If not meant as an article but a post it doesn't really matter that it moves in different directions.
And for knowing more and coming to understand better, just Google. Like you talk about the Dutch dykes and conclude The Harvest is that. But The Harvest is in Arlès, France, so quite the distance from The Netherlands.
I believe he only started to paint in these bright sunny colours in the last few years of his life, when he had moved to the south of France.

Sometimes people ask this question: if you could meet someone from the past, who would it be. I think I would actually like to meet Vincent van Gogh, just to find out for myself what he was really like.
The man was so misunderstood, judged, and shunned, and in those days it was quite easy to label someone as 'difficult' just because he didn't follow the standard, required path in life. But was he really difficult or simply misunderstood? From what I've always gathered he was never appreciated, his work ridiculed. And he couldn't find his way in life. But these days there's tons of people with the same problem, especially now in these days of ascension.
So I'd really like to find out for myself is he was only misunderstood and totally miserable because of that, or something else.
In a way he reminds me of my dad, who also spent his entire life searching for something, and passing away age 78 without ever really finding it.

Very insightful Crystal, very.

I was reading up an explanation given by an artist about VVG slicing off his ear and although it does not justify the act, one can see the sense behind it all.

It is on another sticky point that I would like to hear your views on - his affair with Cornelia Vos-Stricker.

In a letter to Theo, Vincent declares:



In this same letter Vincent also details on how his parents strongly objected to this love.

The sticky point is an incident later on, where in his attempt to meet Cornelia and obstructed bu C's father, he pleads that he be allowed to meet her as long as his hand was over a flame (candle flame). Stricker Sr. or somebody else would not allow this and blew out the flame.

I know this sounds like some ancient theater or, depending on who you ask, makes Vincent look insane.

Leaving aside that Vincent was 28, financially dependent on his brother and so on; didn't he take into account how Cornelia would have felt finding a man with his hand over a candle flame while they talked?

My question is how did women (in those times) feel about such lovers! Today, of course they would run.

The reason I am interested is & I quote from Wiki:



At 28, most men would run away from marriage and commitments. In fact, they wouldn't be able to articulate love if they stumbled over it. So in my book Vincent is already a winner; social barrier or no barrier. It's the candle flame - height of passion that is unknown to us non-artists.

The ear thing is another mystery that never will be cleared up I think. There's the stories we're always told that he's the insane painter who cut off his ear for a prostitute. But there's also a story that says that Paul Gauguin did that when they had an argument, or that Vincent did it during an argument with Gauguin.
And another one that says he did it cause of tinnitus.
As far as I know his cutting off his ear has nothing to do with Cornelia. He cut off is his ear when in France, the Cornelia thing was when he was in The Netherlands.
When relating the event to a woman, stories always spoke of a prostitute, and his cousin was no prostitute.

Love, so many people have done crazy things in the name of love, haha. I guess he was infatuated, and I suppose the no-go must have come from them being full cousins, first degree. Not allowed. I think even now this is by law not allowed as it comes with risks.

I think people who are not artist can know the depth of love and passion just the same. You don't need to be a painter for that!

He probably had difficulty dealing with and processing emotions.
Whether that makes him mentally ill, I don't know. Problem is that people always start from that premise, and I wonder if they incorporate the fact that in those day the medical world didn't know Jack really. These days there's a far better understanding of things like personality disorders, ADHD / ADD, OCD and the like.
But back then if someone displayed difficult behaviour, couldn't find his way in life and refused to do the default thing, had difficulty dealing with emotions (maybe as a result of all that) would likely automatically be labelled insane.
And maybe he was, or maybe he just lost it because he felt utterly lost in life.
Or the toxic vapours of the paint affected his brain...
Terps are not particularly healthy and maybe he didn't think of that or simply didn't care. I do know the masters discovered this fact at some point.

In any case, I think there will never really be clarity? Had he lived now with doctors with much better knowledge and understanding of mental diseases, personality disorders, etc etc. we would've gotten a very clear picture.

I'm not saying he wasn't insane btw. I'm saying there are a whole lot of factors that we -or at least I- do not know.

So I googled 'Van Gogh Autistic'

And an amazing link: house painting job - starry night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRhyLwYH5U

I hasten to add

autistic abilities can be a subset of the genius - genie

like some mathematicians who can mentally work out the square toot of numbers?

But more people prefer Van Gogh as an autistic

A link to an exhibition - immersive sensory experience
https://vimeo.com/401880258

Van Gogh’s “Langlois Bridge at Arles”. One of his early paintings in France.

There are more colorful versions in websites including Pinterest and this disturbs me that even art is collared by web businesses.

This one is from Research Gate who has nothing to do with art. The reason for it being in a research website is as follows.



Talk about reverse engineering - structures and painting of structures that evoke the soul. Thank you VVG

Blute fin mill

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dutch-vangogh/experts-authenticate-van-gogh-windmill-painting-idUSTRE61N48120100224