Doomed to Fail

Ep 26 - Part 2: The Infinite Artist - The Tragedy of Vincent Van Gogh

Episode Summary

This is it! Our final re-release and we are all caught up! It's one of Taylor's favorite episodes. Let's talk about our dear Vincent van Gogh! 🎧 Immerse yourself in the vibrant yet turbulent life of Vincent van Gogh, one of history’s most fascinating and misunderstood artists. This week, we explore his artistic genius, the personal struggles that haunted him, and the enduring mysteries surrounding his tragic death. Join us for an intimate look at the man behind the masterpieces. 🎨🌻 #ArtHistory #VincentVanGogh #PodcastEpisode #ArtisticGenius #VanGoghLegacy #HistoricalMysteries #Masterpieces #HistoryPodcast #ArtLovers #TragicLife

Episode Notes

This is it! Our final re-release and we are all caught up!

It's one of Taylor's favorite episodes. Let's talk about our dear Vincent van Gogh!

🎧 Immerse yourself in the vibrant yet turbulent life of Vincent van Gogh, one of history’s most fascinating and misunderstood artists. This week, we explore his artistic genius, the personal struggles that haunted him, and the enduring mysteries surrounding his tragic death. Join us for an intimate look at the man behind the masterpieces. 🎨🌻

#ArtHistory #VincentVanGogh #PodcastEpisode #ArtisticGenius #VanGoghLegacy #HistoricalMysteries #Masterpieces #HistoryPodcast #ArtLovers #TragicLife

Episode Transcription

Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor

Taylor: We've been re releasing our first 26 episodes every week

>> Taylor: Hi friends, it's Taylor from doomed to fail. We're the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters and epic failures twice a week, every week. But for the past year we've been bringing you three episodes a week or sometimes even more. We're on vacation because we've been re releasing our 1st 26 episodes. Those episodes. We did one really long episode with two stories in it and then we decided to divide it in half and do two episodes a week. So in that vein, we re released all 26 of our first episodes as two separate parts. And this is our very last rerelease. So this has been exhausting. To do this, I've recut 26 episodes into 52 separate episodes, redone all the socials, re uploaded it to simple cast, redone the YouTube videos, just, done the whole thing. And I am both excited that it's over and also worried that we don't have, endless content to give you all. But hopefully our new episodes will be fulfilling and great, as that is our goal. if you have any ideas for us, please let us know. We're at doomtofailpodmail.com. we have a new website, doomtofailpod.com. and we are on all the socials at Doom to fail pod.

Episode 26, part two on the life and death of Vincent van Gogh

So with no further ado, I guess this is episode 26, part two on the life and death of Vincent van Gogh. And this is one of my absolute favorite episodes that we have ever done. I learned so much about Van Gogh despite, as I probably mentioned, being an art history major, in college, I learned so much more about Van Gogh from reading a very, very long book about him and learning a lot about his life via, ah, various articles on the Internet and such. a very troubled man, a very troubled life. He like, as you know, he didn't know that we were all going to love it. but I'm so glad that we do. And I hope that somewhere in the universe, in the Stardust, he knows that he is, he is beloved across the world. since this episode aired, I went to Japan in April 2024 and I saw a van Gogh, in a museum in Hiroshima. So he is, you know, all over and we definitely, definitely love him. And also shout out to the hero of the story, who is Vincent van Gogh's sister in law. Yo, Van Gogh. It is because of yo, that we know about Vincent and definitely, stick around because there's some really fun stories of her, you know, owning a boarding house that had like sunflowers in the dining room. just unbelievable work that she did to make sure that we know about Vincent today. So thank you to Vincent Van Gogh for sharing your vision with us. And thank you to yo, Van Gogh for making sure that we did not forget about Vincent and his life. So hope you enjoy this very, very last re release, episode 26, part two, the life and death of Vincent van Gogh. Thank you.

In the matter of the state of California v. Orenthal James Simpson,

In the matter of the people of the state of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, case number ba zero nine. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. I'm muted. I bet you could have heard me peeing, but I just like to mute it just in case. Just in case I pee in this totally different room. But just in case.

>> Farz: I thought there was a bucket next to your computer.

>> Taylor: Oh, God. Like, you remember when you were like, oh, I'd like a chamber pot. I was like, absolutely. Okay, I'm ready. Hold on. no, I'm not talking about Russia today, far as. But I am, talking about something that does have a little bit of a true crime bit in it. And then. So that was unexpected. So I'm excited to tell you about that. I was thinking, we're talking about. We talk about relationships. Like, what's a dramatic thing that happened in a. In a relationship? And then I was thinking, like, do you remember how I have this extremely expensive degree in our history? Oh, yeah. That I'm still paying for.

>> Farz: And why?

>> Taylor: You're like, yeah. So I'm like, what are some things in our history that seem super dramatic? And what is a story that we think we all know? So I thought, who was the person that caused Vincent Van Gogh to cut off his ear?

>> Farz: Oh, my God, that is so cool. Yeah. Hell, yeah.

>> Taylor: And it's not at all what I thought. This is a frenetic, colorful, tragic story. It, begs the question, like, do artists have to be starving? Do you have to be mentally ill? Does something have to be wrong for you to create, like, great art? So this is a wild ride of Vincent van Gogh's life. Yes.

>> Farz: It's gonna be a cousin. There'll be something gross. It's a cousin, isn't it?

>> Taylor: No, it's not even a woman, and it's not sexual.

>> Farz: Weird.

>> Taylor: So I'll tell you more. Also, I know that were I a dutch speaker, I would say Van Gogh and not van Gogh, but I can't do it.

>> Farz: I'm not doing that.

>> Taylor: I'm not doing that.

>> Farz: I don't. It's like, when people say Hamoli, when they're trying to say, just say guacamole, man. Like, I. I get that you speak a language I can't speak, and I'm really proud of you, but, like, you don't have to big up me. Just call it guacamole.

>> Taylor: I mean, I think you know who.

>> Farz: I'm thinking about, right? Taylor.

>> Taylor: And. No, tell me later. Yeah, I'll tell you later, I imagine. But I do think that once Dan Carlin does a. If he does anything on van Gogh, I'll say van Gogh, because I'll say whatever Dan Carlin says. But until then, I'm going to say van Gogh, because that's what I came up with.

So I'm going to tell you about the many failed relationships of Vincent van Gogh

So I'm going to tell you about the many failed relationships of Vincent van Gogh, starting with his parents, his brother Theo, God, a sex worker named Cien, his cousin Kaye, the art world in general, an artist named Paul Gauguin, and ultimately himself. So all fail. All failed. I also. We are both older than Vincent van Gogh will ever be. He died when he was 37.

>> Farz: Wow.

>> Taylor: And we have things that he so desperately wanted and never had. We have good friendships, we have loving families, we have homes, have. I have children. Someday you might have children, who knows? But, like, Vincent van Gogh so desperately wanted this family, and he will never have them. But in 100 years, no one will remember us. You know, and people will m. Uh-huh. So, yeah, no, I just. It's. It's interesting. And I think the tragedy that we all know is, like, he wasn't famous in his lifetime. Sure. You know, and he was, you know, this tortured artist, and he totally was. But he had this wild need to be accepted and loved and to express himself. And, like, that was what ultimately, like, led to his death. In March, 1987, van Gogh's painting, a vase with 15 sunflowers, was sold for an adjusted $94.21 million. And that tripled the last painting ever sold before that. So it was like a new era of art. So, like, van Gogh obviously, is like, everyone knows him. You can see his art, you know exactly what he does. You can think about it. You, like, picture it immediately.

>> Farz: Yeah. I went to the van Gogh there's in Austin. They set up a van Gogh. The immersive thing, the experience. Van Gogh experience.

>> Taylor: What it's called. I did it in Las Vegas. Yeah.

>> Farz: Yeah, it's cool.

>> Taylor: Yeah, I mean, he's everywhere. And, Wikipedia's list of the top 89 most expensive paintings. Ironwives, 89 on that list ever sold. Eleven of them are his. So eleven of like the top, you know, most expensive paintings ever sold are his. He only sold one in his last year of his life. So he only saw one that he sold. That he had sold. There's a. Did you ever watch Doctor who?

>> Farz: I've seen a few episodes. I'm not like a huge doctor who. I know what a tardis is.

