A visualization of Vincent van Gogh’s nearly 700 letters to his brother Theo, written between 1872 and 1890. Rendered as a time-based animation in Google Earth, the program draws a white line on the globe for every letter, revealing the brothers’ locations at that moment and their movements around Europe over time. The access we have to van Gogh’s personal history through the letters is tempered by gaps in their chronology, notably the period in 1887 when the brothers lived together and had no need to write.
Created with data from the van Gogh’s Letters WebExhibit, generously provided by Michael Douma at the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement. If you have Google Earth installed, you can explore the KML files yourself. Download vangogh1.kml (points rise over time) or vangogh2.kml (paths rise over time)
Project Details
Research, data manipulation, and programming