Theo Van Gogh was born at the family home, in Holland, in 1857.  When he was a young teen, his uncle arranged for an apprenticeship for him, with an international art dealership firm named Goupil & Co., like his brother Vincent had before him.  This is where the difference in the two brothers became apparent.  Vincent drifted out of the business while Theo became well established and very prosperous.  He eventually became an art dealer in Paris

From a young age, he assumed financial responsibility for his brother Vincent.  He continued in this role throughout Vincent's life.  Both parties accepted this arrangement as natural.  The two brothers maintained a remarkable closeness of spirit, surprisingly so, in view of the fact that, except for a few brief visits, they rarely ever saw each other.  They were together as children and as early teens, then for two years in Paris, while Vincent stayed with Theo before he moved to the south of France.  The period that Vincent lived with Theo in Paris was quite exhausting for Theo.  Vincent was never an easy person to live with.  Theo described Vincent's presence in their apartment in Paris as "unendurable", and he felt relieved when Vincent finally journeyed to Arles

Their communication depended immensely on their correspondence.  Vincent was compulsive in writing to his brother.  The subjects of his letters ranged from extreme personal thoughts and emotions through to descriptions of what Vincent was working on at the time.  Here is one of the letters that Vincent wrote to Theo when Vincent was just 28:

"Dear Theo,

I have just come back from a trip to The Hague. I am home alone tonight, as Father and Mother are still at Prinsenhage. So it is a good opportunity to tell you about everything.

I left here Tuesday, and now it is Friday night.

At The Hague I went to see Mr. Tersteeg, Mauve and De Bock. Mr. Tersteeg was very kind, and said he thought I had made progress. As I had again copied the whole series of Exercices au Fusain, 1 - 60, I brought them with me, and it was especially in reference to them that he made the remark; he at least attaches some value to my making them, also to my occasionally copying a figure by Millet, Boughton or others, which most people do not approve of at all.

So then I got some satisfaction from that work, too.

I spent an afternoon and part of an evening with Mauve, and saw many beautiful things in his studio. My own drawings seemed to interest Mauve more. He gave me a great many hints which I was glad to get, and I have arranged to come back to see him in a relatively short time when I have some new studies. He showed me a whole lot of his studies and explained them to me - not sketches for drawings or pictures, but real studies, things that seemed of little importance. He thinks I should start painting now.

I enjoyed meeting De Bock; I was at his studio. He is painting a large picture of the dunes which has much that is fine in it. But in my opinion the fellow must practice drawing figures in order to produce even finer things. It seems to me he has a real artist's temperament and that we have not heard the last of him. He raves about Millet and Corot, but didn't these two work hard on figures - yes or no? Corot's figures aren't so well known as his landscapes, but it cannot be denied that he has done them. Besides, Corot drew and modelled every tree trunk with the same devotion and love as if it were a figure. And a tree by Corot is something quite different from one by De Bock. One of the best things I saw of De Bock's was a copy of a Corot. It's unlikely that it would be taken for an original, but it was very seriously done - more seriously than many a false Corot less noticeably different from the real thing.

Then I went to see Mesdag's Panorama with him; it is a work that deserves all respect. It reminded me of a remark, I think by Burger (or Thoré) about The Anatomy Lesson by Rembrandt: le seul défaut de ce tableau est de ne pas avoir de défaut. [This picture's only fault is that it has no fault.] The three drawings by Mesdag at the exhibition had perhaps more faults, but aroused immediate sympathy, at least it was so with me.

Speaking of the exhibition, there was a splendid drawing by Israëls, “Sewing Class at Katwijk”; Mauve, “A Plough” - splendid - “Sheep in the Dunes,” and then a single figure - a labourer resting in the field at twilight. Artz had three drawings there if I remember correctly: a scene in an almshouse, old men and women eating porridge - very important, very well and seriously done; also two studies of heads, full of character - a man and woman from Scheveningen. Among Weissenbruch's was a drawing of water lilies, so simple, so full of style, of understanding and love, that many drawings by others were lost beside it. But this exhibition shows clearly that there are many clever landscape painters among the younger artists.

Including Duchâtel [Du Chattel] and Neuhuys. Albert Neuhuys had a large figure drawing which was splendid, a girl and two children.

Clara Montalba's work was new to me. Hers is a peculiar talent - in some respects it reminds me of Rochussen.

At Mr. Tersteeg's I also saw many fine things by Valkenburg, Neuhuys, etc., etc. J. Maris had beautiful things at the exhibition, for instance, two little girls in white at a piano and a mill in the snow. I met Willem Maris at De Bock's. What a beautiful sketch the latter has by him, a road in winter with a little figure under an umbrella.

By chance Bosboom saw my studies and gave me some hints about them. I only wish I had more opportunity to receive such hints. Bosboom is one of those people who has the ability to impart knowledge to others and make things clear to them. There were three or four good drawings of his at the exhibition.

