When we think of tortured geniuses, few come to mind as quickly as Vincent van Gogh. Throughout his decade-long career, he battled extreme poverty, debilitating psychotic episodes, and profound isolation. Whether accurate or not, many credit his artistic talent to this series of struggles. His most celebrated masterpieces often unwittingly serve as “proof” that creativity is linked to insanity and emotional suffering in some way.
However, many don’t know that van Gogh would have likely never reached this legendary “mad genius” status had it not been for the tireless efforts of his less famous sister-in-law.
The van Gogh family member history nearly forgot
Johanna Bonger, after some persistent wooing, became the wife of Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s devoted brother and reputable art dealer, who worked with the likes of Degas and Monet.
One of Theo’s dreams was to help Vincent’s career flourish. However, at the time, no one took his brother’s work seriously. His thick application, highly expressive style, and bold, unnatural colors were jarring to an art world accustomed to traditional, academic realism, and it was dismissed as bizarre and child-like.
Vincent, as we know, died from an infection caused by a gunshot wound to the stomach (some say by his own hand, others suspect foul play). Only six months later, Theo also passed away, leaving Johanna alone with a baby and hundreds of her brother-in-law’s unbought paintings.
Hoping to honor her late husband’s dream, Johanna devoted her life to continuing to establish the legacy of Vincent.
Winning over a skeptical art world
For two decades, despite constant ridicule from the highfalutin art world, Johanna relentlessly reached out to galleries, pushing for exhibitions, carefully selecting which collectors would get access to certain pieces. She also strategically lent some of Vincent’s work to various early retrospective exhibitions, which are specialized museum showcases dedicated to a creator who is still early in their career but has already made a profound impact.
But it was Johanna’s other move that proved her to be a master marketer.
The campaign that changed art history
She knew that Vincent’s letters to Theo, which beautifully capture his struggles with mental health, his philosophical musings on life and love, and his passionate devotion to capturing the colors of the world, would give new meaning to his work. Suddenly, Vincent was more than an artist; he was a flawed hero, a tragic visionary. In other words…a brand.
Johanna treated both the letters and the paintings as a singular package, and even published the letters in 1914. She later translated them into English for potential American patrons. With these two elements combined, Vincent’s legacy as a long-suffering artist began to spread throughout the world, and the rest is art history.
Though her role in all this has not been widely known, partially because her diaries were sealed until recently, Johanna has since stepped into a spotlight of her own as the subject of several books.
This all goes to show us a few things:
- No artist, nay, no person at all, truly creates in a vacuum. We all need our various champions who believe in us to really make our dream happen.
- Personal branding has been around muuuuuch longer than we probably think.
- Research long enough, and you’ll find that the credit behind any male “genius” is owed, at least in part, to a woman.
If you’d like to learn more about Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, this book is a pretty good place to start.
