If you were to ask anyone on the street to name a famous artist, there would be a great likelihood that they would name the post-Impressionist artist, Vincent Van Gogh. They could probably tell you that he was the artist responsible for the painting Starry Night, and if they were truly clever, tell you the incident revolving around his ear or lack thereof. However, ask anyone what mental illness Van Gogh suffered from and how this affected his creativity? I doubt many could answer in depth. When we appreciate art, we get to experience a piece of an artist's soul frozen in time, perhaps on display in a museum. However, we interpret the piece as we so choose. We may draw completely false conclusions about what type of person Van Gogh was if we judge him solely by his artwork. And yet, this is possibly why Van Gogh is one of the most inspirational painters to date. He is known for creating some of the most beautiful paintings in history, but his own history was far from beautiful. Van Gogh suffered from severe mental illnesses that would control his life and ultimately lead to his death. Painting became his escape from the horror of his own mind. With this knowledge of his mental state, there comes a fresh appreciation of the beauty he created. Van Gogh turned his pain into passion, and that passion into artwork that later would become some of the most famous and widely known artwork in history.

       Vincent Van Gogh, born March 30, 1853, was the eldest of 6 children. However, of those 6 children, only two “were not suicides, or put into asylums…” (Hershman 146). From a young age, little Vincent was seen as “troubled,” and due to the lack of psychological knowledge during his time, he would live on to merely be labeled “mad.” “The general public knew nothing about mental illness and cared less” (Hershman 1). However, with the knowledge we have today, we are able to draw stronger conclusions than “madness.” Throughout his life, Van Gogh exhibited “phases of intense activity followed by periods of extreme exhaustion and depression” (Bhattacharyya). Today, we know that these behaviors are the result of a mental illness called manic-depression, or bipolar disorder. Even today, a time in which mental illnesses like depression or anxiety are not only accepted but to an extreme, romanticized, manic-depression does not recieve the same treatment. In fact, there is significantly less research done about manic-depressive disorder and significantly increased stigma behind it. Nevertheless, “manic-depressives have been a part of all of the accomplishments on which we as human beings pride ourselves- the arts, sciences, industry, scholarship, philosophy, religion.” (Hershman 3). Manic-depression is more common than we think.

       Manic-depression is a complex mental illness, in which a person goes through stages of mania that will then cycle into stages of depression. This is why the term bipolar disorder has been used to describe manic-depression, alluding to the back and forth jump from one “pole” to another. “Rage, anxiety, fear, sorrow, joy, excitement, jealousy, sexual passion, ambition, discouragement, boredom, inspiration: this is only a partial list of the intense feelings manic-depressives may endure” (Hershman 20). In Van Gogh’s case, this was the condition he would have to deal with his entire life. First a stage of mania, coming with its cheerfulness, impulsivity, energy, and productivity. Then a transition stage of paranoia, irritability, insomnia, and rage. Lastly, a stage of depression, along with its lack of will, fatigue, sensitivity, self-depreciation, and suicidal thoughts. “Not only could his moods markedly alter from day to day, but they also fell into an annual cycle in which the worst and longest depressions took place in winter, and periods of mania occurred in summer” (Hershman 161).

       Van Gogh, while realizing that artwork was not only his calling but also his escape, would never truly find relief from his manic-depression. To make matters worse, Van Gogh was well aware of his instability. “Some days,” he would write to his brother, “I still suffer from unaccountable, involuntary fits of excitement, or else utter sluggishness." (Hershman 161). Because of Van Gogh's knowledge of his condition, the condition controlled him even more. He understood that the townspeople thought him mad. He understood that he could not trust even his own self. He understood that he frequently and uncontrollably became someone he was not. In many ways, “Van Gogh would have suffered less had he not understood so well what was happening to him” (Hershman 166). Because he knew he could not control his mania, Van Gogh's depression deepened. He loathed himself and his condition. He did not have the luxury of innocence or ignorance. “Many people in the arts have feared that they were losing their minds at one time or another, but few have had to live with the agonizing certainty of their insanity” (Hershman 165). Van Gogh was part of this few, and he would have to bear the knowledge of his mental instability to his death.

       Van Gogh was in no way the only artist in history to suffer from a mental illness. Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy, and Virginia Woolf all suffered from clinical depression (Adams). There are studies that have been done to see if there is a correlation between creative people and mental illness, and these studies have actually shown that “people in creative professions were more likely to be bipolar” (Adams). The science behind the study is as such: they tested individuals’ right precuneus. This scientific term just refers to the part of the brain that helps people to focus. However, when the individuals with mental illnesses were tested, their right precuneus did not deactivate like a normal person’s would during an activity. This means that they do not filter out excess information to focus, but instead open the flood gates. When regarding creativity, they are more open to any idea and any possibility, and are open to see the world in a different light.

