Van Gogh’s Finale by Martin Bailey

Author:Martin Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Quarto Group
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

FATHER AND SON

‘The doctor here has been very kind to me . . . He has two children, a girl of 19 and a boy of 16’1

Few visitors to Auvers realize that Vincent was not originally buried in the spot where he now lies. The grave was in another part of the cemetery and his remains had to be moved in 1905, when the 15-year rental period for the first plot was due to end.2 The simple headstone, erected a few days after the funeral, carried the incised words ‘Ici repose Vincent van Gogh 1853–1890’. ‘Here rests’ was particularly poignant, considering Vincent’s unsuccessful quest for peace of mind during his lifetime.

Until recently no images were known of Van Gogh’s first grave, but a picture has recently surfaced (fig. 70).3 Painted by Dr Gachet’s art student Blanche Derousse, the sepia-coloured watercolour is dominated by shrubbery. A yucca almost hides the stone and a pair of thujas towers above at the side. Although it is unusual for such substantial plants to be grown over a grave, there was more space available in the Auvers cemetery in the 1890s than in later years and the idea was to surround the artist with his beloved nature.

Right from the start Dr Gachet assumed responsibility for the care of Vincent’s grave. As soon as the headstone had been laid he planted sunflowers on the plot, a tradition that he and his son maintained right up until the 1950s. The yucca and thujas on the first grave are believed to have been transplanted from his own flower beds and examples of both shrubs feature prominently in Van Gogh’s painting Dr Gachet’s Garden (plate 4).

As the 1905 deadline for the end of the lease approached Dr Gachet wrote to Jo, suggesting that a permanent grave should be arranged.4 If it was a double space, then there would be an opportunity to move Theo’s remains from Utrecht, to lie beside those of his brother. Although Jo disliked the idea of disturbing Vincent’s bones, if it meant that they could be accompanied by those of her husband, this seemed the best solution. Dr Gachet was authorized to proceed.5

Jo travelled to Auvers on 9 June 1905, her first trip there for fifteen years (she and Theo had visited the cemetery together in late August or September 1890).6 It must have been a gruelling experience as she, along with Dr Gachet and his son, watched as the gravedigger reached Vincent’s rotted coffin. Gachet Jr later described how the thuja had ‘spread its roots’ around his torso, ‘penetrating the cavities between the ribs’.7 By chance, this was just where the bullet had entered his chest. The grave-digger had to disentangle the roots from around the rib cage.

The cranium was then exposed, giving Dr Gachet the chance to observe ‘the huge skull, the cheekbones and the arch of the eyebrows’. His son commented that ‘unknowingly, we reenacted the scene of the gravediggers from Hamlet’. The doctor then handed the skull to Gachet Jr, who gently placed it at the end of the new coffin.

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