While I was trying to find a photo of Van Gogh to accompany the post below I happened upon this photo, supposedly of Vincent Van Gogh. It came to light about 5 years ago and was on display at the Seton Gallery at the University of New Haven in an exhibition titled Discovering Vincent van Gogh: A Forensic Study in Identification.
The man in the photograph does bear a striking resemblance to Van Gogh. The information found on the 4 1/2" X 5 1/2", photograph circa 1886, identifies the photographer as Victor Morin, 42 RUE ST. FRANCOIS, ST HYACINTHE.
The photograph was discovered in the early 1990s by a customer flipping through an album of photographs, mostly of clergymen, dating back to the late 19th century at an antique dealer's in Massachusetts.
The man who found the picture saw the resemblance to Vincent Van Gogh and took the photograph to a photo historian who had previously worked on identifying images of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant. The expert was convinced it was Vincent, contesting the veracity of earlier known photos of Vincent, believing them to be his brother instead.
Tests were performed on the photograph by a forensic institute also in New Haven. Investigators matched the size of the forehead, the shape of the eyes and even individual hairs.
They too believed this to be Van Gogh stating, "Even the most minute detail matched up, even the smallest hairs on the beards matched up,"
The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam has contested that the picture is the artist. And rightly so.
I’d like this to be a photo of Vincent Van Gogh – my stomach flipped when I saw it. But alas, it’s just wishful thinking. Despite Van Gogh’s hard life, the subject of the photo looks older than the 33 years Vincent would be in the photo. But the quickest Google verifies the photographer Morin as being located in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada. There is no other St. Hyacinthe.
Considering Vincent van Gogh was hungry enough to eat paint and borrowed money constantly from his brother, I don’t think Vincent came to La Belle Province and had his photo taken.
Thanks to an article at Guardian.co.uk, The Guardian, Tuesday 24 February 2004, David Teather
7 comments:
My heart flipped when I saw this (just now), too; however, I'm sure you & VVG Museum are correct.
I've had experiences arguing (in academic sense in case everyone thinks, of course gg/svs was arguing, again!) against cases in a few archaeological finds in MEast. I wish so, so much that one or two particular cases were what people thought...but it just did not fit, any which way we tried.
On unrelated dumb note. I re-watched The Last Waltz (Netflix Fairy; I may have to purchase) last night & it reawakened an unwelcome, seriously diverting RR crush as bad as ever. What the ?
I just had to say it & then maybe it'll pass. (I doubt it.) Sniff.
xoSusan
His head kind of looks photo-shopped in there, don't you think? As unlikely as it may be, it is kind of cool to think he may have been in Canada, though.
Kat
The resemblance is stunning. One can speculate that the photographer was on holiday in Europe when he took the picture. Maybe, that explains why the photograph made it back to Canada.
Photographers take their equipment everywhere with them and are always taking shots of subjects. Perhaps, VG was a paid model?
Just a thought. These are the things that make you go...hmmmmmm.
Wow, this is uncanny! It sure does look like him, don't you think? I'm mesmerized. It's kinda spooky.
Kirk Douglas did a great job portraying him in "Lust for Life". Even looked quite a bit like him.
Hi Clever Pup,
I [cleverly :-) ] deduced that if you mentioned this alleged Vvg photo on my blog you might have posted about it on yours. Yeah, that's the same photo I was thinking of, and no, I definitely do not think it's him. Like you said, the person in that picture looks far too old (even though Vincent claimed he looked like an old man). Moreover, in 1886 he is known to have been in Paris from March onward. No sidetrips to Canada!!
Hi,
As you know it's said that we all have a sosia (I guess this word is also used in english ?), or at least someone really similar.
Comparing this photo with the painting from the post above, one notices a big difference on the nose, but he does look quite similar and could be taken as being the artist.
I'm thinking about sending you my photo for you to look up.
Maybe I'm famous and don't know :-)
Have a nice week,
José
How many people could have that forhead? thanks for posting!
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