Johanna Bonger: Saving the Legacy of Vincent van Gogh

by Linda Harris Sittig

A few years back, while traveling in France, I stood at the foot of two tombstones: Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theodore van Gogh.

Little did I know that their fame and legacy were due to one strong woman – Johanna Bonger, Theodore’s widow.

THE BEGINNING

Born in Amsterdam in 1862, the fifth of seven children, Johanna grew up keeping an extensive journal of her life. While her sisters were groomed to become wives, Johanna earned enough credits in English to have the equivalent of a college degree. At some point, she taught English at a girls’ boarding school and ventured off to London to work at the British Museum for a while.

At about 25, Johanna’s older brother, Andries Bonger, introduced her to his art friend, Theo van Gogh. By all accounts, Theo was smitten with Johanna, but she was not particularly impressed with him.

The following year, Theo traveled to Amsterdam to try and court her.

It took a year and many letters back and forth, but Johanna fell in love with him. They married in 1889 and promptly moved to Paris, where he had started a career as an art dealer.

THEO AND HIS BROTHER VINCENT

With their marriage came the recognition that Theo was completely devoted to his brother, Vincent, and supported him financially. When Johanna gave birth to their child the following year, the little boy was named Vincent Willem van Gogh in honor of his uncle.

While Johanna and Theo were happy, Vincent van Gogh’s life had already begun to unravel. In December 1888, he had severed a substantial part of his left ear. Then, in July 1890, suffering from extreme depression, he shot himself in the chest and died two days later at the age of 37.

Theo went into substantial mourning, and Johanna began to worry that Theo’s mental health was being affected.

Theo steadily declined and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in December 1890. What Johanna did not and could not know was that Theo was suffering from late-stage neurosyphilis. Thankfully, he had not passed the disease on to her. Within a few weeks, Theo died at 33.

At age 28, Johanna was now left with only a small apartment in Paris and her infant son.

JOHANNA’S GIFT TO THE WORLD

However, she inherited over 200 of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings and all of Vincent and Theo’s letters. At the time, Vincent van Gogh’s artwork was completely worthless, and no art dealer was willing to take a chance on his unusual style. The Van Gogh family told her to burn the art and start her life over. One art dealer offered to buy Van Gogh’s canvases to scrape off all the paint and resell the blank canvas.

But Johanna was determined that Theo’s life had not been in vain. Theo had believed in Vincent and was convinced that one day, the world would see that Vincent’s art was visionary.

Johanna went to work. Using almost every last penny, she had many of the 200 paintings framed. Then she wrote to every art dealer in Paris, asking if they would be interested in showing some of Vincent van Gogh’s art. All of them said no.

Trying not to be discouraged, she bundled up two or three smaller paintings and went from gallery to gallery throughout Paris, showing the art with the hopes of selling some now and hopefully more later. Each gallery turned her down.

Running out of money, she returned to Holland and took much of Vincent’s art. She opened up a boardinghouse to support herself and display Vincent’s paintings.

She also worked as a translator to supplement her income, translating short stories from English and French into Dutch.

Dismissed by the art world, she nevertheless became Vincent’s relentless agent.

Finally, in 1892, she arranged the first formal exhibition of Vincent’s work. By 1914, she published a book of Theo and Vincent’s letters to each other.

Slowly but surely, Vincent’s artwork began to be exhibited throughout Holland and then in Germany and France. But Johanna did not stop; she worked until the end of her life to ensure that her son and grandson would continue with her work to showcase the brilliance of Vincent van Gogh and the legacy of her husband Theo in promoting his brother as an artist.

In June of 1973, the Van Gogh Museum opened in Amsterdam, Holland, and today contains the bulk of the artist’s work. His paintings are the most expensive on the art market today; even schoolchildren know his name.

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger died of Parkinson’s disease at 62 in 1925. But her extraordinary contribution to bringing Vincent van Gogh’s art to the public lives on.

To learn more about Johanna, read The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar or Jo van Gogh-Bonger by Hans Luijten.

I hope you enjoyed Johanna’s story. If you are not yet a follower of the Strong Women blog, please sign up on the right sidebar, and you will receive a monthly email with another Strong Woman story.

You can learn more about me on my website, www.lindasittig.com, and my five published books, Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN! and Opening Closed Doors.

I am currently researching and writing my next book. The setting is WWII on the American home front. The protagonist is a woman working in a Georgia shipyard to help build the Liberty Ships to carry needed supplies to the soldiers overseas. At the same time, a family enemy stalks her every move.

~ Linda