Essay Example on Vincent van Gogh: Unlucky in Love & Unconventional Choices

The love life of Vincent van Gogh as portrayed in the exhibition, he was a miserable one. He was unlucky in love since his life was full of rejections and failed romances. In fact, there is none of the stories had a happy conclusion. Furthermore, this may be attributed to his unconventional choice of women. Besides, having been raised by a strict protestant father who was also a pastor, he revolved his desire for intimate relationships with women, which his family regarded as unsuitable. For instance, he fell for his cousin Kee Vos, a former prostitute called Sien Hoornik, an older neighbor named Margot Begemann, and an artist’s model, Agostina Segator (Van Gogh Museum, n.d.). All of these relationships did not work, as shown in the exhibition. While the exhibition achieves its goal of revealing the love life of Vincent Van Gogh through narration, it would be improved if all the images of four women were drawn to give the impression of the story being told from the artist’s point of view.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The exhibition showcases an image, No, Nay, Never, which depicts a woman called Kee Vos sitting with her son standing beside her. She was a cousin to Vincent. It is revealed that he met her at the age of 28 years after the demise of her husband (Van Gogh Museum, n.d.). Although his feelings for grew, Kee did not view Vincent as husband material. In fact, when he proposed, Kee replied, “no, nay, never,” warning him not to proposal again. Still, he did not give up despite both his and Kee’s family opposing their relationship. Therefore, he left his home with his heartbroken and later fell in love with another woman.

Furthermore, the exhibition narrates that Vincent was drawn to prostitute through a painting called Saving Sien. At 29 years, while in the streets, he met a pregnant prostitute named Saving Sien (Van Gogh Museum, n.d.). His family also did not approve of their relationship not due to Sien being prostitute, but since she was Catholic. They lived together for a while after the birth of the child. The exhibition illustrates how this period was marked by both their emotional and physical instability since as Vincent concentrated on his work, Sien began working again as a prostitute. Yet again, influenced by his family, he let her with her child despite having made promises to marry her.

Additionally, in the image named The Woman Next Door, it shows that at the age of 31 years, he returned to his city, Nuenen, where he met a third woman (Van Gogh Museum, n.d.). Vincent, however, fell in love with Margot, who was her neighbor’s daughter. She was ten years older than him. Although she responded to his advances, the sisters opposed their marriage. Besides, this resulted in another challenge. Margot attempted to kill herself, but she survived. The exhibition further reveals that despite having an age bracket of ten years, their relationship ended drastically.

In his last attempt for love, the exhibition presents painting, City of Love, of a woman called Agostina who sat in a bar with a drink and a cigarette. In comparison with his previous love, she was additionally the source of issues. However, when she became sick, he suspected that he had a miscarriage or performed an abortion. Although the exhibition does state the reason for Vincent leaving Agostina, being the source of problems may be attributed to being the main contributing factor.

Although the goal of this exhibition, that is to the narrative the love life of Vincent, has been attained, it would be improved if he drew all the women’s images. Only two of the four images have been drawn, which include Saving Sien and City of Love. Taking this approach would attract viewers to read more Vincent’s love life since it would feel as if it is being narrated from the artist’s point of view rather than of a second person. It would, thus, make the viewers slide into his shoes and experience the rejection and heartbreak he faced having been in four unsuccessful relationships.

Reference

Van Gogh Museum. Vincent Van Gogh's Love Life. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/3wUxmCmHZqZVew.