How Vincent van Gogh’s Sister-in-Law Worked Tirelessly to Make Him Famous
No artist, no matter how solitary by nature, becomes a cultural phenomenon alone.
没有一个艺术家，无论生性多么孤独，都不会独自成为一种文化现象。
That’s even true of such an isolated figure as Vincent van Gogh, whose death in obscurity at the age of 37 left open the question of who, if anyone, would vouchsafe his paintings to posterity.
对于像文森特·梵高这样的孤立人物来说也是如此，他在 37 岁时默默无闻地去世，留下了一个问题：谁（如果有的话）会将他的画作留给后人。
The support of the artist’s younger brother Theo is often given a good deal of credit for making his work possible, and not without reason.
艺术家的弟弟西奥的支持经常被认为是他的作品得以实现的原因，这并非没有道理。
What’s somewhat less widely known is that Theo, who’d long been in poor health, died less than a year after Vincent’s suicide.
不太为人所知的是，长期以来健康状况不佳的西奥在文森特自杀后不到一年就去世了。
The work of ensuring the latter’s legacy then fell to the former’s widow Johanna Bonger — or perhaps she understood that if she didn’t steward it, nobody else would.
确保后者遗产的工作随后落到了前者的遗孀约翰娜·邦格（Johanna Bonger）身上——或者也许她明白，如果她不管理它，没有其他人会这样做。
As Cindy Poh explains in the Newsthink video above , Bonger inherited a great many of van Gogh’s works and stored them away while devising a plan to make them famous.
正如 Cindy Poh 在上面的 Newsthink 视频中解释的那样，邦格继承了梵高的大量作品，并将它们储存起来，同时制定了一个让它们出名的计划。
Practically going door-to-door — and sometimes, it seems, literally going door-to-door — she stayed engaged with the late Theo’s art-world contacts.
实际上，她挨家挨户地拜访——有时，似乎是真正的挨家挨户——她一直与已故西奥的艺术界联系人保持着联系。
She cut sweetheart deals with museums and even donated artworks outright, increasing their chance of public exposure.
她与博物馆达成了甜心协议，甚至直接捐赠了艺术品，增加了它们在公众面前曝光的机会。
She organized exhibitions everywhere from Paris to Berlin to London to New York, the most pivotal being one held at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum in 1905.
她在巴黎、柏林、伦敦、纽约等各地举办了展览，其中最重要的是 1905 年在阿姆斯特丹市立博物馆举办的展览。
The 484 works put on display made it the largest van Gogh show in history, a record it still holds today.
展出的 484 件作品使其成为历史上规模最大的梵高展览，这一纪录至今仍保持着。
At that time, well before The Starry Night and Sunflowers adorned coffee mugs in suburban households the world over, van Gogh’s art could still shock some critics with its unconventionality.
当时，远在《星夜》和《向日葵》在世界各地郊区家庭装饰咖啡杯之前，梵高的艺术仍然以其非传统性震惊了一些评论家。
Others, however, showed signs of the enrapturement that Bonger must have suspected would one day be possible.
然而，其他人却表现出了欣喜若狂的迹象，邦格一定怀疑有一天会成为可能。
Thinking strategically, she preferred to sell fewer pieces for higher prices, preserving the value of his work and limiting its availability on the market.
从战略角度考虑，她宁愿以更高的价格出售更少的作品，从而保留他的作品的价值并限制其在市场上的供应。
After her second husband’s death, she redoubled her dedication to the art that had become her life’s mission, even translating and publishing the hundreds of letters he’d left behind, most of which were sent to Theo.
在她的第二任丈夫去世后，她加倍致力于艺术，这已成为她一生的使命，甚至翻译和出版了他留下的数百封信件，其中大部分寄给了西奥。
We’ve heard many artists described as married to their work, a cliché that applies well enough to Vincent van Gogh himself.
我们听过许多艺术家被描述为与自己的作品结合在一起，这种陈词滥调非常适合文森特·梵高本人。
But to be married to one’s brother-in-law’s work is a rarer thing indeed — and sometimes a more important one.
但与姐夫的工作结婚确实是一件比较罕见的事情——有时甚至是更重要的事情。
Related content: 1,000+ Artworks by Vincent Van Gogh Digitized & Put Online by Dutch Museums
相关内容：荷兰博物馆将文森特·梵高 (Vincent Van Gogh) 的 1,000 多件作品数字化并放到网上
Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night : Why It’s a Great Painting in 15 Minutes
文森特·梵高的《星夜》：为什么它是 15 分钟内的一幅伟大画作
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玛丽亚·安娜·莫扎特和她的哥哥沃尔夫冈一样都是音乐神童，那么为什么她会被从历史中抹去呢？
Based in Seoul, Colin M a rshall writes and broadcas ts on cities, language, and culture.
科林·马歇尔居住在首尔，撰写和广播有关城市、语言和文化的文章。
He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro .
他是时事通讯《城市书籍》以及《한국 요약 금지》（无总结韩国）和《韩国新歌》等书的作者。
Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinm a rshall .
在以前称为 Twitter 的社交网络上关注他：@colinm a rshall。