At Eternity's Gate - Genesis

Genesis

Vincent van Gogh suffered from some form of mental illness, acutely during the last two years of his life. The official diagnosis furnished by the hospital in Arles that van Gogh was taken to on Christmas Eve, 1888, following the celebrated incident involving his ear, was "acute mania with generalised delirium". Dr. Félix Rey, a young intern at the hospital, also suggested "a kind of epilepsy" he characterised as mental epilepsy.

There is no agreement today over a modern diagnosis of van Gogh's illness. Suggestions include epilepsy and bipolar disorder, possibly exacerbated by excessive absinthe drinking, heavy smoking and venereal disease. Symptoms were varied, but in their most severe manifestations they involved attacks of confusion and unconsciousness followed by periods of stupor and incoherence during which he was generally unable to paint, draw, or even to write letters. It was such an attack that first led him to being hospitalised at Arles, and following a later relapse, he had himself committed to the asylum at Saint-Rémy in May 1889, where he remained for the most part until May 1890.

On February 22, 1890, van Gogh suffered his most severe relapse, an episode Jan Hulsker called the longest and saddest of his life, and one which lasted some nine weeks through to late April. During this time, he was only able to write his brother Theo once, in March 1890, and then only briefly to say he was totally stupified (totalement abruti) and unable to write. He did not write Theo again until late April, but that letter makes it clear that he had been able to paint and draw a little during this time, despite his sadness and melancholy:

"What can I tell you of these two last months, things aren’t going well at all, I’m more sad and bored than I could tell you, and I no longer know what point I’m at ... While I was ill I nevertheless still did a few small canvases from memory which you’ll see later, reminiscences of the north ... so melancholy do I feel."

It is in these drawings and paintings that Hulsker sees unmistakable signs of his mental collapse, otherwise rare in his work.

It is not clear whether Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate') is one of the canvases referred to in his April letter. Hulsker remarks that it would have been remarkable for van Gogh to have copied his lithograph so faithfully from memory. Nevertheless the painting is clearly a return to the past, and both the 1970 catalogue raisonné and Hulsker cite the painting as fecit May 1890 at Saint-Rémy.