Willemina van Gogh

Willemina Jacoba van Gogh, called Wil, was the youngest sister of the artist Vincent van Gogh and the art dealer Theo van Gogh. She was amongst the earliest feminists.

During the first part of her life Wil van Gogh served her family and others, nursing the sick. After the death of her brothers in 1890, she obtained a modest job in a hospital. There she engaged in the committee to organise the "National exhibition of women's work" (Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid), 1898. This was a highly successful enterprise and funds raised from the exhibition, 20,000 Dutch Guilders, served to establish the Dutch National bureau for women's work.

No sources record what happened afterwards, but on 4 December 1902 Wil van Gogh was interned and later transferred to House Veldwijk, a psychiatric institution at Ermelo. The diagnosis of dementia praecox, on which this measure was based, was in those days equivalent to a death sentence. Wil van Gogh dwelt at Ermelo for almost four decades before she died.

Whether she was mentally ill or not is nowadays difficult to prove. Renate Berger has established that Wil van Gogh shared the fate of many "sisters of well-known men" at the time.

GEDCOM Note

Biography

Willemina was born in 1862. She was the daughter of Theodorus Van Gogh and Anna Carbentus.
During the first part of her life Wil served as a nurse helping her family as well as others. In 1890 following the death of her brothers Wil obtained a modest job in a hospital. At this hospital she created "National exhibition of women's work" (Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid), 1898 which raised funds. It also established the Dutch national bureau for women's work funded by 20,000 Dutch Guilders.
On 4 December 1902 Wil van Gogh was interned and later transferred to the House Veldwijk, a psychiatric institution in Ermelo where she was diagnosed with dementia praecox which was in those days viewed as a death sentence. She typically remained solitary, withdrawn and did not answer questions. She also often refused to eat and had to be fed. She often sat the same chair in the lounge staring blankly at her surroundings.

She passed away in 1941 after being in Ermelo for almost 4 decades .Now it is believed by some that she may not have been mentally ill butrather suffered the same fate as many sisters of well known people atthat time. Though this is hard to verify at this point.

Sources

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See also:* https://www.artandobject.com/articles/uncovering-van-gogh-sisters (accessed 23 Oct 2022)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wil_van_Gogh (accessed 23 Oct 2022)

Zie [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wil_van_Gogh] voor meer informatie.