To ‘Go’ or Not to Go

Some of my latest research has led me, delightfully, through (online) galleries. I have had the pleasure of stumbling into lesser-known paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, at least to me.

So, how do you pronounce ‘Van Gogh’? 
Van Go? Van Gof? Van Gog?  

You’re probably saying it wrong, according to creators of the historic Immersive van Gogh exhibit, (mainly 2021-22). The audio guide for the installation, created by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, caused some surprise: It speaks the artist’s last name as Van Go’, the typical American pronunciation. In Britain, people tend to say “Van Gof,” the French say ‘Gog’ and the Japanese say it differently, too. The Dutch pronounce it with a guttural sound, ‘Khokh, which is always very difficult to know how to pronounce. “It’s not easy for someone English or American, we just don’t have that sound,” explains Martin Bailey, author of Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum. “

Van Gogh regularly traveled around Europe, moving to London to work as an art dealer when he was 20 and living in France. His paintings are all signed “Vincent,” and the artist is often named as Mr. Vincent or Monsieur Vincent in letters and documents. He preferred ‘Vincent’ because the French and English couldn’t pronounce his surname. In a letter to his brother Theo in March 1888, soon after Van Gogh moved to Arles, in France, he explained that “in future my name must be put in the catalog the way I sign it on the canvases, i.e., Vincent and not Van Gogh, for the excellent reason that people here wouldn’t be able to pronounce that name.” 

Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

“A rose by any other name . . . ”