Wil van Gogh
Encyclopedia
Willemina Jacoba van Gogh (March 16, 1862 - May 17, 1941), called Wil, was the youngest sister of the artist Vincent van Gogh
and the art dealer Theo van Gogh
. She was amongst the earliest feminists.
During the first part of her life Wil van Gogh served her family and others, nursing the sick. After the death of her brothers in 1890, she obtained a modest job in a hospital. There she engaged in the committee to organise the "National exhibition of women's work" (Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid), 1898. This was a highly successful enterprise and funds raised from the exhibition, 20,000 Dutch Guilders, served to establish the Dutch National bureau for women's work.
No sources record what happened afterwards, but on 4 December 1902 Wil van Gogh was interned and later transferred to House Veldwijk, a psychiatric institution at Ermelo
. The diagnosis of dementia praecox
, on which this measure was based, was in those days equivalent to a death sentence. Wil van Gogh dwelt at Ermelo for almost four decades before she died.
Whether she was mentally ill or not is nowadays difficult to prove. Renate Berger has established that Wil van Gogh shared the fate of many "sisters of well-known men" at the time.
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
and the art dealer Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
. She was amongst the earliest feminists.
During the first part of her life Wil van Gogh served her family and others, nursing the sick. After the death of her brothers in 1890, she obtained a modest job in a hospital. There she engaged in the committee to organise the "National exhibition of women's work" (Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid), 1898. This was a highly successful enterprise and funds raised from the exhibition, 20,000 Dutch Guilders, served to establish the Dutch National bureau for women's work.
No sources record what happened afterwards, but on 4 December 1902 Wil van Gogh was interned and later transferred to House Veldwijk, a psychiatric institution at Ermelo
Ermelo
Ermelo is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland in the Veluwe area with a population of over 26.000.-Etymology:...
. The diagnosis of dementia praecox
Dementia praecox
Dementia praecox refers to a chronic, deteriorating psychotic disorder characterized by rapid cognitive disintegration, usually beginning in the late teens or early adulthood. It is a term first used in 1891 in this Latin form by Arnold Pick , a professor of psychiatry at the German branch of...
, on which this measure was based, was in those days equivalent to a death sentence. Wil van Gogh dwelt at Ermelo for almost four decades before she died.
Whether she was mentally ill or not is nowadays difficult to prove. Renate Berger has established that Wil van Gogh shared the fate of many "sisters of well-known men" at the time.
External links
- Yuri Visser: Willemina Jacoba van Gogh, in Dutch
- Vincent van Gogh: Portrait of Willemina