As he lay on his death bed, having apparently shot himself, Vincent Van Gogh is said to have sầu uttered the final words, "The sadness will last forever".
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It"s hard lớn imagine a bleaker prophecy from the famed and deeply troubled Dutch artist.
And yet, more than 125 years later, the Van Gogh family can atdemo khổng lồ a fulfilling life that is, in part, devoted to honouring his work and preserving his memory.
"I think we all feel it"s part of our legacy & we want to give sầu it on lớn the next generation," said Josien Van Gogh, a great-grandniece of the artist.
"That"s why in this moment we are educating our children to lớn become aware of their history."
Josien is in Melbourne this week ahead of the largest exhibition of the artist"s work ever held in Australia, which opens at the National Gallery of Victoria.
But it almost wasn"t so.
Gallery: The National Gallery of Victoria's 'Van Gogh and the Seasons' exhibition will run from April to lớn July.
"Don"t play football near the Van Gogh"s"
It was Van Gogh"s nephew, Vincent Willem, who would ultimately inherit the enormous collection of paintings và sketches.
Willem is Josien"s grandfather, & she can rethành viên visiting a particular room in his house when she was just a child.
It was unheated và the paintings were stacked to lớn each other và they were just there," Josien told News Breakfast.
"And then there were a lot of paintings hanging in the house as well, there was something lượt thích trăng tròn paintings hung on the walls in the living room & dining room."
In Josien"s own trang chủ there were a handful of original Van Gogh"s hung on the walls, & yet the rules extended only as far as not being allowed lớn play football near them in the living room.
Sylvia Cramer is another great-grandniece of Vincent and is also on the Melbourne visit lớn see the new exhibition.
She said it took some time before she realised the significance of the works the family had in their homes.
"It was just part of
"They were there & the pictures were where you could see them hanging, but I think as child you didn"t realise it was such a big legacy.
"It came more và more important over the years."
Giving up the inheritance
As the years progressed, Willem was faced with a problem: what should he bởi with the paintings when he died?
Dutch law meant that if he gave them over khổng lồ his children they would be forced to lớn pay an enormous inheritance tax, & they would be forced lớn sell some of the paintings just to lớn cover it.
And so he devised a plan. In 1962 he established the Vincent Van Gogh Foundation, và in 1973 a museum devoted to lớn his works was opened in Amsterdam.
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"The most important thing, I think, is that the collection stays together for the largest part," Josien said.
"If my grandfather had decided otherwise, the paintings would perhaps have sầu been scattered all over the world.
"Of course, his children had lớn agree with that idea as well, because they had to lớn give sầu up that part of their inheritance, but they did so very willingly và that"s why we have sầu this wonderful museum."
Today, no descendent of Vincent personally owns any of his work.
"Not a scrap of paper," Josien said.
And that includes the Almond Blossom, which was one of Vincent"s final paintings and was made khổng lồ celebrate Willem"s birth.
"Then my grandfather got children & it hung in the boys" room above sầu their bed. So it was part of their everyday life," Josien said.
Of course, there was one final condition from Willem: that at least one descendant of Vincent be on the foundation board at all times.
"We take turns as a family"
To say the Van Gogh family pays tribute to lớn Vincent is something of an understatement.
Every year or two the entire collection of Van Gogh descendants come together & complete a trip khổng lồ the places Vincent lived & worked around Europe, in an effort lớn impress upon the younger generations the importance of the legacy.
"Just to lớn make it embedded in their lives too," Sylvia said.
"Self-portrait" not what it appears
And then there is the foundation board work & tending khổng lồ the museum in Amsterdam.
"Sometimes I"m wandering in the museum và I think, if all these people knew we were relatives," Sylvia said.
"That"s what I find hard to believe sầu sometimes, is that all these people come for this artist, which is our legacy."
"It"s overwhelming sometimes … it is a lot of work," adds Josien.
In an effort to maintain the legacy, but not be consumed by it, the extended family has a "program" khổng lồ share the workload.
"So now I"m here, but next time it could be my sister, or
"So they have sầu khổng lồ take turns, you don"t lớn bởi vì it your whole life, you just vì chưng it for a couple of years and then it goes onto lớn the next."
Josien adds: "Because the name Van Gogh is disappearing in our family it is perhaps even more important that we educate them."
"Because if your surname is quite different from Van Gogh at a certain point you forget what your relation is khổng lồ Vincent.
