René Robert G S

Vincent van Gogh
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1853 - 1890 CE

Shared Ancestor

14.000 BCE

You and Vincent van Gogh share a common paternal line ancestor who lived around this time.

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. He was born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands on March 30, 1853, the oldest child in a family of art dealers. Despite his love for art, van Gogh struggled to find his place in the art world and suffered from depression and mental illness throughout his life.

Vincent drew as a child and worked as an art dealer as a young man. He often traveled for his work and became depressed after being transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent some time as a Protestant missionary in Belgium. After a period of poor health and loneliness, he moved back to his parents and took up painting in 1881 at age 28.

His younger brother Theo, also an art dealer, supported him financially and most of what is known about Vincent today comes from the over 650 surviving letters from their long and frequent correspondence.

Sunflowers, painted August 1889 (Public domain)

In Vincent’s early artistic career, he mostly depicted still objects and realistic peasant characters without many signs of the vivid colors that would later come to characterize his art. He moved to Paris in 1886 and met members of the avant-garde who were going against the impressionist style. In the following years, he experimented with colors, his paintings became brighter, and he developed the unique artistic style for which he is known.

Despite his talent, van Gogh struggled to gain recognition during his lifetime, and his work was often rejected by galleries and collectors. He lived in poverty and suffered from mental health issues. In 1888, he severed his own left ear with a razor. In 1889, he suffered a mental breakdown and voluntarily admitted himself to a mental asylum in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, France. It was during this time that he produced some of his most famous works, including "Starry Night" and "Irises."

The Starry Night (Dutch: De sterrennacht), painted in 1889. One of the most recognizable paintings in Western art (Public domain).

Van Gogh died at the age of 37 on July 29, 1890, after suffering a gunshot wound that was likely self-inflicted. Despite his tragic end, van Gogh's work has had a lasting impact on the art world, and he is now considered one of the greatest artists in history.

Vincent’s haplogroup was determined by Y-DNA testing of his great-great-grandnephew Lieuwe van Gogh, who is also a Dutch painter. Lieuwe’s great-great-grandfather was Theo van Gogh (1857-1891), the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh.

In 2014, Lieuwe van Gogh participated in Diemut Strebe’s science-art project Sugababe, which used genetic engineering to reconstruct Vincent van Gogh's ear using DNA from an original letter from Vincent and cartilage samples from Lieuwe’s ear.

Genetic information sourced from Toine van der Weerden: Van Gogh versus de Groot verslag. Biographical information from Wikipedia. Pictured: Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait, September 1889 (Public domain). See also: Lieuwe van Gogh's website.

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Rothschild Family
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1744 - 1812 CE

Shared Ancestor

14.000 BCE

You and Rothschild Family share a common paternal line ancestor who lived around this time.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild was the patriarch of the wealthy Jewish Rothschild family, originally from Frankfurt, Germany where he established his banking business in the 1760s.

He is known as “the founding father of international finance.”

In this painting, the Elector of Hesse is entrusting Mayer Rothschild with his treasure.

Over the next century, various branches of the family spread throughout the world, establishing businesses and building mansions in many countries.

The Rothschild family has contributed to many charitable organizations and museums worldwide, often anonymously.

Information sourced from Wikipedia, the Rothschild Family Genealogy, and the Rothschild DNA Project.

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