Chronology

Date

Event

1853

30 March: Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in the Brabant Village of Zundert to Reverend Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Vincent was not their first child, as precisely a year before Vincent was born, the Reverend and Anna had a stillborn son also named Vincent.

1857

1 May: Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s brother with whom he had letter correspondences, was born.

1860

Vincent was sent to the village school to learn.

1862

16 March: Wilhelmina (Wil) Jacoba van Gogh was born. Wil and Theo were the only siblings with whom Vincent had contact throughout his life.

1864

van Gogh's parents put Vincent in a boarding school at Zevenbergen. He felt that he had been abandoned and wanted to come home.

1866

Vincent’s parents sent him to a middle school in Tilburg. He was also miserable here too.

1868

March: Vincent returned home suddenly.

1869

July: van Gogh’s Uncle Cent helped Vincent acquire a position at Goupil & Cie in the Hague. He earned a steady income by packing art in the Goupil & Cie warehouse, which Vincent thoroughly enjoyed.

1873

Vincent was transferred to Goupil & Cie’s London branch after Vincent completed his training.

He became fascinated with his landlady's daughter, Eugenie Loyer. She rejected him after van Gogh confessed his feelings for her. Loyer was secretly engaged to a former lodger. After this event, Vincent isolated himself and grew to be very religious.

1876

January: van Gogh was dismissed from the Paris Goupil & Cie branch due to poor performance.

April: Vincent took unpaid work as an assistant teacher in Ramsgate, England.

van Gogh found a salaried position in Isleworth at a private school.

December: Vincent spent Christmas with his parents. Here his father told him not to go back to England. van Gogh followed his father’s advice.

1877

January: Vincent’s Uncle Cent helped him find a job at a bookstore in Dordrecht.

Vincent was again becoming increasingly religious. His parents were worried about Vincent because he was 24 with no apparent purpose in his life. van Gogh asked his parents to study theology, to which they accepted his plan.

van Gogh’s parents sent him to live with his uncle Johannes Stricker in Amsterdam. Stricker helped him study for the entrance exam, but Vincent lacked control. He would walk around the city and the countryside. His uncle guided him to forget about his studies. van Gogh still took the entrance exam and failed it.

1878

July: Left his Uncle Johannes Stricker's house.

1879

January: Vincent became a missionary at Petit-Wasmes in Belgium. This was in the Borinage mining district. The priests did not like van Gogh especially after he gave his lodgings to a homeless person. They believed that van Gogh had undermined the dignity of the priesthood by what he had done.

1-16 April: Vincent wrote to Theo about the missionary at Petit-Wasmes, saying, 'It’s a sombre place, and at first sight everything around it has something dismal and deathly about it. The workers there are usually people, emaciated and pale owing to fever, who look exhausted and haggard, weather-beaten and prematurely old, the women generally sallow and withered.'

Eventually, Vincent gave in to his parents' pressure to return home.

1880

March: van Gogh stayed at his parents' house until March. This made his parents angry and concerned. His father even believed Vincent needed to be committed to an asylum in Geel.

August-October: Returned to Cuesmes and lodged with a miner.

October: Traveled to Brussels after Theo recommended to him to study with Wilhelm Roelofs. While studying with Roelofs, he suggested that van Gogh attend the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts.

November: Vincent enrolled at the Academie. Here van Gogh learned anatomy, perspective, and shading.

1881

April: Returned to Etten, where van Gogh’s parents lived. He practiced drawing, usually outdoors. Vincent's parents were unhappy that he chose the life of an artist.

August: Cornelia “Kee” Vos-Stricker, recently widowed, visited van Gogh and his parents in Etten. Vincent eventually declares his love to her and proposes marriage, but Kee refuses.

After Kee returned to Amsterdam, Vincent went to the Hauge to try to sell paintings. He met with his second cousin Anton Mauve. Mauve advised van Gogh to return in a few months after he worked in charcoal and pastels. van Gogh then returned to Etten to complete this task of working in charcoal and pastels.

Late November: Vincent wrote a letter to Johannes Stricker. He left for Amsterdam after a couple of days of sending the letter. van Gogh tried to meet with Kee, but she refused. Kee’s parents were disgusted by his persistence. While talking to Kee’s parents, van Gogh held his left hand in the lamp flame and said, “Let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame.”. It did not work, and Kee and Vincent did not marry.

December: After working for Mauve as a student, he returned home for Christmas. Here van Gogh fought with his father, which led Vincent to leave for the Hauge.

1882

January: Mauve introduced Vincent to oil painting. Mauve also lent van Gogh money to help set up his studio.