>> Taylor: So perfect. So there's one and I've only seen this clip, but it's a beautiful clip where they get Van Gogh and they take him to, exhibit in like, 2010 and they ask the Dawson to tell them, like, you know, what is it about Van Gogh? And he goes off and he taught, says he's, you know, he's one of the greatest artists that ever lived. And Van Gogh starts crying and it's just beautiful and very lovely. But in his life, he never knew. So again, I spent this week on a topic that people spent their whole lives doing. So I'm definitely going to miss things and there's definitely more of this story, but it's such a good story. So the thing that I read was the book Van Gogh the life by, Stephen Nakafay and Gregory White Smith. So that's the book that I read. And then I also have some art history books from when I was in college that I looked at as well. And then also, just to mention this is post impressionism. If you were like, where are we with this? Well, one more thing that I don't maybe go save for the end, but I just want to add now because it's fun is there is a missing van Gogh. It is called Poppy flowers. it was stolen from the Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo twice. It was stolen in the eighties and it was stolen again in 2010 and no one knows where it is.

>> Farz: That's pretty cool.

>> Taylor: Pretty cool and pretty fun.

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Netherlands

So let's talk about him himself. Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Grootzerndert, Netherlands. So there's a lot of words that I'm not able to pronounce because they're Dutch and French coming at you. Just FYI.

>> Farz: You just remind me that I actually went to his actual museum when I went to Amsterdam.

>> Taylor: M cool.

>> Farz: Yeah, it was really cool. He does a lot of, like, lithographs. There was like a lot of. Okay, okay. It stuck my mind. Like, I didn't know that guy. I thought, he's a painter only.

>> Taylor: And I guess, no, he did thousands of works. There's so much van Gogh stuff. It's crazy. Yeah. His parents, Theodora, Sven go, and his mother, Anna. his dad was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. So they were protestant in a very catholic area. It was a very family first family. His mom was very strict, wanted the family to be together and be happy. This is also, like, a weird time in the Netherlands. They are think about nature a lot. Think about the garden. They think about flowers. They have this idea that people have all the time that there is this glorious past that we have to go back to, that we have to remember. And they're remembering times when the Netherlands was really successful, and they're enchanted by that. They're enchanted by the past. And we talked a little bit about that in the tool up mania episode, when people were first becoming. Coming to be middle class and starting to, like, get money, and people, like, had a lot. It was very prosperous time for them, but also it was because of slavery that they were so successful. So they know that by this time, you know, they're like, it's so easy.

>> Farz: When other people do all the work for you for free.

>> Taylor: Yeah, exactly. So they, you know, have this memory of a time where things were great, but they also don't want to remember the fact that they were great because they enslaved people.

>> Farz: Right.

>> Taylor: Obviously. Vincent himself was the oldest surviving brother of six children. A brother was born the year before him, exactly a year before him, whose name was also Vincent van Gogh, but then the brother died stillborn, and then Vincent was born a year later, which is, like, maybe weirder for us than it was for them, but still kind of weird. I don't love it. Yeah.

>> Farz: And it's like his parents were still mourning the dead. Started over to name this one Vince. That's.

>> Taylor: It's a little weird. Yeah, I don't love it.

>> Farz: Different times.

>> Taylor: Yeah. So his parents kept having kids. His mom actually had her last kid at 47, which I think is interesting. So his family read a lot. They love reading Dickens. They love reading fairy tale books, things like that. They read a book. This isn't really important, but one of the authors that they liked was a man named Edward Bulwer. Lytton. Lytton, who I've never heard of, but he was the first person to ever write. It was a dark and stormy night.

>> Farz: Oh, nice.

>> Taylor: Which is kind of fun, you know, I guess someone had to write that for the first time. And I don't know. I don't know anything else about him, but it's fun that he was the first person to write that. another big thing in the Van Gogh family is they would make each other gifts, so they loved Christmas. Imagine, like, you know, a, Dutch Christmas. There's, you know, a lot of, like, candles and ribbons and flowers. And they would make each other presents. So they would crochet things and collage things and always just like a really loving. The dad's three mantras were duty, decency, and solidity. So fate has ups and downs. Choose the middle. Like, just like, do the middle path, which does not. That's not at all what his children did, but that's what he was, like, trying to force upon them.

>> Farz: Solid. Solid. What does it mean?

>> Taylor: And what I wrote is. Yeah. I wrote fate has ups and downs, but you choose the middle. Like, you stand strong in the middle. So, like, when a good thing happens, don't forget that bad things happen. Wait, what? A bad thing? Well, to them, yes. So when a bad thing happens, don't forget that something good will happen eventually. Like, this too shall pass stuff. But also when something good's happening, don't forget that something bad can happen any moment.

>> Farz: I'm such an idiot. I typed salinity and I was like. The dissolved salt of content in the.

>> Taylor: Body'S really salty water is our third family virtue. I don't know why, it just is. But that made it hard, obviously, for the kids to be themselves. Because your parents are like, failure is always around the corner. You're gonna have a weird.

Game: Vincent's dad was a preacher and his uncle was an art dealer

A weird life, right? Him and his mom did not get along very well. He did a lot of art. He would send things to her. She would throw it away. She was like, this jerk kid of mine, you know, his dad was very religious. And so, That definitely had an impact on Vincent's life. Eventually they sent him to a boarding school because he was a lot to deal with. He was very like, he would read a ton and do all this art and do all these things, but he never really fit in anywhere. And so his parents were like, you're kind of making this family crazy. So everybody else is like, following the rules, going to school, living a relatively normal life for a preacher's children. And Vincent can't do that. He's kind of all over the place. So they send him away. He goes to several different boarding schools. He still doesn't fit in. So they're trying to figure out, what do we do with this? Like, our oldest son, who's kind of. We're gonna have to support him forever. Cause he can't figure his shit out. Essentially.

>> Farz: I would encourage that and be like the ones that don't fit are the ones that do cool shit.

>> Taylor: Yeah, he's about to do cool shit, for sure. The van Gogh family actually was very successful in two ways. They were successful in gold and successful in art. So it's not crazy that Vincent would be an artist as an art family. His dad is, is a preacher because his dad was. So it was like several, several generations of, like, going right back to your exact dad, whatever. Like, that line was preachers. But. But everybody else was, like, in. In the art world. His uncles are art dealers, so they're people who are, like, telling everybody what to like in art. During this time in big cities, like in Paris, in London, like, all over Europe. His dad, also to note, did have a fun time in university before he got married. And then he decided to become more pious. So he at least. At least he had, like, a little bit of personality in there. But right now also, there is this crazy thing happening where there's a new book called the Life of Jesus that came out, and it, for the first time in these guys life, they're seeing Jesus as potentially a real person and not like, as, the son of God, just kind of throwing a wrench into things. So it's kind of a crazy time to be involved in religion. But Vincent decides that they're like, he needs to get out of the house. We need to. He won't go to school. He keeps walking home from school. So his. He had an uncle named Vincent van Gogh, and this uncle was called scent. So sent is his uncle's nickname for Vincent, and he's an art dealer. So he made money in an art store. He was a very fun guy. He.

>> Farz: I'm confused. Hold on. His uncle was named Vincent van Gogh?

>> Taylor: Yeah, he was named after his uncle, the Vincent's, and then the family. Okay, but the uncle's a Vincent van Gogh, but his name. His nickname is cent. So we're just gonna call him scent.

>> Farz: Call him cent. Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah.

>> Taylor: And so sent is one of the first people who started to see, like you were saying, with lithographs, like, art that's, like, reproducible, and people want to see to get prints. So he would sell prints. They sold prints in the Hague, and he became very rich. And uncle Scent was not able to have children with his wife. So his wife and him just, like, worked together, and they brought Vincent on as, sort of like, you know, a family maybe son figure who can work with them. And Vincent was 16 when he went to work in scent store in the Hague. He's the worst at work. So do you ever, like, go into a niche store and there's, like, a nerd there that you just, like, don't want to talk to?

>> Farz: That would usually be me at, like, gamestop.

>> Taylor: I was gonna say, like, at Gamestop. Like, yes. So imagine he's, like, the nerdiest dude at the GameStop. And people. And people are trying to go in and, like, buy art and, like, do these things that he's kind of freaking out about everything. He's like, you should buy this, because it's this and this is this. And he's like, this applies to this poem, applies to this book, applies to this thing. And he just has so much going on in his head that when you talk to him, you're, like, overwhelmed, and people are like, no, thank you. So they kind of, like, back out of the store slowly, and they don't want to buy anything. So they sent him to the back of the store because they're like, you can't talk to people.

>> Farz: You're too weird. But you're way too weird.

>> Taylor: Sorry. Sorry, bro. He moves around. He's 16 by 19. He's in very, very much in the scene of going to brothels all the time. He spends a lot of time with sex workers. Sometimes just to talk, sometimes, like, other things. But, like, something weird happens during this time where they're just like, you gotta cut that out. Like, you can't do it anymore. Like, it wasn't like, who's they?

>> Farz: The broth. The sex workers told him to cut it out.

>> Taylor: No, the uncle sent and, like, people at the store because of something that happened in the brothels.

