Over the weekend, I finished reading Vincent van Gogh Masterworks by Rosalind Ormiston. I had long known the legends about Vincent van Gogh being a misunderstood artistic genius
My perception of Van Gogh was also fueled by my fondness for the Don McLean's "Vincent"
However, my perception began to change by reading this book which contains the letters Vincent wrote to his brother Theo throughout his adult life.
The letters written by Van Gogh reveal a very troubled and mentally ill man who was financially and spiritually dependent on his brother Theo for almost all of his adult life. Indeed, if not for the loving support given by Theo, it is very likely that the artist we know as Vincent van Gogh would not exist. Most certainly Van Gogh's artistic production would have been far less and would not have so tenderly preserved if not for Theo van Gogh. In many ways, Theo really was the Wind Beneath Vincent's artistic wings.
How sad it is that this codependent relationship seemed to sap the life out of both men. Indeed, it was only after seeing the deteriorating condition of his younger brother that a distraught Vincent took a gun and shot himself in the chest arguably in an effort to relieve his brother of the burden that his existence imposed.
Nevertheless, Theo's burden did not seem to be relieved. He followed his older to the grave six months later.
Both brothers might have been relegated to obscurity if not for the efforts of Theo's widow, Johanna.
It was Johanna who continued to promote Vincent's artistic legacy after the death of both brothers. It was Johanna who created the book that provided the correspondence between the brothers that documented the nature of their relationship. It was Johanna who had her husband's coffin exhumed and reburied next to his brother's. And it was Johanna who consented to naming her only child after the brother her husband idolized.
So it was Johanna Bonger van Gogh who was the Wind Beneath the Historical wings of both Vincent and Theo van Gogh.
An amazing story of love that only enhances the story and legend of Vincent van Gogh.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
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