Vincent van Gogh is one of the most important artists in human history. His painting style was revolutionary, his brushwork unique, his play of colours unrivalled. But van Gogh was also a difficult character. Insecure, manic, extreme. The painter always lived and worked on the border between genius and madness. And this madness drove him to suicide with a death wish. This has been the official thesis of experts for more than 100 years.
Pulitzer Prize winner and van Gogh biographer Steven Naifeh contradicts this view. He wants to prove that van Gogh did not shot himself, but that the shot came from a 16-year-old boy named René Secrétan, who always carried a gun and liked to wave it around, wearing a cowboy costume. Possibly, he theorised, van Gogh was shot by mistake.