I stayed in The Hague until Thursday morning, then I went to Dordrecht because from the train I had seen a spot I wanted to draw - a row of windmills. Though it was raining, I managed to finish it, and so at least I have a souvenir from my little trip.

At Stam's I found Ingres paper twice as thick as the ordinary kind, one can work better on it. But alas, it's white. Would there be any chance of your sending some of that same kind, but the colour of unbleached muslin or linen? Like a few of the sheets that were in that lot you bought me before, and like those on which the Exercices au Fusain are printed. Before beginning to draw on the white paper, one must first wash the whole page with a flat tone.

So I have been to The Hague; perhaps it was the beginning of a renewed and closer acquaintance with Mauve and others. I hope so. A handshake in thought; my warm thanks for your faithful help in this matter - because of the expenses perhaps I never would have gone, or at least postponed it.

Yours, Vincent

De Bock was very pleased with the drawings by Millet which he bought from you."

Theo was always there for his brother.  When Vincent would finish a series of his paintings, he would ship them to Theo who would promote them and try to sell them with very little success.

When Vincent was irresponsible, Theo would lecture him.  When he was on hard times financially, Theo would send him money.  When he was in an emotional crisis, Theo would show up to pick up the pieces as he always did.  Theo seemed to have known from the very beginning that his brother was a brilliant artist, and he considered his responsibility to support his brother in any way he could. 

Theo married Johanna Bonger in April of 1889.  This marriage caused a brief strain in the bond between himself and Vincent.  What was once a straight line had become a triangle.  Vincent suffered when any of Theo's attention diverted from him to his new wife.  Soon, however, he became very fond of his sister-in-law and rejoiced in the birth of his nephew. 

Vincent shot himself in July of 1890, and Theo was summoned to his deathbed.  Three days later, Theo wrote a letter to his mother: "One cannot write how grieved one is nor find any solace...Oh Mother!  He was so my own, own brother".  Vincent's death came when Theo was only 33 years old and left him broken in spirit.  Within six months of Vincent's death, Theo died, too.  The brothers Van Gogh are buried side by side.  After Theo's death, his wife and his only child, named Vincent, carried on his work of establishing the art of Vincent Van Gogh.


Source: Vincent Van Gogh's Letter To Theo Van Gogh. 16 Aug 2004 <http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/10/149.htm>.
Gilbert, Rita. Living With Art. : , 1998.
The letter quoted from Vincent to his brother Theo is not copywritten and is public domain.

Another Theo Van Gogh was a Dutch actor, film director, newspaper columnist and great, great grandson of Vincent Van Gogh, born in 1957. His last film, Submission, loosly based on the story of the violence and sexual assult that Somali refugee Ayaan Hirsi Ali suffered through an arranged marriage, lead to Theo receiving protests, death threats, and ultimately on 1 November, 2004, his assassination.

Theo's first film was Luger, a black and white arthouse effort which he wrote and directed in 1981. Later films that stand out include Blind Date, winner of the Dutch Golden Calf award in 1996, 06, winner of the Special Prize at the 1994 Holland Film Festival, and Loos, that was selected at the 13th São Paulo International Film Festival in 1989. Along with other European directors he contributed a short sardonic piece called Euroquiz for the unintentionally depressing European Union public relations film Visions of Europe in 2004.

Ironically earlier he had just finished filming a documentary profiling anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn when the subject himself was shot dead in 2002. He had also produced a low-budget modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, about a romance between a poor Moroccan man and an upper class Dutch girl, in Najib and Juliet.

Theo was more Jerry Springer than Mike Moore. His anarchistic belief in free speech did not deter him from ignoring controversial topics, or for that matter, taking his own personal safety seriously after death threats came through after Submission was screened on Dutch television. The documentary, which included a scene where Ayaan's skin appears through skimpy clothing to have whip marks and printed Koranic writing, triggered an outcry from the Netherland's one million strong Muslims. Ayaan herself is a member of the Dutch parliament who has renounced Islam, the religion of her birth and has criticised Dutch Muslims for not integrating in Dutch society.

Eyewitness reports suggest that Theo was cycling in Amsterdam when a 26 year old Dutch-Morrocan man, Mohammed Bouyeri, assulted him. His neck was slit from thespinal column, then he was stabbed with a five page note attached to the knife. An exchange of gunfire was then heard at a nearby park, involving Bouyeri and a police officer and the assassin, injured by gunfire, was overpowered and arrested. Subsequent investigations would link Bouyeri to terrorist Samir Azzouz through a cell operating at a local extremist mosque.

The country in fear and enraged, over the next week twenty mosques and other religious buildings were arsoned.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen (himself previously a target from both Islamic extremists and Theo) backed a call for a public demonstration on the city's main street on the night of Theo's death. But he rejected the traditional idea of people holding a minute's silence, as it would not be in keeping with Theo's style.

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