Where'd Van Gogh Go?

Vincent Van Gogh arguably one of the most well known painters in the world. Best known for his landscape titled Starry Night and cutting off his ear for love, was believed for years to have died by sucicide. Not a difficult thing to image since he was not stranger to bodily harm. But recently some new theories have arisen to make many people, including myself, believe that his death was actually MURDER!

First of all let's get one thing straight...

Van Gogh did not cut off his year for some girl.

The real story begins in the winter of 1888 with an argument between Van Gogh and his painter friend and roomate Paul Gauguin. Now Van Gogh had struggled with his mental health a lot. He suffered attacks that caused him to hallucinate and sometimes loose consciousness. It's believed he suffered one of these attacks when he cut off his own ear. I've read other versions of the story where he originally attacked Gauguin with a knife or pair of scissors, and felt guilty afterwards, which caused him to cut off his ear. Either way he did present the ear to a sex worker in a brothel, and that is where the infamous stroy comes from.

Unfortunately he did start to suffer from more attacks after. And this instability in his mental health is what leads us to the conclusion that he committed suicide. But what if that was really not the case.

What happened July 27 1890?

Vincent had been staying at the Ravoux Inn in Auvers-sur-Oise. On July 27 1890 he left for a wheat field he frequently painted in with his easel and painting supplies. Later that evening he returned to the Inn, limping up to his room. He returned with none of the supplies he had left with, and had his jacket done up all the way despite it being a pleasant evening.

Now let's say for a minute that he had tried to kill himself. Why return to the Inn? He did not ask anyone for help, so it appears as though he did not want to be "saved", but if it truly was his wish to die... why not just stay in the field where he had supposedly shot himself?

Van Gogh himself was very adamant in claiming to have shot himself, he said "do not accuse anyone. It is I who wanted to kill myself." And yet, there a few theories that do accuse other people, so let's dive into one.

This theory is that local boys shot him. Van Gogh was often the reciever of some nasty pranks by local teenaged boys, and although murder is a far jump from some pranks, it is one worth taking. One of the many mysteries of Van Gogh's day in the wheat field was his supplies. Not only did he not return with them, but they were missing from the wheat field too. Similarly to shoot himself Van Gogh would've needed a gun, which he didn't have. However one of these local boys did. René Secrétan loved to make Van Gogh angry, he also loved the wild west and had a whole cowboy outfit including a pistol. René also had an older brother, Gaston, who loved to paint and who Van Gogh tried to befriend. The theory stands that the boys shot Van Gogh (possibly by accident) and Van Gogh covered for them not wanting to ruin their lives. The idea that someone else shot Van Gogh is supported by the bullet not existing out the back which means there would need to be more distance between the gun and Van Gogh than he could make by himself. It's also possible but a harder pill to swallow to think that maybe the boys shot him with intent to wound and or kill Vincent Van Gogh.