Reclaiming Vincent
Think of the great artists of the Church; Michelangelo, Bach, there have been too many to list. One name is absent from the Who’s Who of Christian artists who touched the world for God: Vincent Van Gogh.
Wait. Isn’t he the guy who cut his ear off for the love of a woman finally dying hopelessly insane? The same guy who suicided? Isn’t he the artist who only sold one painting in his entire life but whose work today fetches in the upper umpteen millions? The same guy who died dirt poor? The same Vincent?
But, but… well, wouldn’t it be easier if we deftly swept his legacy aside and pretended to ignore his passion and love for God? In our selfishly skewed ‘Only Positive is Good’ worldview, Van Gogh proves an embarrassing contradiction.
Geniuses have a way of making everyone uncomfortable, forcing us to see the world through new eyes. And what do you do with the legacy of a Christian madman?
When God places His creative spark within a vessel, that vessel is then set apart for a very different path in life. Creativity is random, the ability to connect dots no one else even sees into cohesive form and substance. God is a Creator and he will sometimes uniquely gift an individual with creative ability. The greater the spark, the more random the creativity.
Van Gogh had three failed careers. First as an art dealer, then as a minister, and finally as an artist, though failure depends on your measure of success. He was notorious when selling a painting for explaining to art patrons why the particular piece they were interested in was really junk. His drive for artistic truth led him to financial ruin. His father was a successful Calvinist Christian minister, as was his grandfather, and it was expected that Vincent would follow in their footsteps.
As a young aspiring Christian, Vincent wrote, “It is my fervent prayer and desire that the spirit of my father and grandfather may rest upon me, that it may be given me to become a Christian and a Christian laborer and that my life may resemble more and more the lives of those named above; for behold, the old wine is good, and I do not desire a new one (Letter 89) . . . Oh that I may be shown the way to devote my life more fully to the service of God and the Gospel. I keep praying for it and, in all humility, I think I shall be heard . . . (Letter 92)1.”
Vincent was an impassioned preacher but he failed his theological exams. He was dismissed from his church duties for, among other charges, taking the practice of Christian teaching to extremes: regarding the admonition of Jesus to the rich young ruler, Vincent actually gave away all of his worldly possessions! He would grow frustrated at trying to expound on truth and at age 27, discovered he could better express eternal things on canvas than behind the pulpit. He became a preacher in paint.
When Vincent left pulpit ministry, it sealed the rift between him and his father that never healed. The young Rev. Van Gogh could not explain his artistic passion to his father who felt he was off on some sort of pride tangent. A Father’s curse or blessing can help mark a soul for eternity. As his mental health deteriorated, Vincent could never seem to grasp the forgiveness and free grace of God. Perhaps the stigma of not following in the pre-ordained footsteps of his father had something to do with it.
Vincent accepted his call to paint with the same fervency he felt to preach the Gospel. Painting, revealing God through art, was his passion. He world sketch and work for days forgetting to eat but even among painters, he walked his own road feeling rejected by the artistic world as well as the church. For a time, the only friend Vincent seemed to have in the world, other than his brother Theo, was a prostitute who befriended him. She was in ill health and he took care of her quite probably because Christ would have done the same thing.
At age 37, Van Gogh committed suicide by shooting himself through the side. He rejected the institutional church not out of rebellion, but out of a passionate, driving love for Christ. He so identified with Jesus he wanted to die with a “spear through the side” as did his Savior. He seldom painted portraits of the Bible, or tried to illustrate the Bible: he wanted to capture the greatness of God on canvas. For the greatest sermon ever painted, see “The Starry Night.”
In a final twist of a twisted fate, Van Gogh was eulogized by songwriter Don McLean (of ‘American Pie’ fame) in the haunting song “Vincent.” The line, “With eyes that know the darkness in my soul,” comes to mind looking at Van Goghs’ haunting self-portraits.
Is it possible for a madman to genuinely love God? Cliff Edwards wrote, “Vincent through his art was able to reveal a God ‘so real, so direct, so visible in nature and in people, so intensely compassionate, so weak and vulnerable, and so radically loving, . . . a God we all want to come close to.’”
Will the Church continue to vanquish her poets, artists, musicians, and dancers to the world, or will we finally recognize that like Joseph’s coat of many colors that provoked his brothers to envy, there are vessels that God uniquely gifts with artistic genius to display his glory to the world?
In the words of Don McLean: “They would not listen, they did not know how. Perhaps they’ll listen now.”
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 11:38
Bryan Hupperts © 2001 – 2009
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Comments
By Kyle Knapp on February 17th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
LOVED this essay! I’ve long been a fan of both Vincent’s art and his story. I occasionally use Don McLean’s “Vincent” in my performances, usually eliciting confused “huh…? he was a christian?” stares from church people.
It’s a false theology that links temporal success with divine favor. Our God chooses “the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.” Vincent’s life is both a testimony to how cruel the world (and the church) can be, and a model of how a simple man’s love (flawed love, perhaps, but genuine nonetheless) perseveres in expressing itself in the midst of confusion, adversity, and even the stigma of mental illness. “For they could not love you, but still your love was true,” the song says.
I don’t know whether songwriter Don McLean is a believer, but he certainly has remarkable insight. The song ends “They did not listen, they’re not listening still - perhaps they never will…” He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Thanks again Bryan, I always enjoy your writings!
~kyle
By Vicki Carr on February 17th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
This was great! You go, bro’!!! Preach it!
By Abigail on March 7th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Wow! Thank you for sharing this! A lot of people also don’t know that Horatio Spafford, who wrote “It Is Well With My Soul” thought he was the second Messiah toward the end.
We live in a broken and fallen world. It does not only effect our bodies, but our minds and emotions as well. I do not know why it is so hard for people to accept that.