Categories: Vincent van Gogh1853 births1890 deathsDutch male paintersDutch landscape paintersDutch still life paintersFlower artistsPost-impressionist paintersDutch people with disabilitiesDutch ProtestantsPainters who committed suicidePeople from ZundertPeople with borderline personality disorderDutch ChristiansDutch expatriates in BelgiumDutch expatriates in FranceDutch expatriates in the United KingdomRoyal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumniSuicides by firearm in FrancePeople of MontmartreMale suicidesAcadémie Royale des Beaux-Arts alumni
Van Gogh moved to Paris in March 1886 where he shared Theo's rue Laval apartment in Montmartre, and studied at Fernand Cormon's studio. In June the brothers took a larger flat at 54 rue Lepic.[102] In Paris, Vincent painted portraits of friends and acquaintances, still life paintings, views of Le Moulin de la Galette, scenes in Montmartre, Asnières and along the Seine. In 1885 in Antwerp he had become interested in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and had used them to decorate the walls of his studio; while in Paris he collected hundreds of them. He tried his hand at Japonaiserie, tracing a figure from a reproduction on the cover of the magazine Paris Illustre, The Courtesan or Oiran (1887), after Keisai Eisen, which he then graphically enlarged in a painting.[103]
Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he may have suffered an acute mental breakdown.[147] The hospital diagnosis was "acute mania with generalised delirium",[148] and within a few days the local police ordered that he be placed in hospital care.[149][150] Gauguin immediately notified Theo, who on 24 December had proposed marriage to his old friend Andries Bonger's sister Johanna.[151] That evening Theo rushed to the station to board a night train to Arles. He arrived on Christmas Day and comforted Vincent, who seemed to be semi-lucid. That evening he left Arles for the return trip to Paris.[152]
Van Gogh learned about Fernand Cormon's atelier from Theo.[107] He worked at the studio in April and May 1886,[108] where he frequented the circle of the Australian artist John Peter Russell, who painted his portrait in 1886.[109] Van Gogh also met fellow students Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – who painted a portrait of him in pastel. They met at Julien "Père" Tanguy's paint shop,[108] (which was, at that time, the only place where Paul Cézanne's paintings were displayed). In 1886, two large exhibitions were staged there, showing Pointillism and Neo-impressionism for the first time, and bringing attention to Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Theo kept a stock of Impressionist paintings in his gallery on boulevard Montmartre, but Van Gogh was slow to acknowledge the new developments in art.[110]