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I'm so interested about why Vincent and Marilyn are so similar and about what in their biographies haunt you.

first and most prominently: marilyn died when she was 36 and vincent died when he was 37. both of their deaths were considered suicides largely because in the immediate aftermath, men with specific vendettas were the first to write about them. for marilyn, that was norman mailer who had beef with marilyn's husband arthur miller. for vincent that was irving stone, who wanted, idk, profit i guess.

both deaths are likely to have been murders. for vincent, it's all but proven; his murderer confessed shortly before his death, but people are more eager to believe vincent was suicidal and perpetuate the "suffering = art" myth. i'm still researching marilyn's death, but it fell in a long line of assassinations of high profile leftists, and she was 1) married to arthur miller, who was constantly being hounded by the fbi for his ties to the communist party, 2) a political activist and vocal supporter of civil rights, and 3) she was "close" (sleeping with) with JFK and RFK, who were also assassinated.

both marilyn and vincent suffered from psychotic illnesses greatly worsened by substance abuse. for marilyn, that was barbiturates and sleeping meds. for vincent, absinthe. he also had a psychiatric form of syphilis and ate a lot of lead paint. both were institutionalized.

both marilyn and vincent were eager for (and driven by) widespread acclaim, and had an unwavering belief they would achieve it. unlike vincent, though, marilyn achieved her fame in life while vincent died before he could see it. you could argue that he's famous *because* he died. it's not like he was the first or best impressionist painter. his work was only accessible and his story was sad. his sister in law johanna also diligently kept all of his correspondence, so we have an excellent record of his life through the letters he sent his brother theo.

both marilyn and vincent wanted to achieve success for feats akin to, but different from, what they became iconic for. marilyn wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, not just seen as a brainless sex idol, but she died shortly after filming the Misfits which is arguably her best performance. vincent liked painting portraits, not landscapes, but he was fucking awful at it, and his brother theo told him repeatedly, hey why don't you do more of those pretty landscapes, to which vincent doubled down on portraiture, spending what little money he had paying random townspeople to sit for him.

both marilyn and vincent were raised in environments that prepared them for their future careers. marilyn grew up in california and was raised mostly by her mother's friend gladys, who groomed her into becoming the next jean harlow, which is exactly what happened. vincent's uncle got him a job at goupil, an art store, and so even though vincent was a talented writer, he was surrounded by art so that's what he did. his brother theo also worked at goupil and became a prominent art dealer. after theo's death, his wife johanna used those connections to put vincent's work into the world. i'm pointing this out not to diminish either of their accomplishments but to connect part of the reason they were so dead certain about their eventual lasting fame.

both marilyn and vincent have become commercial byproducts. you can find marilyn's likeness on products all around the world. you can find vincent's paintings on any item you can think of. their presence is so ingrained in society that i bet many of us can't identify when we first came into contact with their cultural presence. they enter our lives by osmosis.

both were extremely sensitive and emotionally distraught. both had tenuous relationships with their mothers. both had a family history of psychotic disorders that historians seem very eager to dismiss. both had religious backgrounds that deeply influenced their self-perspectives. both loved literature. both were deeply insecure despite the aforementioned professional certainty. both were lonely; marilyn had a series of husbands who mistreated and abused her, and many people find comfort in believing vincent had theo, but in truth, theo was simply the only one who didn't firmly cut vincent out of his life. i do believe theo loved vincent, but i also believe vincent pushed theo to his limit a number of times, and for his own health, theo had to push him away. after vincent's death, theo went mad with grief and died soon after.

to me, vincent's story is more haunting than marilyn's, because his murder is all but proven and its motives can be reasonably speculated about. vincent was notoriously heckled and bullied by kids wherever he went, because he was very overtly unwell and eccentric. a boy obsessed with american westerns shot him with a pea shooter, and although we don't know the exact circumstances of the shooting, i think it can be reasonably ascertained that he didn't shoot himself, although that's what he claimed in order to protect the boy from punishment, and also because he chose not to be treated.

but marilyn's great tragedy is that her addictions were basically forced on her. everyone in her life had a personal stake in her success, so they kept plying her with pills to help with her anxiety. everyone in her life was manipulating her in some way. i'm also personally interested in the fact she was a sex icon who notoriously had a lot of sex with a lot of people but all evidence points to her being asexual. obviously i can't put a label on her, but she's quoted many times saying she had no interest in sex. the caveat here is that there are no truly reliable sources on this front, not even her, because she often said whatever she thought people wanted to hear, even if it was an outright lie. she has some personal writing, though, which is possibly the only real insight we have, but i'm still combing through all of that.

i don't quite have my thoughts in order about why i'm so drawn to both of them. i guess the short answer is that i'm curious about the turns their lives took, how they were (mis)perceived, and the distance between their real selves and the work they left behind. society is so eager to believe they were people who suffered for erroneous reasons--they were talented, special, exceptional, and therefore tortured by their own unique gifts--and very few people seem to recognize that their deaths, regardless of the actual causes, are still the result of the way they were treated.

#sorry for the lack of citations #all of this is from memory so i probably got a few things wrong #norma jeane #vvg

i think my favorite thing about vincent van goghs works aside from the fact that they’re just really pretty is how you can see each individual brushstroke and almost picture him painting it in your head