Death of Vincent van Gogh
Occurred in the early morning of 29 July 1890
Vincent van Gogh died in the early morning of 29 July 1890 in his room at the Auberge Ravoux, in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, after shooting himself in the chest two days prior, due to a depressive episode.
Background
Early presentiments of a premature death
As early as 1883, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: "... as to the time I still have ahead of me for work, I think I may safely presume that my body will hold up for a certain number of years... between 7-10, say", "... I should plan for a period of between 5 and 10 years..." Van Gogh authority Ronald de Leeuw interprets this as van Gogh "voic[ing] the presentiment that he had at most another ten years of life in which to realize his ideals."
Deteriorating mental health
In 1889, van Gogh experienced a deterioration in his mental health. Suffering from severe depression, he cut off part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. As a result of incidents in Arles leading to a public petition, he was admitted to a hospital. His condition improved, and he was ready to be discharged by March 1889, coinciding with the wedding of his brother Theo to Johanna Bonger. However, at the last moment, he confided to Frédéric Salles, the hospital's unofficial chaplain to Protestant patients, that he wanted to be confined to an asylum. At Salles' suggestion van Gogh chose an asylum in nearby Saint-Rémy.
“Death of Vincent van Gogh” enters the record as occurred in the early morning of 29 July 1890. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Death, Vincent and Gogh can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5247546. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1883 and 1889.
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