He sounds like an autistic kid. Yes, he definitely. Absolutely. There's so much mental illness

I don't know exactly what it was, but, like, everybody knew that he had, like, maybe, like, freaked out on someone. You know what I mean? Like, he did something, and everybody was, like, uncomfortable around him. So, like, you gotta go. So I sent him to London, to another school.

>> Farz: He sounds like an autistic kid.

>> Taylor: Yes, he definitely. Absolutely. There's so much mental illness that, like, we would think about differently. And I'll tell you, actually, what they know he had later, but, yeah, like, something's up. His brother. He had a younger brother named Theo. Theo is five years younger than him. Theo was sent to a similar job in Brussels. And he did great. Theo's great. He's personable. Everybody likes him. He is always the one that will financially support Vincent for his whole life. So Vincent's whole life. He will ask Theo for money, and Theo will send him money while Theo is selling other people's art. And he's like, he's doing fine. Theodos, fine. Vincent gets sent to London to work in the same company, but in a stock room, and he was bummed. He didn't want to be in London. London was, like, really dirty and gross and so many more people than he was used to seeing, and he didn't know if he loved it, and he felt very isolated and alone. Another thing that happens during this time, which I think is crazy, is he. Because he wasn't doing very well. He was about to get drafted into the military, and the military was going to send him to Sumatra to fight in a war there that they were having, and he got out of it. His parents paid 600 guilders, which is a year's salary, to send a bricklayer in his place.

>> Farz: That is privilege.

>> Taylor: Yeah. And his dad always kind of was like, hey, I sent him his money, but also like, yeah, he wasn't going to send him to Sumatra to do that, so he sent some poor bricklayer in his place. But Vincent will always be a financial burden to his family, like, always. And he's always trying to find another, like, that family feeling he had when he was younger, before people started to try to, like, get rid of him in certain ways. So while he's in London, he meets a family, like a woman and a widow and her daughter. He's like, this is my new family. We're super happy. Like, love it here. He invites his sister. His sister was like, it's weird. Like, you're being weird. Like, why are you so obsessed with these people? And there's so many relationships he'll have where, like, they only last a month, but the first two weeks are like, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. This is it. This is my. This is my thing. And then the last two weeks are awful, and then he leaves and never talks about it again, and it happens over and over again. Autism. Yeah.

>> Farz: Like, it's just obviously, like, he just has, like, a disconnect from whatever I. But we know it's all good. You'll discuss it, but.

>> Taylor: Yeah, no, exactly. He has disconnect in his head. He's, like, seeing things differently than everybody else is seeing. Right. You know, he's, like, absorbing all this literature, all these stories, all this art, and it's just like, he cannot express it in a way that isn't crazy. You know, people like, he's like, People are like, you gotta calm down. Like, you. We can't. We can't do this. He decided that he was super lonely. He didn't know what to do, so he turned to God. He was like, my dad is. Is a pastor preacher, or whatever I want to do, I want to do the same. So during this time also, he was in Paris when the impressionists were making their move. So, like, the ones that, you know, like, M Monet is doing his thing, and he missed it. He doesn't write about it. He. Cause again, like, most of the people I talk about, we know about him through his letters. And he missed it because he was going into this, like, religious fervor, being like, I can be the best preacher out there, you know?

>> Farz: And then he also missed it because Monet wasn't famous when he was.

>> Taylor: No, he wasn't a way that it was like, they were trying to be disruptive. So you would have heard of him, you know, like, maybe the people weren't like, he's amazing, and, like, they're putting water lilies in their house, but they were like, he's being disruptive. So you would have known. Yeah. So he also just, like, I put, like, Putin. Because, you know, I guess speaking of Putin, he has this romanticized idea of the past, which Putin does as well. So Putin looks at Catherine the Great and says, like, there was this time in russian history where we were the best, and that isn't true because things were horrible. Things were happening all over the country. But he wants to be a part of that past. And so Vincent always thought, like, I want to be a part of the french revolution. I was born too late. So he is very lonely. He gets fired from his job in London. He goes home for Christmas. Christmas is, again a huge deal. People complain, complained about him. They wanted to act like nothing had happened. They just, like, kind of wanted him to go away.

Vincent spent months reading the Bible and becoming very religious

So also, I guess, also back to Russia, of course, I mentioned Russia like, nine times in this. Just like Rasputin, Vincent went for a walk for a really long time.

>> Farz: There you go.

>> Taylor: So he went for a walk for months. He would walk for days along the countryside, just like, walking around, kind of preaching, not doing much art, but, like, you know, really like, reading the Bible and becoming very, very religious. He finally got a small job at a church in London. So he's walking around England. He gets a job in London. He speaks English, so he speaks English, Dutch, French. but his English is very heavily accented, and he's super excited. So people are just like, what is this? As he's, like, preaching in the thing. He's very passionate. He's, very strange. No one thinks he's going to be a preacher, which is also really hurtful. You know, like, his family is like, yeah, you're doing something that, like, a lot of us have done, but we don't think you're gonna. You're gonna be successful.

>> Farz: But it's also. It makes him so much less cool to me. I didn't know he was trying to be a preacher. Like, he, like, lost so many cool points by trying to be a preacher.

>> Taylor: Like, he gets him back. So he. Now he's, like, walking around. He's smoking. He smokes constantly. He smokes a big, like, a big pipe all the time. And he studies and studies and studies, but, like, he doesn't study the right way. You know, it's like he does that thing that he always feels like he needs a teacher, but he never finds a teacher that he will listen to. So he just, like, studies his own way, which is sometimes, which doesn't give him the outcome that he wants, you know? So that's like, someone being like, I'm gonna read the Bible 15 times. That's how I'm gonna become the most religious person of all time, you know? And you're like, okay. But you also have to, like, talk to people and, like, do other things. You know?

>> Farz: I have a joke in the. In the chamber, and I'm not gonna.

>> Taylor: No, do it. Go ahead.

>> Farz: No, I'm not gonna do it.

>> Taylor: Why? You can do it eventually. Do it.

>> Farz: Let's just say there's other things the catholic church has done. you know what I'm not doing?

>> Taylor: It's not catholic, he's protestant. But he. He just. He's an artist. He's an artist's heart, an artist's soul. But he's like, how do I express this? He's trying to express it through religion. He throws himself into it 100%, and it doesn't work.

Van Gogh's brother Theo is successful in the art world

So meanwhile, Theo, his brother, even though he's successful in the art world, as a successful store, and, like, is doing well, he falls in love with some not as reputable ladies, and he gets someone pregnant, and his parents are like, absolutely not.

>> Farz: So he has a prostitute pregnant, basically.

>> Taylor: What you're trying to say. I think. I don't know if she was specifically a sex worker, but, like, someone who was poor, but he's definitely sleeping with a ton of sex workers. That's going to be Theo's lot in life. So he was getting super depressed, and that's what's happening in the background. Like, Theo is successful in work. Like, he gets offered a job for, like, a shit ton of money. Like, more money than anyone had ever seen. And he, you know, is doing very. He's very successful. He goes to the opera. He dresses really nice, because another thing that Van Gogh's the family was really into was, like, dressing really nice and going for walks on Sundays, and everybody see them and being like, oh, they look nice. They have their shit together, you know? So Theo looks like he has his shit together when he does not have his shit together. Now Vincent's 25. He's hoping to become a preacher. He becomes a pastor to a poor mining village in Belgium called the boronage. And he's one of the people who, you know, reads the Bible and interprets it as, like, if you suffer, you're lucky. You know? Like, you're. You're lucky because you're suffering. And so that was good because it was a mining town. And on April 17, 1879, there was a huge fucking explosion, and a ton of people died. It was a fucking mining town. He tried to, like, comfort people, and they were just like, absolutely not. You know, like, yeah, like, everyone we noticed exploded. Like, we can't. We can't with you. So he was there. He was there a month, and he kept trying to, like, be like, I'm also gonna suffer. He would. He would, like, not eat for days. You know, he'd walk for days. He wouldn't take care of his body because he was like, I have to suffer to, like, be religious. So now he's like, He's trying way too fucking hard, you know? And so he gives up. He's like, I'm not a preacher. He becomes an atheist. It's over. Okay. Who knows? Yeah, whatever. He really believed, he just wanted to, like, do something with passions. Like, I can put my passion into this. And that didn't work. It was, like, too much. So now he likes art. I mean, he moves to Brussels, and he starts taking art classes. He spends money on nice clothes. He, you know, tries to start a print collection, tries to make money from selling his collection. But again, like, even if he is in art classes, he doesn't last very long. And even if he dresses really nice, people are like, we can tell that you're weird. And later, there's, tons of stories of people who they're asked 2030 years later. Do you remember him? And they're like, yeah, we remember him. He was really fucking weird. Yeah, it was a weird guy, whatever. And he became obsessed with several, artists. And he would be like, I need to study under you, I need to be a part. Learn. Teach me everything. And that would last a month. Just like, everything, you know, it'd be like, super high, high, super low, low, over. And then he would, like, never talk to them again. He became obsessed with his cousin Kay, and he asked her to marry him. And she said, no, absolutely not. She said, I was kind of on.

