“Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.”
― Morihei Ueshiba
Art dealer, educator, bookseller, and lay preacher – all professions Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890) attempted before finding his true calling.
By definition, an art dealer works for collectors, galleries, and institutions, to buy and sell works of art. The ability to negotiate and build a network of contacts is necessary, as the dealer becomes the connection between buyer and seller.
Self-contained and quiet, as van Gogh was often described, wouldn’t seem like a personality fit for an art dealer.
But at 16, with the help of his uncle, van Gogh became an apprentice art dealer at Goupil & Cie. He showed promise and continued in that profession.
After completing his apprenticeship, van Gogh was transferred from Paris to the London branch. Despite his enthusiastic start, he found the work of an art dealer tiresome. Though he appreciated the art, he wasn’t fond of the business.
Sadly, his personal life would fare no better than his professional. In London, he took a romantic interest in his landlady’s daughter but that interest was not returned. This would become a pattern in his short life – unrequited love. As he became more withdrawn, his religious zeal grew.
The Road to Success
At 23, van Gogh parted ways with Goupil & Cie and tried his hand at teaching.
He took an unpaid teaching job in exchange for room and board before landing a second teaching job which paid a small wage. His second employment also allowed him to preach a few sermons under the guidance of Reverend Slade-Jones. When he didn’t find fulfillment in teaching, he left that vocation to become a bookseller.
It was during that time as a bookseller he felt the resurgent call to be a preacher. However, unable to fulfill the educational requirements of seminary, he eventually took on a missionary role.
At each juncture, van Gogh found success amid the defeat. His takeaways shaped his ultimate calling.
As an art dealer, van Gogh learned about art through much reading. He was exposed to the business of art, and visited famous galleries that housed works he admired.
He later painted Noon: Rest from Work in 1890, inspired by Jean-François Millet who often painted peasants.
As an educator, van Gogh was tasked with teaching young boys everything from math and language to Bible study and ensuring their attendance at church. He lived in Ramsgate and Isleworth, places which were later featured in his sketches.
At the urging of his father, van Gogh became a bookseller. He worked in Dordrecht, a place he also sketched in Windmills near Dordrecht (1881). After a few months as a bookseller, it was clear it wasn’t for him.
He neither knew the book trade nor was he interested in learning it. Instead of his duties, he translated Bible passages from Dutch to German, French, and English. He still had hopes of becoming a preacher, like his father.
Getting the credentials to become an ordained minister proved difficult. After failing the university entrance exam, he took a missionary course but failed that as well. In a last-ditch effort not to disappoint his parents, he found work as a lay preacher, this time, in the Borinage, a coal-mining region in Belgium.
But his congregation wasn’t receptive to him, nor was he to them. Van Gogh, dismissed from his post and again unemployed, went home. His later paintings would capture the theme of religion in such works as Still Life with Bible (1885) and The Church at Auvers (1890).
The Calling
On the advice of this brother, Theo, Vincent stepped into his calling. After leaving the Borinage, Vincent threw himself into his art. He drew images of the locals, sketched the deprivation he had seen, tapped into the sadness and depression he felt from unrequited love, and resolved to bring comfort to humanity through his art.
Van Gogh’s failures in vocation and love contributed to his one-year stint at a mental institution. Years earlier in a letter to his friend, he wrote, “I want to paint what I feel and feel what I paint.”
During his stay at the Saint-Paul Asylum in southern France he created iconic paintings such as Starry Night (1889), Lilac Bush (1889), and Irises (1889). He spoke through the brush strokes, through the colors.
His artistic career spanned 10 years (1880-1890) and produced more than 2,000 works of art – over 300 paintings in his final two years. During his lifetime, van Gogh didn’t sell many of his paintings. In death, his works became legendary.
Regarded among the greatest and most influential painters in Western art, his paintings are replicated in prints, tapestries, and various formats as unique gifts.
“Failure is a bend in the road, not the end of the road. Learn from failure and keep moving forward.”
― Roy T. Bennett
(Sources: Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith; Wikipedia.)✿