What Killed Vincent Van Gogh If He Did Not Commit Suicide 125 Years Ago
Many speculations and rumours regarding Vincent Van Gogh's death are doing the rounds. During the 125th death anniversary of the evergreen artist, many doubts are being aired on the suicide theory that shrouds his death. For instance, why would a man shoot himself in the stomach, leading to a long, painful death?
Moreover, experts feel that the suicide "facts" were offered by unreliable sources, including a 13-year-old who is viewed as too young to be completely accurate. Forensics experts find that the muzzle of the gun that shot him "was more than a foot or two away (closer to two rather than one)," according to The Independent.
Hence, the possibility of a suicide does not hold water, athough it is indeed a "good story," everyone agrees.
In 2011, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Pulitzer-prize winning authors of Van Gogh's biography, visited the Van Gogh Foundation Archives in 2001 and began to examine 10-year-old letters and artefacts belonging to the painter, according to Vanity Fair. They said that he would not have committed suicide, but was killed by a local teenager.
Another theory states that he died in 1890 due to a gunshot on his abdomen, yet it took him 29 hours to finally succumb to it. He is said to have been accidentally shot by a 16-year-old boy, Rene Secretan. Yet, Van Gogh did not blame the boy and tried to protect him by "confessing" to suicide, according to The Independent.
Meanwhile, in Eindhoven, a Dutch town, an artist Daan Roosegaarde honours its illustrious painter, Vincent van Gogh, by creating a bike path that glows due to solar-powered LED lights, and names it after the classic painting, "Starry Night." The road twinkles with blue and green lights, and Roosegaarde wants it to speak to everyone, he said to npr.
Roosegarde added that there are technologists, historians and even girls and boys on a first date who experience something that is special to them. He too is an artist who just wants to create an "incredibly poetic" bit of art. "A good project generates new stories," he explains. Hence, he has created a half-mile long path that was uncovered last Wednesday to mark the 125th anniversary of the artist's death. Van Gogh, who lived from 1853 to 1890, was initially in Eindhoven for a while, using the town as a background for his art, according to NPR.