>> Farz: To something when I thought it was a cousin that did this to him.

>> Taylor: Yeah, but I don't even know. He was like, oh, I really want to. He asked her to marry him, and she said, never. No, never. Which is very dramatic. Not what you want to hear.

The big thing Theo keeps telling Vincent is you need to make saleable art

And so he was like, I really want to see her. Like, I know. He, like, tried to go and talk to his uncles and be like, I, need to see her. And they were like, no. Like, she's absolutely not. So he had to, like, kind of, like, deal with that. Like, he was still trying to find this, like, family. He feels like he is a late bloomer. Obviously. He meets more artists. An artist named Mauve he meets for a while, but he never has enough money. He always gets in fights with people. He just like, can't I keep it together? The big thing that Theo keeps telling Vincent is you need to make saleable art. You'll sell your shit. Like, in the book, they say saleable art, like, 15 million times. Like, this is the thing that you need to do, but he just can't do it. He knows art dealers, he knows artists. He knows what people are buying, and he just, like, cannot do it. He approaches art like he approached being a preacher. Like, he's impossible to get along with because it's just, like, so into it and so in his head and produces this stuff that comes out, like, garbled, and people don't get it. Yeah, you know, so one thing that he loved doing is he loved drawing people, and he insisted on drawing people from, from a model, like, from having a person there. He couldn't really draw from his imagination. That was not something that he did. He stood in front of things and drew them. He would spend all of his money on models. A lot of time they were sex workers. A lot of time they were really poor people that he would give, like, a couple coins to, and then they would, like, you know, pose for him. But people still thought that was really weird. You know, they'd be like, oh, you're gonna go, like, stand in this guy's house and just, like, pretend to eat for an hour, 3 hours, and he's gonna paint. You people thought that was really strange.

>> Farz: Kind of a strange.

>> Taylor: Yeah. So he tried to master some things. he struggled to paint perspectives. He bought this, like, frame to help him do perspectives. Like, he wasn't, like, perfect at really anything because he was just so, like, kind of. Kind of overwhelming in general. He met a sex worker named CNn, and she was pregnant when he met her. And he, you know, fell in love with her. Thought they'd have a family together. And he, like, loved her very passionately, even though she was gross. So we have drawings of her. We know about her life. Santa was gross. She had. She was just m Sienna. She was just riddled with STD's. And she was pregnant, and she, like, you know, was missing her teeth. Was like, she's like a witch. Yeah. She's not doing great. And of course, he gets gonorrhea, so it's actually, like, really bad. And they're both in the hospital at the same time while Cyan is having her baby, and Vincent is being treated for gonorrhea, which I don't know the details, but I did learn in the book, they tried to, like, get rid of it by inserting bigger and bigger catheters into him until it, like, flushed out. Sounds fucking terrible. And his dad came to visit him during this time and was like, dude, you can't stop talking to this woman. Like, you have to get out of this. And Vincent was like, no, I love her. I'm going to go back to her as soon as I get out of here. Whatever. He continues to be supported by Theo. His family, like, kind of threatens to take over and put him under conservativeship and be like, you know, you have to. You can't take care of yourself. But he insists that he's okay. And this whole time, he's kind of been drawing, and now he wants to paint. So he's starting to get into painting, and he's starting to get more money from his. From his brother. And he's still with. With CN. He thinks of himself as, like, Robinson Crusoe, like, by himself on this island of passion that, like, no one understands. And he's always like, I'm about to make something that you can sell. I'm, like, this close to making something that everybody will want to buy. Everybody should be patient with me. The consequences will be dire if you're not. He'd rather die than quit, like, all those things. He still really thinks he can do this. And in the book that I read, this is where they say he starts waving the red flag of mental instability, because he's even more losing it than before.

>> Farz: I'm gonna. I'm gonna go on a limb here. I will say this might be a bit of a shock. I am not, like, a very artsy person. I, don't care about art that much. I don't know what. Look, I just know what looks good to me. I don't really. I will say, like, I'm looking at his paintings and the thick brushstroke line work stuff that he does. Like, it is objectively, really, really cool and awesome. And also, his family's right. He is unstable. He should have been locked up. He should have had a conservative. When a pregnant prostitute comes knocking on your door, and you're like, I want to be your baby. It's a. Somebody get this guy help.

>> Taylor: Like, yeah, it's m. Like, if any of our brothers did that, you'd be like, no, no, no, no.

You would tell your brother to cut this out, if asked

>> Farz: It's like, we used to make Christmas cards at home and, like, make mama cake for, like. And now you got, like, this woman pregnant, and you have gonorrhea, and we don't know what you talk. What are you doing? We come from. It's not an indictment on her or whatever. We all come from different walks of life. Sometimes it's okay if there's no overlap.

>> Taylor: Yes, totally. And you would also tell your brother to cut this out. Yeah, if asked. Exactly.

Cn's story ends later. But eventually, he's living with his brother

So, I mean, this is, such a long story. There's so many things. But eventually, he's living in Trenton with, his brother. He leaves CN. Cn's story ends later. But she eventually throws herself into a river and dies by suicide. So her life is. Continues to be awful and gross for. Until it's over. And so he's lived with his brother for a little bit. His brother has a mistress. And he wants them to, like, all live together. He's like, we can live together. Like, he really needs. He wants his family unit back that he remembers when he was younger. But Theo won't live with him at this point. his mom falls, and he moves back to Belgium, to the Netherlands to take care of her. And he, you know, got a. Got a patron, got a painting teacher. He ended up meeting a woman named Margot. And she was 43 and he was younger, so he must have been, like, 35 or 34 at this point. But she's, like, super in love with him. So she falls in love with Vincent. And she is a woman who's a, daughter of a neighbor. And the neighbor died, and his three daughters live in the house alone. Like, what have happened to Lizzie Borden and her sister? They lived in the house alone. And her sisters are such bitches. They're like, you're too old to get married. You can't marry him. And, like, yes, he's crazy and all the things, but, like, give me a break. Like, you just, like, told her she can't get married. She can't be happy. So. Poor Margo.

>> Farz: It isn't that she's too old. The problem is that he's an unhinged maniac who has VD from prostitutes. Like, what am I, the old 100%?

>> Taylor: No, you're totally right. That's definitely a lie that history is told. They've been like, you're too old. They've been like, dude, that guy's dirty.

>> Farz: Yeah, that's the problem.

>> Taylor: You're right, you're right. But, his sisters were like, her sisters were like, are you pregnant? Like, what the hell? And she's like, no, I just love him. And they're like, no, absolutely not. So she meets him in the field in the middle of the night, and she's like, I love you so much, I don't know what to do. And then she faints because she had taken strychnine to try to kill herself. He made her throw up, took her to the doctor, and just felt terrible after that. But he eventually did leave and obviously did not get married. But she's maybe the only person who really did love him unconditionally. Maybe that one woman.

>> Farz: Sad. Done.

>> Taylor: I guess it's all sad. So he has all these relationships. He has this beautiful imagination. It's 1885. He's still at home, but he's sad. He's taking care of his mother after her injury. She fell. And Theo is still in Paris. And he's like. He tells Vincent. He makes him think of old people who think their youth was better. He's like, you're acting like we have this idyllic childhood you have to go back to eventually. He's still with his parents, and his dad dies. So his dad's last day, he goes out and repairs some fences, does a long walk in the snow home. And then later, after he should have been home, a maid hears a sound on the door, opens up the door, and the dad has leaned against the door. He's had a massive stroke, and he's dead. So he made it all the way home, like, in the snow, by himself, but then died at the end. Which reminds me of my great grandpa, who went to the doctor one day and the doctor said, you're doing great. You're absolutely perfect. He went home and chopped some wood and then had a heart attack and died, like, both us. So now his sister Anna, is such a bitch. And she's like, you killed dad. It's your fault that he said, because you're here and you're stressing him the fuck out. And so he feels terrible. He's with his parents. He doesn't know what to do. He is acting weird. His brother is like, you have to sell some stuff. What do we do? He's so close, and so he makes this lithograph, like you were saying. So he learns how to, like, do this new form of art where you can, like, quickly reproduce stuff, these lithographs. And he does one called be potato eaters. And.

>> Farz: Oh, yeah, I'm looking at that right now.

