Vincent van Gogh

Hi Puzzlers,

Look what the warehouse just got in…don't worry your vision is not failing...it’s a Vincent van Gogh puzzle! I am so excited I feel like I won the lottery! Vincent van Gogh is one of my favorite artists. Whenever I look at one of his pieces I feel like the painting is alive with energy. Take for example his most famous piece, Starry Night, look at the sun, clouds and the night air; they all seem to be moving and vibrating. I never tire of looking at it. His art work is as inspiring and captivating as the story of his life.

Vincent was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Holland to Anna Cornelia Carbentus and protestant Reverend Theodorus Van Gogh. The name Vincent was a family named handed down generation to generation. It was also the name of his still born brother who had had been born the year before. The reusing of a name was common practice at this time!!! The Van Gogh’s also continuously gravitated towards the occupations of art and religion. Vincent’s grandfather had a degree in theology and three of his uncles were art dealers. Vincent would soon follow both of these callings.

By the age of 20 Vincent had become a successful art dealer for Goupil & Cie located in London. According to his sister-in-law’s account this was the happiest of times for Vincent. He was earning more money than his father and had fallen in love with Eugénie Loyer, daughter of his landlord. But Eugénie was secretly engaged to a former renter and rejected Vincent. Soon afterwards Vincent started isolating himself and became devoutly religious. In 1876 Goupil & Cie terminates Vincent.

After a quick stint as an unpaid supply teacher for a boarding school and bookstore worker Van Gogh decides to devote his life, as his father did, to religion. Vincent believes this is his calling. With the support of his parents Vincent is sent to Amsterdam to study theology but fails the entrance exam. He then enrolls in a three-month course at a Protestant missionary school in Laeken, where he also fails. Not one to give up, Van Gogh moves onto Christianity and takes a missionary post in the village of Petit Wasmes. Vincent enjoyed preaching and chose to live like the villagers. Church authorities did not approve of his squalid living conditions and dismissed him from his post.

Finally after years of encouragement from his brother Theo, Vincent decides to take up art and enrolls in the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He would remain in Brussels for nine months studying anatomy, perspective and standard rules of modeling, then return home to Etten to perfect his craft. Vincent would go onto study with many other famous artist of the time and create the masterpieces we have today. Vincent’s mental illness began to show at the end of 1888. He suffered from epilepsy, psychotic attacks, and delusions. After mutilating his ear in a psychotic attack Vincent commits himself to an asylum. It is here that he creates The Starry Night.

“On July 27, 1890 Van Gogh attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He survived, but died two days later from the wound. Theo, who had collected the majority of Vincent's work from Paris, died only six months later. His widow took the collection to Holland and dedicated herself to getting the now deceased Vincent the recognition he deserved. She published his work and Vincent became famous nearly instantly.”

His troubled life and artistic talent has been featured on Dr. Who, a British sci-fi series. Vincent played by actor Anthony "Tony" Curran captures what I have imagined Van Gogh to be like. He gave a truly inspirational performance and the story line incorporated some of Van Gogh’s greatest works of art into the plot. Not to mention Tony looked strikingly similar to Vincent.

Vincent worked and strived his entire life to make a difference and to leave a mark in the world, he said, “...to try to understand the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; another in a picture.”

Happy Puzzling!