Van Gogh's final hours could be resolved thanks to his latest work

They believe they have found the exact spot where the artist was painting 'Tree Roots', the canvas he was finishing when he received his fatal gunshot wound .

Wouter van der Veen, a French researcher, claims to have put a key piece in what happened on July 27, 1890, when Vincent van Gogh returned to his inn, the Auberge Ravoux, in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, with a gunshot wound that would lead to his death two days later. And the clue is none other than the precise location where the great Dutch painter made his last work: Tree Roots .

An old postcard sheds light on the fatal outcome

According to Van der Veen, also scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute, in a report by The New York Times , you already know that he spent "all day" painting the work on Rue Daubigny and, in fact, those vines protruding from the earth still they can be seen today on the side of a hill just 152 meters from the lodge. The site was discovered during confinement, while studying images of the entire area circa 1900 thanks to a collection of postcards lent to them by Janine Demuriez, a 94-year-old woman.

Van Gogh's death debate continues

The most important thing regarding the track and Tree Roots , a work charged with light and vitality, is that it contradicts the official version: while the Van Gogh Museum and Van der Veen himself continue to maintain the suicide hypothesis, Steven Naifeh ( co-author with Gregory White Smith of the biography Van Gogh: Life ) maintains that this discovery supports his theory of the murder, which according to both historians was carried out accidentally by two children.

The fact that he went out and painted all day, not just a common work but a very important painting, indicates that he may not have been depressed. On the contrary, it was a normal, productive day, and that goes against the idea that he could end up committing suicide.

Steven Naifeh