>> Taylor: Yeah. So it's like a family eating. And he was obsessed with, like, the peasantry and, like, poor people and their lives. And people saw it and they were like, what is this? It's weird. Like, where are their organs?

Vincent is riddled with STD's and nothing sells in Antwerp

It's dark.

>> Farz: Like, this is not like a, I'm gonna look at this and feel jolly and mirror. I'm not gonna put this in my living room, basically.

>> Taylor: Totally. And it ends up in someone's living room later in the story. But at this point, people are like, this is weird. Like, we don't know what it is. So nothing sells. He's pretending that, like, everything is okay, but nothing is going well. He moves to Antwerp. And he also. Now this is where he can track syphilis. So it's just like, again, tons of STD's. So the medicine for syphilis was mercury, which has its own problems. So it would make you crazy, obviously. Like, you know, like the mad Hatter, you know? Yeah, because, like, hatteras would be mad because of the mercury. So, like, that. And then it made you lose your hair. It made you spit a lot because, like, the mercury, I don't know, whatever. So you would, like, his hair was falling out, his teeth were falling out, he had sores in his mouth. Like, he was just, like, not good. And, he was trying to spend all of his money on, like, getting models so he could start painting them. And he was, like, learning how to paint, taking classes, and just was, like, never working out. For whatever reason, things start looking up. And he moves to Paris to be with Theo. And he gets wood indentures. He starts eating, he starts dressing nice. Spends a few months at school, but it doesn't work. He goes to school where there's, like, the teacher is like, okay, today we're gonna paint pears like a still life. And everybody else is like, do, do, do. I'm gonna paint normal. And Vincent is, like, covered in paint. There's paint dripping down his arms. He's like, slapping paint on the thing. He's like, talking to himself. All these things. And people just like, don't get it. They can't handle it. And they're like, he can't do it. So he doesn't stay in school very long. And then Theo meets a woman who's going to be really important later named Johanna Geznia. And he is like, he met her in Holland. He's like, I love her. He goes, asks her to marry him. She's like, I don't know. You like, what are you talking about? So she, like, turns him down. And Theo goes back to Paris very, very heartbroken. So her name's Johanna. We're going to call her yo, even though spelled Joe, but pronounced yo, which is super cute. Is that right? Yeah, yo, because Johanna, you know, they're called Joe. It's called you. So Theo is starting to get sick as well, because Theo is also riddled with STD's. So I'm not so.

>> Farz: Okay, sorry. I'm not reacting anymore. I get it.

>> Taylor: Everybody has syphilis, everybody has gonorrhea. It's fucking awful. So he. I don't even know what those things do to you, but I imagine it's awful.

>> Farz: But it's like, you know, the source. Why do you keep going back to the source? That's what caves my head in. Like, anyways.

>> Taylor: But, like, emotionally, he keeps going back to the source of the things that hurt him. You know? So it's like, just.

>> Farz: It's true.

>> Taylor: I don't know.

>> Farz: It's a. Yeah, you're right.

>> Taylor: The whole thing. So Theo starting to get. Get, tired of. Of Vincent. They're living together, which has been Vincent's dream, to live with his brother. But it's just, it's not working out. Vincent's obsessed with, like, this, this madam. Madam at this cafe called the cafe tambourine, he's fucking that up. He's fucking up every relationship that he's in. And Theo is actually now in charge of buying all the impressionists and selling it. So, like, he's one of the reasons that impressionism, is even such a big deal is because he was in charge of buying it for the store and selling it. This is like after, they were, like, the avant garde thing, and now they're, like, the meeting stream. Vincent is still not selling. Theo sells none of his work. He is doing some cool things, some things that I didn't know that he was doing. Like, he became obsessed with japanese art. So some m japanese inspired things that Vincent van Gogh did. He would draw, like, he would copy japanese paintings and then draw borders and just put, like, gibberish, japanese symbols around it because he, like, didn't speak japanese or japanese, but he would, like, try to, like, learn from that. So a lot of, like, these, like, deep colors come from that art.

In February 1888, he leaves Paris. He leaves living with his brother for Arles

In February 1888, he leaves Paris. He leaves living with his brother, which was his dream, because he does that for Theo's health, because Theo is, like, getting sick from syphilis, like, super sick, and can't handle having Vincent around. It's just too much. So he leaves, and he goes to his town in France called Arles. A r l e s. Arles. This is where a ton of stuff happens. So Arles a place where Vincent paints his most known works of art, he goes to this town. It's a beautiful old town. It has roman ruins. It has, like, renaissance ruins. It has, like, so much history. It was something where, like, you know, the Romans went through it to get to the rest of Europe. It's just, like, a beautiful, beautiful place. And he rents this house, and it is yellow, and it is called the yellow house. And that is where he does a lot of his work that you may have heard of. One thing he says during this time is he says, I use color to express myself forcefully. So he's, like, really painting a lot. Oil paints are new at this time, too, so it's, like, a whole thing. He spends a lot of time in late nights in a cafe. He stays in a room. He calls it a free love hotel. Obviously, we know what that cafe is, but. But it's, like, a lovely thought to be like, oh, like, we're out late at night with, like, artists and people that kind of don't care. This is his opportunity to start over, you know? So he's like, who can I have come here with me and, like, actually do art with me? So he asks another painter named Paul Gauguin to come live with him and take some m. It sounds familiar. So look it up. So Gauguin had spent a lot of time traveling the world. He'd just been in South America, and he paints a lot of, like, native people. So there's a whole thing about, like, the cultural appropriation of Gauguin painting these native people and all of that. But he paints, like, a lot of things. His. His colors are very deep, but they're also very, like, matte or Vincent's are very, like, shiny. Yeah, but Gauguin is older. He's 40. That's. He's, like, older. Everybody else, he's married, but his wife, he doesn't give a shit. His wife lives somewhere else, and people fucking love him. Like, he's starting. He's really, charming. And people just like being around him where they do not like being around Vincent. And also, Vincent is starting to get. Starting to get older, and he can no longer have sex because of the STD's. So that's, like, a big thing.

>> Farz: But, like, you know what? You know what? I think, like, every human in their life has, like, a counter, and that counter takes down how many sex workers you can hook up with. And he just hit his limit.

>> Taylor: Like, a 15.

>> Farz: I mean, it sounds like it was a lot more than 15, but no, no, no.

>> Taylor: At 15 years old. I mean, like, 15 years old way. Overdose. Yeah, no, he. I mean, yes, he. That was bad. He shouldn't. He is, ruined his body for sure. Theo was giving Gauguin money also and, vincent money to be, like, a patron. So now he's like, let's live together. It's gonna be wonderful. It's gonna be like, this beautiful place. And they move into the yellow house.

>> Farz: Gauguin is like, I'm gonna counter your argument because I'm actually looking at Gauguin's or I. How is this misappropriation? This is, like, lovely, lovely. Like this. Like, I don't depict it in, like, a bad way at all.

>> Taylor: This is 100%. And I don't know. I didn't. That's, like, one of the last things I read, and I don't know anything about it. I can talk about Ghan later, but I don't know.

On December 23, 1888, Gauguin goes for a walk

I just wanted to bring that up because it's, like, in the news. But also, like, if you look up, like, a photo of Gauguin, he doesn't scream super sexy to me, but people loved him.

>> Farz: Oh, no, it's.

>> Taylor: I don't know why. He gets a ton of stories. You know, maybe they're exaggerations. Who cares? People, like, love being around Gauguin. So they'll be like, oh, I'll pose for you, Gauguin. And then they'll go to, the. Go to the house and be like, oh, fuck. Vincent lives here too, you know? And then, like, he'll paint a picture of someone, and Vincent will paint a picture of the same person at the same time. But that person's hand will be in front of their face because they don't want Vincent to look for them.

>> Farz: Oh, wow.

>> Taylor: Because they just, like, don't like him. You know? Another thing for. For. I wrote this. Must have been in the book, or he has hypnotic sensuality. Don't know why, but his stuff is, like, really, really selling. But they also are, like, they're battling in their personalities. Gauguin is very slow, very specific with his painting. Vincent obviously is not. Vincent spends all their money on random things. Gauguin is like, we need to have a budget. We need to clean. You can't live like this, and Vincent just can't do it. But at the same time, Gauguin is starting to get praise, and Theo is selling his stuff, which fucking sucks, because it's like, oh, you sell his stuff and not mine?

>> Farz: Yeah.

