Why did Vincent van Gogh shoot himself?

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history after his death.

Vincent van Gogh shot himself in July 1890. He felt he couldn’t continue. The enormous demands he put on himself, his obsessive labour, his mental illness, and, not least, his shifting relationship with his brother had all become too much for him.

Van Gogh battled severe depression and poverty. Vincent left the Saint-Rémy psychiatric institution in May 1890, hoping to live independently with his condition.

He found peace in the village of Auvers-Sur-Oise, near Paris, where he soon resumed his prolific painting.

Unfortunately, it was not to last. Vincent shot himself in the chest two months after arriving. On July 29, 1890, he died of his wounds. ‘I feel – a failure,’ Vincent wrote to Theo. That appears to be the fate I’ve chosen.

The gun Van Gogh is said to have used was rediscovered in 1965 and auctioned off as “the most famous weapon in art history” on June 19, 2019. The gun sold for €162,500 (£144,000; $182,000), nearly three times the expected price.