Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh was the greatest Post-Impressionist painter of the 19th century. During his lifetime, Van Gogh created a total of 864 oil paintings, 1037 drawings, and 150 watercolors. His painting style deeply influenced the art of the twentieth century, especially Fauvism and German Expressionism.
On the evening of July 27, 1890, the painter Van Gogh stumbled back to his hotel where he was staying with his hands on his stomach. When the doctors and police arrived, they found that Van Gogh had a bullet hole in his body, and the bullet did not shoot, but was stuck near the spine, and finally Van Gogh died of ineffective rescue. It is said that Van Gogh left this world before his death with the phrase "pain is life" to his brother, when Van Gogh was only 37 years old.
During his lifetime, only one work was sold. It was in November 1888, when a work for the red vineyard sold for 400 francs (equivalent to $1,000-1,050 today).
After Van Gogh's death, his younger brother Theo also fell seriously ill and died six months later. His sister-in-law Joanna naturally received all the paintings. Over the next decade, she held seven exhibitions for Van Gogh. The first six exhibitions did not resonate with the audience until the seventh in Paris, attracting the attention of Fauvist rookies such as Matisse. Since then, the doors of the major art museums in Western Europe have been opened for Van Gogh one by one. In the centuries that followed, the price of Van Gogh's works was auctioned off one peak after another. On November 4, 2014, Wang Zhongjun, chairman of Huayi Brothers Media Group, personally purchased Van Gogh's oil painting Daisies and Poppies for US$61.765 million (about 377 million yuan).
At the same time as hosting an exhibition of Van Gogh's paintings, Joanna compiled more than five hundred letters between Van Gogh and Theo into the Complete Works of Van Gogh, which provides us with valuable first-hand information about Van Gogh.
Wout van der Wien, Chancellor and Scientific Director of the Van Gogh Institute in France, is a world-renowned expert on Van Gogh studies. It was from this book that he deciphered the untold secrets and wrote the book "Van Gogh's Capital - Why the Van Gogh Brothers Are More Powerful Than Buffett".
In the past, Van Gogh always gave the impression of being depressed and destitute. His whole life was eroded by pain and loneliness, and despair and suffering drove him crazy. The departure of his friend made him so excited that he even cut off one of his own ears. People's interpretations of his works are also based on this tone.
After carefully studying the correspondence between the Van Gogh brothers, Wout came to a surprising conclusion: everyone saw the illusion that Van Gogh was not poor or lonely, and that everything he did was to better sell his work!
Compared with the past, people described Van Gogh as born in a remote mountain village, with an ordinary family. The real Van Gogh was born into a middle-class family with housekeepers, gardeners, cooks and maids. As adherents of Calvinism, they believe that the accumulation of wealth is successful, but the desire for pleasure is inferior. Investing in art both costs one's own assets and improves the world, making it the first choice of Calvin believers. Van Gogh did not directly accumulate wealth, but chose to earn money through painting, which was also influenced by this idea.
In life, on the surface, Van Gogh did not directly engage in any work, but the financial assistance provided to him by his brother Theo could ensure that he had no worries about food and clothing. From 1881 onwards, Theo sent 100 francs a month to Van Gogh, and the purchasing power of this income was equivalent to twice the postman's salary. Theo's funding increased in the later period, reaching an average of 230 francs in the last 30 months of Van Gogh's life. That's enough to feed 6 kids.
If the conditions are so good, why is Van Gogh always shouting poverty? This is because he lacks the ability to manage money, and inviting guests, visiting brothels, and staying in hotels are the norm. The materials he paints, whether on canvas or paint, are selected for use. Therefore, spending money indiscriminately is the main reason for his poverty.
We can also see the evidence in his paintings. From 1888 to 1889, Van Gogh painted a series of oil paintings with sunflowers as the content, with bold colors, large areas of color blocks, and strong color contrasts. In the past, many critics thought that Van Gogh wanted to express his love for life through strong colors, but how can this explain his self-harm and suicide? However, according to the interpretation of the author of this book, Van Gogh's color contrast was influenced by the Japanese ukiyo-e style, which was more in line with the popular style of art at that time. The accumulation of colors is Van Gogh's small abacus, because due to the limitation of pigments, thin colors are easy to fade, and through the accumulation of strong and heavy colors, they will last forever, so as to sell for a higher price.
Van Gogh also had an accurate assessment of the value of his works during his lifetime, so he never easily exchanged his works with others.
Van Gogh's life was short and lamentable, but would his work be worth a fortune without Joanna's magical pusher? If Van Gogh is Buffett, I think he only did the right first step, opening a position! Van Gogh, Theo and Joanna, the combined efforts of the three, have made an artistic version of Buffett!