>> Taylor: And he's super upset about it, but he's, like, pretending this isn't happening. He's trying to rent more rooms than the yellow house, build his commune. It's just him and Gauguin. Gauguin's trying to leave. He's like, I gotta get out of here. So he's, like, writing letters to people, being like, I have to get out of this space. I just came to live with this guy, but he's crazy. I gotta go. On December 23, 1888, Gauguin goes for a walk, and Vincent is like, he's leaving. Like, I don't know what to do. He's leaving me. And he there. In the time. In that time, there'd been, like, a murderer, which did not look up, but there was, like, a murderer in France that everybody was, like, worried about. And there was a paper, and the paper said, the murderer has fled. So it was like, this murderer is out in the. Out in the world. So this newspaper clipping. Vincent follows Gauguin as he goes through this walk, hands him this newspaper clipping that says, the murderer has fled. And then he runs back home, and Gauguin is just like, okay. And Gauguin goes off, like, onto his night. That's when Vincent goes to a bar. He's drinking absinthe. He's fucked up. He's overwhelmed everything. He's being rejected again and again. Theo has actually gotten yo to marry him. So Theo is about to get married. He sees Gauguin's room is empty. He's like, he's gone. I'm, all alone. And that's when he cuts off his ear.

>> Farz: Wow. That's what did it?

>> Taylor: Yeah.

>> Farz: Wow.

>> Taylor: Yeah. So he is like, I have to do something grand to, like, hurt myself, you know?

>> Farz: Dude, he's like an abuser. He's an abusive relationship. He's like a gaslighter. It's like. It's like, you made me do this.

>> Taylor: You m made me do this.

>> Farz: One of those things.

>> Taylor: So I'm going to show you it, knowing this is. This is the visual part of this podcast. So he takes his ear, moving my headphone. He pulls it out by the earlobe and takes a straight thing, a straight, razor, and cuts it up like this. The whole thing off. Then he's bleeding profusely, and he wraps it up. He wraps his head and he wraps up the ear in, like, paper or whatever, and he goes out to try to find Gauguin, and he's like, where can I find him? And he goes to a, brothel where he knows Gauguin is, but they won't let him in. They're like, you're bleeding. You're crazy. You can't come in.

>> Farz: Go gan's like, dude, this is what I'm talking about.

>> Taylor: Exactly. Like, do you see what this guy's doing? 100%. So he hands his ear to, like, the receptionist at, the brothel and says, remember me? And goes back home. So when they say, like, the thing that I had heard was that he, like, gave his ear to a sex worker, but he didn't. He gave his ear to a sex worker at the brothel because he's trying to find Gauguin to be like, look what you need me do.

Vincent Van Gogh suffers from severe mental illness and mercury poisoning

Don't you love me, dude?

>> Farz: I don't blame everyone for thinking this guy's a fucking weirdo. Like, this is like, yeah, but again, his brains riddled with fucking syphilis, like, in mercury. It's just like, so I can. Okay, so so far, I assume there's autism, ADHD involved. There's probably gonna be, like, a little bit of something else mixed in there as well as part of the cocktail. But even worse than that, his VD is eating holes in his brain. And then what's. And that's being filled in with mercury poisoning in the media. It's just like, all that. It's all not.

>> Taylor: It's all bad. 100%. Now he has to go to a mental institution, to an asylum, like, he has to. And they. Theo comes to visit him. He only stays a day. he takes all of his paintings back to Paris and kind of leaves him in this institution, wherever Vincent, like, yells in his PJ. He's in his pajamas yelling the whole time. You know, people wake up, and he's in bed with them. He's just, like, doing weird stuff. He'd be like, dude, can't be in bed with me, dude.

>> Farz: This has to be, like a comedy movie.

>> Taylor: Vincent.

>> Farz: I mean, I know it's sad. It's sad because it's mental illness. You shouldn't be laughing at people that are suffering. I get it. But it's also, like, it's such a crazy. He's such a crazy historical figure. And, like, Vincent Van Gogh was in my bed screaming at me with his ear bleeding all over my chest.

>> Taylor: He'd be like, this crazy fucking artist was, like, in my bed again, with a hell, you know, ludicrous. Ludicrous. So he. He's in the hospital. He leaves for a little bit and goes back to the yellow house in Arles. But the people, 30 of his neighbors, signed a petition to have him go back. They're like, we don't want him here. Put him back. So he goes back because he was, like, walking around drunk, you know, just, like, doing weird stuff. He couldn't budget. He couldn't do anything. He's in and out of the hospital. Theo gets married to yo. And, they're blissfully happy. As far as everyone knows, Vincent is on his way to go back to Paris to live near Theo and yeo. But then he's, like, in, like, a moment of clarity, he's like, no, I gotta go back to the institution. So he goes back to the institution because he's like, I can't. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want to hurt your new life that you have. So he goes back. Theo takes all of his art, including sunflowers. When Vincent went to finally pack the yellow house, it had been flooded. Everything was kind of moldy. So a lot of his work he had to throw away. But a lot of it was, like, some of the stuff that we know today, like the sunflowers and the really famous things, the potato eaters were in there as well. So he sends that all back to Paris with Theo. And then also, just to note, on June 25, 1944, an allied campaign to destroy the bridges over the Rhone river bombed the area, and the yellow house was destroyed. So you can go there.

>> Farz: Are you going to get to, like, the most famous painting?

>> Taylor: Yes. Okay. I'm coming up to it. Sorry. It's happening really soon now.

Vincent has latent epilepsy, which means he doesn't have physical seizures

Vincent is in a beautiful asylum in the mountains of France. And this is when they discover that this is what he has. He has epilepsy. He has latent epilepsy, which means he doesn't have physical seizures, but they happen in his brain. It causes him to have anger and mood swings and to work furiously and have exaggerated activity. It's like an epileptic fury that's, like, only mental and doesn't really come out in, like, the physical shaking that you think of, like a seizure. But it's happening in his brain. That's a lot of what's happening to him. The things he's seeing are, like, all things in his brain, like this fire that, like, other people don't see. Hm. That's why he's so, like, besides other things, I'm sure the ADHD, all the. The gonorrhea, the syphilis, the mercury poisoning. But he also has epilepsy, which makes sense because there's actually a lot of epilepsy in his family. He has an uncle who was epileptic, and it totally synced with what he does. Because, like, if you're having this, like, latent epileptic seizure that's in your mind, you become totally manic. You forget what you're doing, and then later you have, like, serious, serious remorse. And that's what happens to him all the time. So this, in this asylum in France, is where he does paint a starry night? Is that what you're talking about?

>> Farz: Yeah. I also want to point out that late stage syphilis also causes seizures and epilepsy. So let's, as we. As we try to, like, paint, brush over. These are not, congenital defects the man was born with. He fucked his way into epilepsy is what happened.

>> Taylor: It's also in his family. So I don't know. It could be. It could be both. Sure. Sure.

>> Farz: Yes. We are not doctors. We're not doctors.

>> Taylor: Go get tested. Be careful, everyone.

Vincent van Gogh painted from memory or from his imagination

>> Farz: I was thinking about starry night.

>> Taylor: Vincent, as I've said, didn't paint from memory or from his imagination. He painted from looking at things. That's why he was, like, obsessed with having models, except obsessed with having people actually there when he drew them. But a starry night. He would stand in his room in his with barred windows, looking out at the night all night long, looking at the stars. And then in the morning, they would let him go down into a studio to paint by day. And that's how he painted a starry night, which is, like, the only thing he ever painted from memory and from his imagination. So he the town that's in a starry night is sort of like, there was a town that he could have seen from his room. It's not that town, but it's, like, similar. And they made it a lot smaller and more quaint. And then on the left, there's obviously, like, the big cypress trees, and he could have seen those from his bedroom window as well. So that was, like, the view there.

>> Farz: He should have done more from memory because that one's like, I don't know. That's obviously the best one, I think.

>> Taylor: Well, I think also that's so interesting because it's like people were telling him, you have to, like, go to school and, like, learn these, like, concepts of art. And he was like, yes, but he would try it and he couldn't do it. So he was, like, kind of forcing himself to tone it down for everybody else, you know? But when he was like, I'm just gonna go ahead and do it, then he makes a starry night.

>> Farz: Wow. Yeah.

>> Taylor: Which I've seen, it's in the, in the moma in New York City. So I saw that. Yeah, lovely. Which is where I got.

>> Farz: Is it big?

>> Taylor: Yes. It's not huge, but it's not, like, small.

>> Farz: Bigger than Mona Lisa?

>> Taylor: Yes, it's bigger than the Mona Lisa. Yeah. So this is the first time he's ever done that. It's like, you know, maybe potentially this, like, firework of electrical impulses in his brain. Who knows all these things. But he's painting starry night. He's doing these artistic things, but also he's, like, eating his paint and drinking kerosene from the lamps. So it's not great. So they're going to be like, you can't paint anymore. You're not going to have. You can't have sharp objects because you're starting to go crazy. People started to see his sunflower paintings and kind of like them. Now there's an article about him in the paper. And people started to be like, oh, isn't it interesting that this artist is institutionalized? You know, like, I don't know. It's kind of cool. So they started to, like, do that, which is, like, super unfair that people had pay attention to him once. He'd already been, like, hospitalized for his problems. So Vin, Theo and yo have a baby. And then the other baby, Vincent van Gogh.

