Charles Dickens With Pipe Holiday Art Man Smoking Pipe

"The most cute paintings are those one dreams of while smoking a piping in i's bed," Vincent van Gogh wrote from the Xanthous House in Arles. In the alphabetic character to his friend Emile Bernard in June 1888, he added that it was impossible to create pictures which were quite so beautiful equally the perfections of "nature's glorious splendours"—but still 1 should endeavor.

A few months afterward Vincent wrote over again to Bernard: "In order to exercise good piece of work you have to eat well, be well housed, take a screw from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, smoke your pipe and drink your java in peace."

Although most aspects of Van Gogh's life have been incessantly explored since his decease, the part of his pipe has received relatively scant attention. Simply smoking, for Vincent, was vital, since he regarded it as a source of consolation when tackling the endless challenges he faced (for health reasons we obviously do not suggest that readers emulate his example).

In one of Vincent'southward earliest preserved messages, when he was nineteen, he wrote to his younger brother: "Theo, I must again recommend that you lot kickoff smoking a pipage. It does you a lot of good when you're out of spirits." Two years later, in 1875, he described his pipe as "an quondam, trusty friend, and I imagine we'll never part over again".

In a piffling-known reminiscence, a retired tailor from the Van Gogh family's village of Helvoirt once remembered cleaning Vincent's clothes during a Christmas visit. "The suit stank of fume and was completely unpresentable", 70-year-former Frederick van de Plas told a Dutch writer in the 1920s.

While working as a teacher in Isleworth, due west London, aged 23, his landlady Annie Slade-Jones complained about the olfactory property of his smoking. He therefore gave her scented violets: "I bought some for Mrs Jones to make up for the pipe I smoke hither now and then, generally tardily in the evening in the playground. The tobacco here is rather strong."

Van Gogh was by then fond to smoking. Although failing to sell his piece of work, on one occasion in 1884 he apparently gave a painting to the Eindhoven tobacconist Jansje van den Broek to settle a beak. This picture, Watermill at Gennep, was bought by Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza at Sotheby'due south in 1996—for £552,000.

Vincent van Gogh'southward watercolour of Still Life with Vase, Honesty, Pipe and Tobacco (1885) Courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

After Vincent's father Theodorus died of a stroke in 1885 he painted a memorial still life which included the deceased'south pipe and tobacco pouch. Van Gogh later reused the sheet, to salvage money, simply a watercolour sketch survives.

A few months later, in Antwerp, Van Gogh painted Head of a Skeleton with called-for Cigarette (1886). Then briefly studying at the art academy, the moving-picture show was presumably something of a studio prank. Nowadays nosotros tin inappreciably look at this painting without seeing a alert nigh cancer. Just for Van Gogh, information technology was simply the opposite: for him a lighted cigarette would have represented life, not expiry.

Vincent van Gogh'south Head of a Skeleton with burning Cigarette (1886) Courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Tobacco always represented a bleed on Van Gogh'southward precarious finances. When Paul Gauguin joined Van Gogh in the Yellow House he was shocked to see how coin was being frittered away. Gauguin therefore divided their funds: "So much for nocturnal excursions of a hygienic sort [fortnightly visits to the brothel], so much for tobacco…"

Vincent van Gogh'due south Self-portrait with bandaged Ear and Pipe (1889) Credit: private collection

Simply earlier Christmas in 1888 came the mutilation of the ear, the incident which led to Gauguin fleeing back to Paris. Fortunately Van Gogh'due south wound quickly healed. In the spring he wrote, slightly lightheartedly, to his sis Wil: "Every mean solar day I take the remedy that the incomparable Dickens prescribes against suicide. It consists of a glass of vino, a slice of bread and cheese and a pipe of tobacco."

Although Dickens did not actually refer to suicide, in Nicholas Nickleby he suggested that melancholy could be cured: "Smoke a large pipe and beverage a full bottle". A month after mutilating his ear Van Gogh portrayed both objects in a very personal still life, aslope a medical transmission past François Raspail and a letter from Theo (although the bottle has been opened and may non be full).

Vincent van Gogh'southward Still Life (1889) Courtesy of Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

Correct up to the end of Van Gogh's life he felt that his pipe had a calming effect, merely it failed to salvage him from his ultimate fate. Later wounding himself from a revolver shot on 27 July 1890, he staggered back to his garret bedroom in the small inn. When Dr Paul Gachet arrived, Van Gogh asked for his pipe, which was in notwithstanding in his waistcoat pocket. Vincent began to smoke in silence. A day later he was dead.

Simply over a year before Van Gogh had painted what can now be seen as his own memorial, a moving-picture show of his empty chair, at present at the National Gallery in London. On the straw seat, recalling an absent sitter, lies his trusty pipe and packet of tobacco. This vignette represents a highly personal however life in a painting which is itself a symbolic self-portrait.

Vincent van Gogh'due south Van Gogh's Chair (1888-89) Courtesy of the National Gallery, London

Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh specialist and investigative reporter for The Art Newspaper. Bailey has curated Van Gogh exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery and Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland. He was a co-curator of Tate Britain's The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland (27 March-xi Baronial 2019). He has written a number of bestselling books, including The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh'southward Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, bachelor in the United kingdom and The states ), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, available in the UK and Us ) and Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, available in the Britain and U.s.a. ). His latest book is Living with Vincent van Gogh: The Homes & Landscapes that Shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, available in the UK and Us ).

• To contact Martin Bailey, please email: vangogh@theartnewspaper.com

Read more from Martin's Adventures with Van Gogh blog here.