&#39;s the link: />scroll down to the 22nd.

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  3. I loved the Doctor Who episode. I remember learning about him in art class and thinking how sad it was that he had so much trouble in life only to be so famous only after death.<br />In a fair world we could have spread it out a little more. But it doesn&#39;t really work like that does it?<br /><br />–<br />Tim Brannan<br /><a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/&quot; rel="nofollow">The Other

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  4. I had seen that starry night painting but never knew it was his. It&#39;s truewe never seem to understand the value of a person when he&#39;s alive but suddenly when he&#39;s not anymore we start to miss his presence. <br /><br />Good post and great research. Thanks for this.

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  5. Wonderful post, Dee. I wish we all could learn to not only appreciate each other, but appreciate ourselves, our own unique talents. Thanks for posting this. It was beautifully written.

    Reply

  6. That was so sad I&#39;ve always loved that song but didn&#39;t know how his life ended and about his brother.Well done!

    Reply

    1. I also found out about Vincent on Doctor Who! Cried so much over that episode. That&#39;s what piqued my interest and made me search for the film.

      Reply

  10. Great post Dee – like most of the real geniuses Van Gogh was completely screwed up and so miserable he would not even have appreciated success had he achieved it during his lifetime. Well I guess you have to be a bit disturbed to lop off your ear 🙂

    Reply

  12. Beautiful paintings and beautifully written post, too. It could all have been so different for poor Vincent – what a tragedy he never appreciated his own talent or knew how his work affected people.

    Reply

  18. Thank you for this post — you put a great deal of time into putting this together. I have a story about &quot;Starry Night.&quot; One night, when I could not sleep, I stepped outside on our deck. The night sky was filled with stars, but they were fuzzy, like Van Gogh&#39;s starry night–I did not have my glasses on! And I have always wondered if Vincent was nearsighted.

    Reply

  19. Hi. New follower here. Thank you for an inspiring post about Van Gogh and the importance of recognizing one&#39;s self-worth. I have always admired this painter but never knew the full story. Now I&#39;m interested to find out more. BTW, I have been to Singapore several times. My husband and I lived in Malaysia for 9 months and our son later married a girl from Singapore. They had an amazing

    Reply

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