>> Farz: That's cute.

>> Taylor: Who's another one? So the baby Vincent, and Vincent hasn't met yo yet, but he, like, write the right letters. She's very nice to him. when she meets him for the first time. She's like, he looks great. He looks healthy. Like, he's not what I expected. Like, he looks fine. Actually. Theo looks worse, you know, because his syphilis, but whatever. Yeoh. Actually did not get syphilis, so lucky duck on that one. There's, like, piles and piles of art around them. He's sending it to Theo, like, frantically. He gets out of the institution, and he goes to a town that I absolutely cannot pronounce. It's avers.

>> Farz: Why is he sending? Is it because his art was finally being recognized and valuable and he's trying to monetize?

>> Taylor: No, I mean, that's what he always wanted, but he's just, like, producing a lot at this point. So they let him out of the institution for whatever reason. And he goes to the small town, and he's painting a lot. He's looking at gardens. He's asking Theo and yo to come back and live with him. He's like, we could be a family. We gotta live here. We could have this garden. They do come and they bring the baby, and he, like, shows the baby the yard. He said, look how lovely it could be. Like he's like, I'm feeling better. Like, he's. All accounts he thinks he's feeling better. And so on July 27, 1890, Vincent went out to paint in the fields, just like he always did. He wore his little hat. He brought his easel, he brought his paints blocked up to the field. Hours later, he came home after walking like a mile, like, literally up a hill, up a cliff to get back home. He is walking home. The people in town see him. His jacket is buttoned, and he's limping. His landlord looks at him and says, like, vincent, what happened? And he says, I wounded myself. And opens up his jacket, and he has a bullet hole in his ribs. People then forever were like, he died by suicide. He shot himself. He died, like, 29 hours later. It was, like, super painful. Like, super.

The official story was that Vincent van Gogh shot himself

He didn't shoot himself in the head or, like, the heart. It was, like, in his ribs, like a really weird spot. And there's all of these, things that are like, well, he had talked about suicide before. he was very, like, he was eating the paint, he was drinking the kerosene. But we talked about suicide. He would talk about it as, like, drowning or, like, he never mentioned guns. There weren't really guns around at this time. They were very, very rare. The official story was that he shot himself and he died a few days later. And he actually said, like, I wounded myself. And Theo came to be with him and he said, theo, let me die. This is where I want to die. Like, this is fine. So he never, so they just assumed that he had, that he had killed himself and that was the end of Vincent van Gogh. But there's also in this, like I said, a true story.

>> Farz: He was with a sex worker. He was with a sex worker.

>> Taylor: No, no.

>> Farz: Wow.

>> Taylor: Here's what I think it was. This is in the book. And then like an article on Vanity Fair where the authors from the book talk about this, but it sounds like there were these fucking punk ass kids in town who would make fun of him all the time. And they would be like, they'd like put salt in his coffee and they like found him masturbating in the woods and made fun of him because obviously he's also masturbating.

>> Farz: They're not wrong, Taylor.

>> Taylor: No, but they were mean to him. They were mean to him. They found someone they could bully and they bullied him. And the leader of this gang of bullies was named Renee Secretan, and he was 16 years old, but he fucking loved the old west of the United States. So he had this fake cowboy costume that he would wear to be like Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill, and he would wear this fake costume around and he would borrow a gun that the innkeeper had and pretend to be a cowboy. So it sounds like the kids accidentally shot him playing cowboy. And Vincent didn't want them to get in trouble, so said that he had hurt himself.

>> Farz: Did they find a gun on Vincent?

>> Taylor: No, they never found the gun. Never found. They found like a gun much later. They never found his paint, or any of the things he brought with him. So it sounds like the kids took it and threw it away. There was no suicide note, there was no painting stuff like, yes, he was depressed and yes, he was all these things, but he hadn't like, said anything was gonna happen, which also, like, that happens too. You know, people who seem very, very happy die by suicide and you don't know, but that is like a thing that is suspicious. So the authors of the book who that I read, they, in the, I don't know, 2000 somethings, they had a forensic person look at it, look at the autopsy reports, look at Vincent, look at everything. And the person who did it was named doctor Vincent de Mayo, and he was actually the forensic analyst who worked on the George Zimmermande case. So he's like a real like forensic guy in the news. And his conclusion is, quote, is my opinion that in all medical probability. The wound incurred by Van Gogh was not self inflicted. In other words, he did not shoot himself.

>> Farz: Okay, thank you. That word has worked for.

>> Taylor: It sounds like it could have been an accident, but that's, like, a whole thing. He was super sick. Van Gogh was not going to live to be 100, you know, like, he was going to die soon anyway, but he was always like, I will accept death when it comes, but I'm not going to, like, necessarily seek it out. And then when it happened, he was probably like, this checks out.

>> Farz: My only thing is, like, if you're trying to ascribe logic to it, the guy fucking slid his ear off and gave it to the receptionist of a brothel, you know?

>> Taylor: Yeah. He wasn't gonna live much longer.

>> Farz: What?

>> Taylor: You know, because if you're.

>> Farz: Because your argument is, like, what normal person would try and kill themselves by shooting them in the rib? Well, you're not dealing with a normal person totally right.

>> Taylor: You're totally right. Yeah, but we just, like, we'll never know. There was always rumors around town. The rumor town was that some boys killed him by accident, but they didn't say anything. They want anybody to get in trouble. That boy ended up growing up and becoming kind of a, like a famous. Not famous, but like, a politician in the area. So they just didn't talk about it anymore. So, like, it could have happened. It could have been him. We'll never really know. But it's not like black and white, you know? Theo, his brother, is obviously devastated that Vincent has passed. And he is like, I want to make. Make him famous. He feels very guilty. He's obsessed with it, but he can't do it because of the syphilis, of course. So theo actually dies six months later. He gets sent away to an asylum as well, because his mind is crazy with the syphilis. Whatever it does, it's not great. And he ends up dying really young. Vincent, was 37 when he died. Theo was 33. So, he died pretty, pretty young. And he ended up being like, a padded cell. That's how crazy the syphilis made him. And then, I mean, the van Gogh family, like, you know, without going into all the things, like, another brother, he died by suicide. Another sister was actually sent away for 40 years. She lived in an institution. So, like, the kids were not great in general, but Vincent was the one who, like, did it by, like, you know, have actually actual output from his, like, his mental instability. So yo remarried, and she made sure that Theo and Vincent were buried together. And that could have been sort of like, the end of his. His legacy. But then, you know, the question is, why do we know about him? Like, why would we ever know? He never sold anything in his life.

Van Gogh's mother championed exhibition of his work across Europe

You know? He sold, like, one painting in his, like, last year of life. People ridiculed him. He was always, like, on the outskirts of everything. Like, there's no reason for us to know about him. But the reason we do is because of yo. Because she inherited everything. So, in. So she moved back to the Netherlands and made a, like, a boarding house. So she would have, like, people stay at her house. It was her and Vincent van Gogh. The kid, the baby. And she had the potato ears in her living room. She had starry night in her dining room. She had this crazy. Yeah, these.

>> Farz: Like, she had $800 million worth of paintings between.

>> Taylor: No, it's more like one of the. There's a kid, like, a great great grandson of Theo was talking about in one of the articles I read, like, going through closets of Vincent's work. And he's like, it's tens of billions of dollars that we were going through, like, in the closet, you know? And the Van Gogh family actually doesn't own any original van Gogh works anymore. They've all donated it and sold it and given it. So, like, the world can have it is, like, their. Their thing. But yo had all this art, and she had all of the letters that Vincent wrote. Theo. She had all the letters, all the paper that Vincent kept. So she read it all. So smart. She. She would translate books from Dutch to English. She was, like, a teacher. She, like, knew ton about linguistics. So she was like, people need to see this, and they will understand it if they understand how tormented Vincent was in his mind. So she invented in. Was, the first person to really say, like, the tortured artist. Like, she was the person to, like, make it say, like, you have to look at his work in context of his life. So she did that. And, you know, one thing is, like, in the article that I read, like, she would go to an important gallery with her baby. She's holding her baby. She's a woman. No one takes women seriously. And she would be like, you have to look at this. You have to read these letters. You have to look at this art. It is something. And so she would rent galleries. She became the person who championed this across Europe. She actually spent a couple years in America having people look at his work as well. In 1905, the largest van Gogh exhibit that ever happened, happened, in the Netherlands. It had 484 of his works on display. And she rented the galleries, printed the posters, invited the people, bought bow ties for the staff. Her son Vincent wrote out the invitations like, they made it happen.

