All the unflattering things oldest person ever Jeanne Calment said about Vincent van Gogh

Having lived for well over a century, the oldest person ever, Jeanne Calment (France), got to experience more than most of us could dream of, including meeting the notoriously reclusive – and later incredibly famous - painter Vincent van Gogh. 

But she didn’t have many nice things to say about him.

Jeanne was born in 1875 and lived to be 122 years and 164 days old, passing in 1997. Having been born in the 19th century and being just three years shy of the millennium, Jeanne could have written her own history book. 

“In her lifetime she witnessed the invention of the light bulb, the telephone, the automobile, the television, the computer, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and three American presidents,” penned Lucinda Smyth for Prospect. “Both World Wars, both Boer wars, the Jazz Age, Hiroshima, birth control, the United States Black Civil Rights movement, and the rise of the internet.”

Jeanne pictured in 1995. Image credit: Sipa/Shutterstock

Living through such history, it’s to be expected that she’d have had some run-ins with a public figure or two. One such encounter, she claimed, was selling paint supplies to van Gogh when she was a child.  

This occurrence was extremely rare as not much is known of the painter outside of his artwork. Smyth says: “A large portion of his contemporary fame stems from the fact that he was a complete unknown in his lifetime: no one knew of him, let alone personally knew him.”

If his public appearances were so rare, where would he have crossed paths with Jeanne?

Van Gogh, although famous now, did not make much money in his art career. He was reliant on his younger brother Theo to financially support him. Due to his money struggles, according to The Art Story, he moved around a lot.

Originally born in The Hugue, Netherlands, his early apprenticeship had him move between London and Paris, and after that he became a clergyman in Belgium. Discovering his passion was painting, only after selling all of his belongings for his religious endeavour, caused him to move back to the Netherlands with his parents.

From there he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and returned to Belgium. He did not stay in school long before following his fellow artist Fernand Cormon to an artist district in Northern Paris. It was here where he was introduced to light colour pallet impressionism which inspired his most famous works such as Sunflowers or Starry Night.

All of this moving around, as well as a general underappreciation of his artistic genius, may explain why no one seemed to personally know van Gogh. Did he even stick around long enough to even have a conversation with someone?

Finally, he moved to what he deemed the 'Yellow House' in Arles, France, which  happened to be Jeanne's hometown. Van Gogh was late in his career at this point, but Jeanne was just beginning her record-breaking long life. 

She recalls meeting the painter when she was just 13. Jeanne would occasionally help out in her family's fabric shop. 

Jeanne recalled van Gogh coming in to purchase canvases several times. It’s possible one of these canvases is hung in a gallery right now because some of van Gogh’s most famous paintings came out of his time living in Arles.

A self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. Image credit: Joseph Winterbotham Collection

Although he was unknown at the time, he still made a lasting impression. “He was ugly as sin, had a vile temper and smelled of booze,” Jeanne once said. 

Her encounter was even recreated in the film Vincent et moi, about van Gogh’s life. Jeanne appeared as herself in the film, at the age of 114, earning herself another record for oldest actress.

Jeanne also met her husband Fernand in the shop, an encounter she would have remembered much more fondly.  

Read more about the world’s oldest people in our Human Body section.

In Vincent et moi, Jeanne forgives van Gogh for his poor manners. Later research and the discovery of his old letters have revealed during his time in Arles, he was experiencing a severe mental health crisis. While this may have been his most productive time in the art world, he was not himself.

If the pair were to meet in another way and at a different time, perhaps their encounter would have more resembled van Gogh’s general thoughts on friendship.

In a letter written to Paul Gachet, van Gogh wrote: “The best consolation, if not the only remedy, is, it still seems to me, profound friendships […]. Thank you again for your visit, which gave me so much pleasure. Good handshake in thought. Yours truly, Vincent.”

Alas, it seems he wasn’t destined to be friends with Jeanne.