I will just mention one thing, Dale.
I have always been fascinated by Jeanne Calment (the oldest documented
women in the world. She died aged 122 in 1997 and was born in 1875).
Jeanne Calment lived all her life in Arles and clearly remembered Van Gogh -not surprising, since the centre of Arles is like a village now (I live just down the road), and it must have been even more so in the 1880s.
(Incidently, she worked in a shop (her parent's shop ?) selling paint and canvasses, amongst other things, and when Van Gogh had spent all his money, he had credit in her shop and could always get material on credit -she served him. So he never needed to go short on painting supplies).
As she describes Van Gogh, he was a complete weirdo when walking about the street, and very remarkable (apparently he suddenly snapped back to 'normal' in the shop, although he kept his head down, -and this is my experience of many evidently mentally ill people, having worked in shops myself).
I once heard Jeanne Calment say (on the radio) that Van Gogh was always followed by a trail of children in the street calling 'dingue-o' after him (mad man). Indeed, the people of Arles got up a petition to have him ejected after the ear cutting incident (an irony, since their descendants make a lot of money out of him now).
He was unkempt, hyperactive, never stopped muttering and plain weird.
This is confirmed by a statement by Theo's wife, when he lived with them, and Gaugin, who also understandably couldn't live with him.
The letters are lucid, as are the paintings, and his dealings in shops (so it would seem) -but that is not how he came over to other people when dealing with them directly in the street or in the home.
(Don McClean's song is not entirely false however -if Theo, and the rest of the siblings were so loving, it was because they remembered a particularly beautiful person before the mental illness took over).
All I really want to say is that there is just no way that the Vincent that lived in Arles( eating his own paint and ending up in the hospital !), could have got it together to zip over to England and back, to be Jack the Ripper.
He was into self mutilation and suicide -not murder.
He couldn't walk down a street without attracting attention and having people back off.
I have always been fascinated by Jeanne Calment (the oldest documented
women in the world. She died aged 122 in 1997 and was born in 1875).
Jeanne Calment lived all her life in Arles and clearly remembered Van Gogh -not surprising, since the centre of Arles is like a village now (I live just down the road), and it must have been even more so in the 1880s.
(Incidently, she worked in a shop (her parent's shop ?) selling paint and canvasses, amongst other things, and when Van Gogh had spent all his money, he had credit in her shop and could always get material on credit -she served him. So he never needed to go short on painting supplies).
As she describes Van Gogh, he was a complete weirdo when walking about the street, and very remarkable (apparently he suddenly snapped back to 'normal' in the shop, although he kept his head down, -and this is my experience of many evidently mentally ill people, having worked in shops myself).
I once heard Jeanne Calment say (on the radio) that Van Gogh was always followed by a trail of children in the street calling 'dingue-o' after him (mad man). Indeed, the people of Arles got up a petition to have him ejected after the ear cutting incident (an irony, since their descendants make a lot of money out of him now).
He was unkempt, hyperactive, never stopped muttering and plain weird.
This is confirmed by a statement by Theo's wife, when he lived with them, and Gaugin, who also understandably couldn't live with him.
The letters are lucid, as are the paintings, and his dealings in shops (so it would seem) -but that is not how he came over to other people when dealing with them directly in the street or in the home.
(Don McClean's song is not entirely false however -if Theo, and the rest of the siblings were so loving, it was because they remembered a particularly beautiful person before the mental illness took over).
All I really want to say is that there is just no way that the Vincent that lived in Arles( eating his own paint and ending up in the hospital !), could have got it together to zip over to England and back, to be Jack the Ripper.
He was into self mutilation and suicide -not murder.
He couldn't walk down a street without attracting attention and having people back off.
Comment