>> Farz: Wow.

>> Taylor: And then the question is, like, why? Why did yo do that? She only was married to Theo for like less than two years, but her journals and her life. She wrote a journal when she was younger, saying that, I want to do something with my life that's important. Then it stopped. She said, I'm, moving to Paris. And then two years later, she picked up her journals again, and the rest of her life was like, those two years in Paris were the best years of my life. And she was trying to recreate and share that huge artistic journey with the world. And so that was her motivation was like, this is the thing that I want everybody to know. We know about him because of her, because of all the work that she did. Otherwise, we would never have known. And, one thing that he wrote in the letter to theo, which, which is a quote from another artist, but it's something that he felt very deeply, is he said, no results of my work would be more agreeable to me than that ordinary working men should hang such prints in their rooms or workplace. Which is exactly what happened.

>> Farz: Yeah.

>> Taylor: And I cut this out of my art book. I just framed the night cafe to hang up in my house.

>> Farz: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, I'm looking, I'm looking at it.

>> Taylor: His.

>> Farz: So apparently the, estimated value of starry night is $100 million. It's crazy.

>> Taylor: Crazy.

>> Farz: It's one painting.

>> Taylor: Mm Mm And arts, you know, arts, like, whatever, you, who knows, like, what makes something stick and something doesn't. But his stuff is very special. He's very special. Yeah.

>> Farz: Again, I don't, I'm not like an art guy, but like, I look at it and I'm like, man, it like evokes something.

>> Taylor: Yeah.

>> Farz: You know, it's an.

>> Taylor: For common people like you and me.

>> Farz: You know, I will say this. I will say that nobody in the world will ever convince me that Pablo Picasso was an artist or good at painting, or good at his imagination, or good at, like it is, it is like an acid trip on paper. Like, is all it is. Like, it is not good.

>> Taylor: I have a couple thoughts. Picasso was actually a really good technical painter that he could paint things that were very realistic.

Nyu: Give me a realistic Pablo Picasso painting

Like, van Gogh could not. But he moved past that and was like, I could do this forever, but I want to. So moved on to the next thing, which was Picasso's stuff that we know.

>> Farz: Use that Nyu degree. Tell me what. Give me a. Give me a realistic Pablo Picasso painting.

>> Taylor: Oh, but look up his blue period. Picasso. Blue period.

>> Farz: Thank you, Nyu.

>> Taylor: Thank you. That was $100,000. But this is when he was doing, like, starting. Starting to get weird. But like.

>> Farz: Like, it's good, but it's not like, you know, you look at a da Vinci painting and you're like, whoa.

>> Taylor: Like, right. You know what I mean? But that's a different. But. But, that had been done, and it's different. I need more time to think about this. But yes. How about Van Gogh?

>> Farz: Like, Van Gogh's stuff wasn't detailed, but it's just like, wow. Like, the brushstrokes, like, weird. Like, how did. How did you. You know. Now I'm so foolish because this entire time, I thought it was just like a genius mind filled with curiosity and endeavored for truth and style and painting, when really it was just a vd world brain full of holes filled with mercury poisoning. Like, that's what it takes to do, I think, a good van Gogh. But I don't know. Picasso. Yeah. probably. Probably one of those guys who. The sheer force of personality made him super, super fascinating in real life.

>> Farz: And people just like, were like, oh, then you must be a genius.

>> Taylor: And I'm sure Picasso had stds. I don't want to be a dick, but, like, Did you ever watch what we do in the shadows?

>> Farz: No.

>> Taylor: So good. But there's one where they have Guernica as one of Picasso's most famous paintings. And it's like black and white. And it's after, a bombing of the town of Guernica in Spain. And it's like a horror thing, but it's weird. If you don't like it, you wouldn't like it. But, anyway, one of the vampires, she says that she's in it and she calls him Pablo Picasso. Funny.

>> Farz: Get to that. you're the first person to ever recommend what we do in the shadows.

>> Taylor: To me, it's amazing.

>> Farz: Like forever ago, like, we were so.

>> Taylor: Good because even before the. Even before the tv show. That's like three seasons now. There's the movie from like 1015 years ago. It's so good.

>> Farz: The movie is the one that you recommended.

>> Taylor: Oh, my God. It's amazing. I love it. I love it. yeah, it's crazy. There's. I feel like the. The thing that rocked me is I was like, oh, he cut his ear off for a woman and he absolutely did not.

>> Farz: It wasn't a better reason a woman would have made more sense.

>> Taylor: No, but the. But the. But the answer is every relationship that Vincent van Gogh had was red Flagley and flaggy and doomed. He couldn't do it. He just could not do it. And, like, that beautiful two minutes from. From doctor who. But you're just like, would he. It'd be lovely to be able to tell him, you know, like, it'd be nice to be like, you know, people know who you are. I think that he'd like that.

>> Farz: No, that was a good one. That was a really good one.

This will be a long episode. We're pushing just, uh, shy of 2 hours

I am gonna start a lot.

>> Taylor: This.

>> Farz: This will be a long episode. Yeah, we're pushing just, shy of 2 hours.

>> Taylor: Yeah, whatever.

>> Farz: We had a lot to say. We got three stories in. I do like how, you know, when we consider our topics you covered, like, this giant of creativity and insanity mixed with beauty and the movement. It's like, you're like that guy in american mind who, like, films the sack in the wind, you know?

>> Taylor: Thank you. No one's ever thought I was deep.

>> Farz: And then I'm like, this guy's guts got fucking shot out like a cannon. 30ft.

>> Taylor: Oh, my God. It's so gross. I made some beautiful things on mid journey of van Gogh doing a diving bell that I'll share with you.

>> Farz: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

I have some listener mail. Which is not listener mail because zero people have emailed us

>> Taylor: Well, I have some listener mail.

>> Farz: Oh, yeah, let's hear it.

>> Taylor: Which is not listener mail because zero people have emailed us, but it's friends who text who texted me. I have a couple. I have three stories. So Beth from North Carolina, she called to tell us that, when Pat Robertson died, Robert Pattinson was trending on Twitter because people were worried that he had died.

>> Farz: It's so good. The Internet never fails.

>> Taylor: And I would be more much sadder if that had happened. I don't think I've ever seen a Robert Pattinson movie, but still. and then George from New York, my friend George reminded me about, speaking of the Habsburgs. the last crown prince of Austria actually died in 2011 at the age of 98. And he was the one that was in a wheelchair. Do you remember that 30 rock where Jenna almost marries the Habsburgs?

>> Farz: No.

>> Taylor: they do, like, a really great thing. I think it's the guy can't remember his name. Oh, my God. The guy plays TB Herman, and he's, like, in a wheelchair and, like. But a prince. So it's like. It's really funny. It's like, definitely watch that. and then my last one is Blair from Austin. I've heard of her. she said that, when you had mentioned, has anyone ever mixed whiskey and wine in a cocktail? she said that she used to work at a restaurant in Las Vegas, and they would make sangria, but it was just a bottle of wine and a bottle of brandy and a ton of sugar, and people would get shit faced.

>> Farz: God. So, I mean, man, I guess if you're trying to get shit faced, that's one way to do it.

>> Taylor: Exactly. So, that was Blair's suggestion for, you know, mixing whiskey and wine. Just put together, add some fruit and some sugar. I'm sure that sangria is probably. I mean, no one would notice after the first half a glass.

>> Farz: That's true.

>> Taylor: This is delicious.

>> Farz: Yeah. Yeah.

>> Taylor: It'd be like eating the fruit with a fork.

>> Farz: Oh, God. It's all just going to taste like. It might as well be nothing at that point.

>> Taylor: Exactly. Like, mouth is numb and you can't remember where you parked.

>> Farz: Thank you, listeners.

>> Taylor: Thank you, everyone.

>> Farz: Writing in.

>> Taylor: Yeah. For texting me personally, and, you know, I love it. I'm so. I really. I truly do love that my friends are like, we love it. Thank you.

>> Farz: In June, with our advertising that's coming out, everybody will love it as well. We're gonna be world famous, and, yeah, that'll be our cross to bear, hopefully.

>> Taylor: Yeah. Strangers find us on the Internet. We're fail pod, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. Put everything up on YouTube so you can watch it there. That's what you do. But we're on all of the podcast platforms. Please, like and subscribe. Tell your friends. This is our 26th episode, so we have tons of episodes to go back on. We talk about Russia a lot. That's the true crime laws of history. Please listen. Thank you.

>> Farz: Thank you all. and I think I'll go ahead and cut it off there.