Vincent van Gogh signed about 133 of his roughly 1,000 paintings, with only 15% bearing a signature, an unusually low rate for a 19th-century artist. He signed with only his first name, “Vincent,” rather than “Van Gogh.” One reason was strained relations with most family members, while he stayed close to his brother Theo. In a letter from December 1883, he wrote that he was not “a ‘Van Gogh.’” Another reason was pronunciation: only Dutch speakers could easily say “Van Gogh,” while English, American, and French pronunciations varied. In March 1888 he explained he wanted “Vincent” to appear in a Belgian exhibition catalogue because others could not pronounce the family name. Red was the predominant signature color, appearing on 75 signed works.
"Van Gogh created around 1,000 paintings, of which 840 survive. Of these, 133 bear a signature (or, in two cases, just an inscribed title). This represents only 15% of his canvases, an unusually low proportion for a 19th-century artist. Van Gogh's colleague Paul Gauguin was much more prolific in this regard, signing 60% of his paintings-perhaps an indication of his overbearing confidence."
"Van Gogh is also unusual in that he signed with only his first name. He did this for two reasons. Vincent's relations with most of his family, and particularly his father, were strained, although he remained very close to his brother Theo. In a December 1883 letter to Theo, Vincent wrote that, "in character I'm quite different from the various members of the family, and I'm actually not a 'Van Gogh'.""
"The other reason for sticking to his first name is that only the Dutch can easily pronounce his family name (with a guttural "ogh"): the English tend to say"Gof", the Americans "Go" and the French "Gog". As Vincent explained in March 1888 in another letter to Theo, he wanted just his Christian name to appear in a Belgian exhibition catalogue. It should be "the way I sign it on the canvasses, i.e. Vincent and not Vangogh, for the excellent reason that people here wouldn't be able to pronounce that name"."
"Another surprise is the predominant colour that Van Gogh used for his signatures: red. This is found on 75 of the 133 signed works, just over half. It was then uncommon for artists to sign in such an eye-catching colour."
#vincent-van-gogh #art-signatures #letters-and-correspondence #painting-provenance #19th-century-art
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