On the contrary, if I had been able to be a clergyman or an art dealer, then perhaps I should not have been fit for drawing and painting, and I should neither have resigned nor accepted my dismissal as such. I cannot stop drawing because I really have a draughtsman's fist, and I ask you, have I ever doubted or hesitated or wavered since the day I began to draw? (Van Gogh, Letter to Theo, April 1882).

That he was a talented artist was undeniable. Yet, art was no substitute for religion, and, further still, art was no direct avenue to sanctifying grace. Van Gogh's increasing sense of alienation and feeling of despair would continue unabated -- evidenced by he and his brother Theo's inability to live together for long; the inability of his dream of an artists' collective (the artistic equivalent of a kind of monastic community) to come...
[ View Full Essay]