       While these scientific studies were recently done, “Marsilio Ficino, a Renaissance philosopher, linked Aristotle’s concept of melancholy genius with Plato’s idea of inspired mania” (Hershman 8). Thus, this is in no way a new concept. However, it is important to not only see the scientific correlation, but also the creative correlation. Edvard Munch, a Norwegian painter who struggled with anxiety, expressed, “my fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art” (Adams). This brings forward the concept that without these artists’ pain, there would be no passion. Without their torment, we would not have the galleries full of amazing artwork that we take for granted today. In regards to Van Gogh in particular, his mania is where the bulk of his incredible artwork came from. “His manic periods were his most productive” (Hershman 161). Because of the energy, fervor, and excitement of his manic periods, he would crank out hundreds of paintings in no time at all. “Some of the greatest works of art and intellect would be inconceivable without the passion and energy and daring that are second nature to manic geniuses” (Hershman 2). And so, it is ever so hard to comprehend whether the mental illnesses of the creatives of the world, and in specific Van Gogh himself, were necessary evils or a curse to their capabilities. While Van Gogh’s best work came from his mania, he would write to his brother: “If I could have worked without this accursed disease, what things I might have done” (Wolf). Even so, the treatment for manic-depression that is now available (lithium carbonate), dampens creative ability (Wolf). We may never know if Van Gogh would be the artist he was without his manic-depression.

       Manic-depression was not, however, the only plague of Van Gogh’s existence. On top of this crippling mental illness, Van Gogh suffered from many physical ailments, both self-afflicted and pre-existing, and those ailments would in many ways affect his mental capacity and the way he viewed the world. He was diagnosed with epilepsy, a disorder that causes seizures due to abnormal or excessive brain cell activity. “There is some evidence to suggest that he used to nibble at his paints… and some historians have attributed this habit to the genesis of seizures” (Bhattacharyya). Whether these epileptic convulsions were pre-exising or self-afflicted, he was prescribed a drug called digitalis to control them. In addition, Van Gogh was also “fond of absinthe, a popular liqueur containing thujone” and would eventually contract thujone poisoning (Wolf). How do these two conditions connect? Both would affect Van Gogh in the same way, which would then contribute to one of his most famous paintings. Both large doses of digitalis, and thujone poisoning, would cause the individual to see light much differently than the normal individual. Van Gogh would contract xanthopsia, a color deficiency in your vision that causes you to see the world in a yellow tint and see “coronas or flowing halos around objects” (Bhattacharyya). Think of the glowing stars in Starry Night, the orbs around the gas lamps in The Night Café, or his obsessive uses of deep yellow in Wheatfield with Crows or Sunflowers. This is just one fascinating way in which Van Gogh’s physical health even affected the composition and technique of his most famous paintings.

       Many different elements, from mental health to environment to physical ailments, would factor in to the creation of some of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. As is customary with manic-depressives, manic periods provide intense energy and productivity that would cause him to work “with manic speed and impetuosity” (Hershman 155). Van Gogh’s life was not very long, nor was his artistic fascination, but because of his mania he left behind 265 drawings, 35 water colors, and 385 oil paintings from a span of only 4 years (Bhattacharyya). These mania-induced paintings would be a pouring out of his soul. “One must feel what one draws,” Van Gogh would say (Hershman 140). However, it is fair to say that Van Gogh felt and perceived the world much differently than those around him. Due to this difference in perception, he desperately wanted his artwork to show what it was like to look at life through his eyes. “He wanted people to feel life as he did, to be aware of it in all its intensity. He believed that tuning his feelings into art gave his work value and redeemed his life” (Hershman 140). This mania could produce colorful masterpieces, like his fascination with gardens in his painting Irises. However, his mania could also take a turn, causing Van Gogh to be enraged, paranoid, and claustrophobic, as seen in a piece such as The Night Café. In Van Gogh’s piece, The Night Café, we are faced with a harsh contrast of color. “I’ve tried to express the terrible human passions with the red and the green,” Van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother (Gogh 676). Van Gogh would frequently get kicked out of many inns where he would attempt to stay, and be forced to spend nights in cramped bars full of prostitutes and drunks. Full of despair and rage, he painted this piece to portray to his brother how humanity enraged him.

       At times, Van Gogh would be very at peace and not bothered by his mental illnesses. During these times, he would combine elements of sadness and joy in his artwork. Van Gogh once described his method of combining these opposites in one composition as such: “Oh, there must be a little bit of light, a bit of happiness, just enough to indicate shape, to make the lines of the silhouette stand out, but let the whole be gloomy” (Hershman 140). Van Gogh was drawn to the ordinary, the simplistic, and the mundane, but would paint it all in a way that turned it extraordinary. “Although Arles," where Van Gogh spent the remaining years of his life, "was a Roman town with famous monuments and tourist sites, Van Gogh generally avoided the obvious motifs and instead painted humble orchards, wheat fields, bridges, and roadways on the outskirts of the city” (Thaw 39). Instead of fancy portraits, he would focus on painting poor families, like in The Potato Eaters. Instead of grand architecture, he would paint haystacks in fields, like in Evening Landscape with Rising Moon. Nevertheless, however mundane his subject matter would be, it would never hold him back from creating a masterpiece.

