Theo Van Gogh (may 1st 1857- january 25th 1891)

When Theo was born, Vincent must have felt better… At last a living brother to hold on to, to share things with, to walk with on earth…
Theo loved that clever brother, who taught him many things, who “always made up funny games”, who took him for long walks through the heath and moors.
Theo followed the same career, joining the Goupil firm in Paris when Vincent was in London.
When he visited him in London, they spent “many a blissful day”. After Theo’s departure, Vincent wrote to him: “ I missed you a good deal, I found it strange to go back home at midday and see you were not there.”
This was the beginning of a long correspondence of which Theo kept all the letters.
Later, when Vincent is out of work, Theo will support him financially, first irregularly, then by sending him monthly amounts that they fix together.
Theo provides Vincent with paintings, canvas, brushes which he uses a good deal.
That friendship will keep strong all their life, to such a pitch that Vincent will regard his work as “achieved by both of us”.
He will always feel indebted towards his brother, and will never cease thanking him in his letters for the material he sent him.
In his gallery, Theo wants to promote a new generation of artists against his bosses’ point of view, who only want to exhibit well-known painters, and who are not interested in the Monet, Manet, Pissaro, Toulouse-lautrec and so on, whom he defends…
Eventually, he will be granted the permission to dedicate exhibitions to them in his Montmartre gallery.
All his life, he will be at the bedside of a heart-broken and moneyless Vincent.
They will disagree at various periods: at the Borinage, for his relationship with Sien, and will reproach him with not finding a job, with “living a life of leisure”… He will often be against Vincent, on their parents’ side, who regarded him as the support of the family. . Theo won’t survive Vincent’s death and will die six months later in a fit of madness in the “Willem” pavilion of Anvers hospital.