I recently finished reading a collection of Van Gogh's letters to his friends & family (mostly to his generous brother & patron Theo). My main purpose was to see if there were any obvious suicidal thoughts toward the end of his life and correspondence. And I really didn't see it. He made a reference to conditional suicide in an April 1889 letter.. saying if he lost his friendship with Theo, it could drive him to suicide. But it feels to me, more like a melodramatic what if.. What I found much more in his letters, was in spite of his mental health suffering, he was an optimistic creator.
On the day of his 1890 shooting, he had taken his art supplies out with him to paint.. which seems like an act inconsistent with a suicide mission? He came back from his painting field trip with a shot in his lower chest/stomach (also strange for a suicide I assume).. there were no powder burns reported on his hands, and no gun found at the time. But it is clear that Van Gogh claims he did shoot himself.. which established the narrative of his so-called suicide.
Why the Hell would someone take credit for a suicide, that was actually a murder or manslaughter? A pair of authors (Naifeh & Smith) have a well-thought-out explanation in their book Van Gogh:The Life. They report on a group of young (gun toting) kids who liked playing cowboys, and bothering Van Gogh. They lay out a scenario where the kids may have been messing with Van Gogh, and accidentally shot him. Van Gogh didn't want the kids punished, so claimed it was a suicide attempt.. either assuming he'd survive the shot, or not caring if he survived at that point. The scenario is at the very end of their book, & makes sense, but I'm not sure I endorse the authors' act of naming the (long gone) kid by name, since he never had the benefit of a courtroom defense, etc.
I saw in 2020 a forensic pathologist wrote an article calling for an autopsy on Van Gogh.. I guess for some clarification on his death. Not sure how much it matters now, but personally I don't think Van Gogh was attempting suicide that day. Even in his final letter, days before the shooting, he was still planning and talking about his painting. Who knows..
contact- nat.rain@gmail.com