       Van Gogh’s depressive stages would affect both his outlook on life, his painting style itself, and his attitude toward his very work. Van Gogh’s perspective of the world would shift from intensity to apathy. “Life is then the color of dishwater,” he would say in a bleak letter to his brother (Hershman 157). Mania is then replaced with despair. Nature, full of the everyday beauty he would excite over in his mania, now turned to grey. “When he climbed the riverbank to the fields above, he found the picturesque vistas of rural life replaced by a dark void of unfeeling wilderness” (Naifeh 845). Van Gogh would be aware that his beloved nature was only different to his perception because he was in a depressive state, and this would deepen his sadness even more. “I feel gloomy,” he stated, “notwithstanding the beautiful scenery” (Hershman 157). During these depressive states, Van Gogh did seem to gravitate toward the use of deep and dark blues in his work, as opposed to his yellow favoritism during manic periods, or his use of red during his enragement. He also gravitated toward the night. Apparently Van Gogh's “preoccupation with the night, both real and imagined, lasted from around the age of 20 until his death at 37” (Vogel). The final affect Van Gogh’s depressive stages would have on his artwork would be his treatment of the actual pieces. When Van Gogh was depressed, he would get incredibly self-critical of his artwork, and this perfectionism would cause him to be “careless about preserving his work”, causing a good amount of his work to be lost (Hershman 163). He would use his paintings as surfaces to eat off of, with no knowledge that some day, these paintings would be guarded by security who would whip away anyone that dared lay a finger on one of his paintings. Van Gogh's depression came with crippling self-deprecation, which is why he would not create as many pieces of artwork as he would during his manic periods.

       Van Gogh was admitted to the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Remy, diagnosed with acute mania and generalized delirium (Bhattacharyya). Because he felt unsafe within his own body, fighting both bouts of depression and mania interchangeably, Van Gogh would accept that the asylum was the place he needed to be. “He was trying to understand the nature of his illness, to be calm and rational about the hell he went through” (Hershman 171). Despite the depressive bouts, Van Gogh would remain productive, working with great fervor even in the asylum to produce many of his most famous paintings, including Irises and Starry Night. He insisted that painting gave him a reason to live and fight, but his courage was failing (Hershman 166). The world had lost its luster, and not just for a season. Van Gogh’s mental illnesses were taking their toll. He was lethargic but an insomniac, discouraged despite his hope, and at the end of the day, “found that everything was going wrong and that the world was sour” (Hershman 160). For so long Van Gogh struggled against the horror of the illness in his head, remaining stubborn and strong willed. But he would begin to feel pulled away from his art by his illness. “Art is jealous; she does not want us to choose illness in preference to her, so I do what she wishes…” he would say, “People such as I are not allowed to be ill…” (Gogh 157). In the last months of his stay at Saint-Remy, Van Gogh would seemingly improve and would be released within the year. Even so, he came out of the asylum a different man. He was a man that had accepted his fate.

       Shortly after Van Gogh was released back into life, he would meet his death by his own hand. In 1890, Van Gogh wandered into a field and attempted to shoot himself in the heart. The bullet would not kill him on impact, and so he made his way back to the inn where he lived before collapsing. His brother Theo, his only friend, would rush to his side within the day. “Don’t weep,” Van Gogh said as his brother held him for the last time, “I have done what was best for all of us” (Hershman 174). And with that, Vincent Van Gogh would breathe his last breath. He would die believing himself to be nothing but a burden, but a speck of dust in the sands of time. He would die penniless, selling but a single painting before the time of his death (Bethune). He would die by the hands of his mental illness. However, Van Gogh would indeed live on. He would live on by his passion for painting. He would live on by his work, which “only a short time after his death” would be “acknowledged by the sophisticated art world of Europe from Paris to Moscow” (Thaw 38). Van Gogh would live on through his art. “Art never made Vincent suffer. Instead, it gave him most of the joy that he ever had” (Hershman 174).

       Van Gogh would never know that he would become one of “the most accessible and beloved” artists of all time (Thaw 38). He was viewed as “erratic” or a “sad creature” by most of the people in his town. (Hershman 161, 167). “What am I in most people’s eyes?” Van Gogh asked, “A nonentity or an eccentric and disagreeable man - somebody who has no position in society and never will have, in short the lowest of the low" (Hershman 140). Nevertheless, this would never stop him from painting. “Very well,” he proclaimed, “even if this were true, I should want my work to show what is in the heart of such an eccentric, of such a nobody” (Hershman 140). Van Gogh was never an artist who created for recognition. “Art is an essential and unique aspect of human experience, regardless of an individual’s psychological well-being” (Chen). Even more, it was an essential aspect to Van Gogh’s experience because it uplifted his spirits during his struggles with manic-depression. It enabled him to create beauty from sorrow, and gave the world a visual representation to understand the inner workings of the minds of manic-depressives. It allowed the world to be a part of both the passion, and the pain.