End of January: van Gogh met Clasina Maria “Sien” Hoornik. Sien was a prostitute who had issues with alcoholism. She had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant with another child.

February: Vincent and Mauve’s was becoming rocky. There are multiple reasons for this. Vincent could only afford to hire people from the streets. Mauve looked down upon this.

Van Gogh and “Sien” move in together.

March: Mauve and van Gogh stopped having contact through letters.

June: Vincent had gonorrhea and spent three weeks in the hospital. After his hospital stay, Vincent started to paint in oils with money he borrowed from Theo.

2 July: Sien gives birth to Willem.

November: van Gogh completes Worn Out

Theo and Vincent’s father tried to advise Vincent to abandon Sien. van Gogh refused and was stubborn about leaving her.

1883

September: Van Gogh finally decides to leave Sien. He moved to Drenthe.

Around 14 September: Vincent, in a letter to Theo, realizes how broken Sien was.

October: van Gogh paints Women on the Peat Moor.

December: He returns to live with his parents due to loneliness in Nuenen, North Brabant. When he returned, he worked in a small studio at the back of the house.

1884

Vincent rented a larger space for a studio within the Nuenen village.

Around 15 January: Vincent proposed in a letter to give Theo the works he produced for the allowance that his brother gave him. 'Now I have a proposal to make for the future. Let me send you my work and you take what you want from it, but I insist that I may consider the money I would receive from you after March as money I’ve earned.’

May: Vincent completes The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen.

August: Margot Begemann, a neighbor’s daughter, joined Vincent on his walks. She was ten years his senior. She fell in love with him, and Vincent reciprocated but not with as much enthusiasm as Begemann. Both Begemann and Vincent wanted to marry, but neither family wanted them to. After both families disapproved of the marriage proposal, Margot overdosed on Strychnine. She survived, thanks to Van Gogh finding her and bringing her to a nearby hospital.

1885

26 March: Vincent’s father passed from a heart attack. Shortly after, van Gogh left his home and moved into his studio. After this, he started to work on Potato Eaters.

13 April: van Gogh completed Potato Eaters.

August: Vincent’s work was exhibited for the first time. This was in the shop windows of Leurs in The Hague.

September: One of Vincent’s young sitters became pregnant and accused him of forcing himself on her. The village priest then forbade anyone to model for Vincent.

November: Vincent moved to Antwerp and rented a room. He ate poorly and lived poorly, saving most of his money for paints. His diet became bread, coffee, and tobacco.

Vincent enrolled at the academy of art in Antwerp.

1886

18 January: He started to attend drawing classes at the Antwerp Academy

Late January: van Gogh did not like the drawing classes that he enrolled in at the academy. By this point, he believed them to be too traditional.

He started to learn color theory and studied the works of Peter Paul Rubens.

In his palette, van Gogh started to include carmine, cobalt blue, and emerald green.

Vincent was also starting to buy Ukiyo-e woodcuts.

February: Vincent was hospitalized multiple times. He was a heavy drinker and also contracted syphilis at some point.

Van Gogh had multiple confrontations with teachers at the academy. A lot of this was due to his unconventional style. The worst row was with Eugene Siberdt. Siberdt required his students to draw the Venus de Milo during his class. Van Gogh instead drew a limbless, naked torso of a Flemish peasant woman. Siberdt disapproved of this and made corrections to Vincent’s drawing. Sieberdt had drawn so vigorously over van Gogh’s drawing that he tore the paper. This made van Gogh very mad, and he screamed at Siberdt, “You clearly do not know what a young woman is like, God damn it! A woman must have hips, buttocks, a pelvis in which she can carry a baby!” After this confrontation, van Gogh never returned to classes at the academy.

28 February: Vincent sends a letter to Theo in Paris to not be mad at him since he had come to Paris early. Earlier in February, Theo and Vincent sent correspondences back and forth. Vincent organized with Theo to come to Paris. Vincent was going to take lessons from Fernand Cormon. Theo had tried to find an apartment big enough for him and his brother, but Vincent arrived too early.

31 March: After the confrontation with Sibedt, several teachers at the academy decided that 17 students, along with Vincent, had to redo the year.

April-May: Van Gogh worked at Fernand Cormon’s atelier.

June: Vincent and Theo found a bigger apartment and moved.

End of 1886: Theo could live with Vincent any longer as he found him “unbearable.”

1887

Early 1887: Vincent and Theo were at peace again.

Vincent moves to Asnieres.

Vincent starts to use Pointillism after becoming acquaintances with Signac.

