His Brother, Himself

So much for self-reflection.

The experts have spoken, and they have revised their opinion on a self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh. The experts now think that that portrait is of Theo, Vincent's brother. The painting, which was completed in 1887, shows a man wearing a dark blue jacket and a light-colored hat. The man is also sporting a beard that is of a color more consistent with that of Theo, according to the researchers announcing the decision. The color of the eyes is also supposed to be a clue as to which brother it is.

The announcement came from the Van Gogh Museum, in Amsterdam, so presumably they know what they're talking about and they've done their research and they haven't gone and concluded anything and announced anything without doing all of their homework first. But you have to wonder why, if Theo really is the person in the painting, we haven't been made aware of it until now. The common assessment was that it was a self-portrait. Why hasn't other research come to this conclusion?

Perhaps it's best not to ask those sorts of questions. After all, they're the experts and I'm not.

But it put me in mind of a similar episode from my own life in which one brother insisted that a portrait was of his brother. This is a very personal story, so bear with me.

My stepfather was Dutch. He was involved with the Dutch Resistance during World War II and survived that life-altering series of events by, at one point, hiding in the rafters of someone else's house.

He brought his family to America eventually and found enough jobs to keep them healthy as they grew. He eventually drifted apart from that family and met the mother of my wife.

His name was John, and he was a jolly fellow all the years that I knew him. He loved to tell a story (and he had a lot of them!). His laugh was infectious. One such jolly laugh-inducing story was the occasion of his 80th birthday. Barbara, my wife's mother, had outdone herself rounding up friends hither and yon for a superb birthday party, at the hotel where John had worked for many years. She had rifled through his photo albums when he wasn't looking and found a photo of young Johnny. She had reproduced this photo so that people sitting at every table at the birthday dinner could see the photo of young Johnny.

Slightly older John didn't know about this, of course, but he was a quick wit. When she ushered him into the party room and he got a look at the photo, he said, "Ah, that's my brother. Why is his photo here?"

Barbara was mortified. Where had she gone wrong? Surely that was John and not his brother. Surely that photo, stored along with others from his youth, was of the celebrant, not his brother. And yet here was John, saying that the photo, which many people commented on throughout the evening, was actually someone else and not the birthday boy!

Well, John was a trickster. It really was him in the photo. But he and his brother looked very much alike. It very well could have been his brother in that photo. Really, only John knew for sure. He was having us on, for sure, but he might not have been.

The point is that only Vincent and Theo know for sure whose portrait that is. (You could possibly draw that circle a bit larger and include people who knew them very well, but not too many of those people are still around.) Bottom line: It's still a painting done by Vincent van Gogh, which makes it very well done indeed. John would agree.