Van Gogh paints Portrait of Pere Tanguy

November: Vincent and Theo befriend Paul Gauguin

Toward the end of 1887: Vincent had an exhibition with Bernard, Anquetin, and Toulouse-Lautrec at the Grand-Bouillon Restaurant du Chalet.

1888

20 February: Vincent felt worn out from Paris and moved to Arles. Here van Gogh dreamed of creating an art colony.

Vincent’s work became brighter and more colorful. The works van Gogh created during this period in which he lived in Arles are ample in yellow, ultramarine, and mauve.

March: Paints several landscapes with a gridded “perspective frame.”

Son John Charles is ill, the family moves to Brighton for the summer.

April: American artist Dodge MacKnight visited Vincent. At this time MacKnight was living in Fontvielle.

1 May: Van Gogh rents four rooms at the Yellow house before explaining to his brother Theo his idea. He signed this lease at 15 francs per month.

7 May: Vincent moves from Hotel Carrel to Cafe de la Gare. He had previously become friends with the proprietors of the Cafe, Joseph and Marie Ginoux.

In the Yellow House, Vincent creates some of his most iconic pieces. These pieces were meant for a gallery he wanted in the Yellow House.

28-29 May: Vincent sends a letter to Theo explaining that he wants to create an art colony. Theo could then sell these artists’ work in Paris.

June: Visits Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and gives lessons to Paul-Eugene Miliet.

July: van Gogh visits Eugene Boch in Fontvielle.

September: Vincent created The Yellow House (The Street)

Vincent finishes Starry Night over the Rhone

5-8 September: Vincent starts and finishes Night Cafe

Unknown start date-16 September: van Gogh creates Cafe Terrace at Night

17 September: van Gogh spends his first night in the Yellow House.

October: van Gogh completes The Bedroom or Bedroom in Arles

23 October: Gauguin arrives in Arles.

November: Gauguin and Vincent finally paint together after Gauguin settles in.

December: Vincent creates Van Gogh’s Chair.

Vincent made Sunflowers sometime in 1888. He paints four versions of these in anticipation of Gaugin’s arrival in Arles.

1889

7 January: Vincent was released from the hospital. He has no recollection of what he did to himself. He returns to the Yellow House.

February: Van Gogh suffered from hallucinations and believed himself to be poisoned. He went back and forth between the hospital and the Yellow House.

March: Police closed his house due to a petition from 30 townspeople and the Ginoux family, who said he was a madman. After this, van Gogh returned to the hospital. Here Paul Signac visited him twice.

April: He moved into rooms that Dr. Rey owned.

May: Vincent leaves Arles and voluntarily hospitalized himself in an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence.

8 May: Entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum

June: van Gogh creates The Starry Night from his window in his asylum cell.

September: Creates more versions of Bedroom in Arles and The Gardener.

At some point this year, van Gogh completed Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.

1890

January: Albert Aurier praised Vincent’s work in Mercure de France.

February: Vincent paints five versions of L’Arlesienne.

20 March-27 April: Van Gogh’s work was shown at the sixth exhibition of the Societe des Artistes Independants. Vincent showed ten paintings of his.

May: He leaves the asylum in Saint-Remy. He moves to the Auvers-sur-Oise to be closer to Dr. Paul Gachet and his brother Theo.

July: Vincent completes not one but two paintings of Daubigny’s Garden. He also finishes Wheatfield with Crows, which was thought to be his last painting but is not. Research that has been published shows that now we believe Vincent’s last painting is Tree Roots.

27 July: Van Gogh shoots himself in the chest with a 7mm Lefauchex pinfire revolver. There was no witness to the incident, and he died 30 hours after supposedly shooting himself. Some believe the shooting occurred in a wheat field he was painting; others think it was in a barn. The bullet hit a rib and passed through his chest. It did not do any apparent damage to his organs, but due to the Auberge Ravoux not having a surgeon, they could not remove the bullet.

29 July: Aged 37, Vincent passes away in the early hours with Theo, his beloved brother, by his side. Theo said Vincent’s last words were, “The sadness will last forever.”

30 July: Vincent was buried in the municipal cemetery of Auvers-sure-Oise. Theo van Gogh, Andries Bonger, Charles Laval, Lucien Pissarro, Emile Bernard, Julien Tanguy, Paul Gachet, twenty family members of van Gogh’s, friends, and some locals all showed up to his funeral. Theo had been ill when his brother was shot. His health continued to decline after Vincent had passed.

1891

25 January: At the age of 33, Theo passes away in Den Dolder.