ANSWERS

1) D. vun Khokh

ACCORDING to the BBC’s Pronunciation Unit, it should be pronounced ‘vun’ as in bun and ‘kh’ as in a scottish loch. However, it recommends non-native Dutch speakers opt for ‘the established Anglicisation van Gokh (“v” as in vet, “g” as in get, “kh” as in loch) which is codified in numerous British English pronunciation dictionaries’.

2) A. A Marseillais eating bouillabaisse

IN AUGUsT 1888, van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, that he was ‘hard at it’, painthop ing with the enthusiasm of a Marseille man eating the traditional French fish stew.

3) True

THE U.s. President had wanted the New York gallery to lend a van Gogh for his private living quarters. Its chief curator declined, instead offering a fully functioning 18-carat gold toilet — a work by artist Maurizio Cattelan, regarded by critics as a satire on U.s. wealth.

4) B. Everything but a part of the earlobe

ACCORDING to sketches drawn by Dr Felix Rey, who treated van Gogh’s wounds in 1888, the artist cut off almost all of his left ear except for a part of his earlobe. He then handed it to a woman called Rachel and said: ‘Keep this object carefully.’

5) C. ‘Very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick’

JEANNE CAlMENT saw van Gogh in Arles, France, when she was 12 or 13. she gained the Guinness World Record for oldest actress after appearing in Vincent And Me at the age of 114. she died aged 122.

6) False

HIs first commission was from his uncle Cor, an art dealer who ordered 19 cityscapes of The Hague. Van Gogh also sold a painting to a Parisian art dealer and his brother sold one to a gallery in london.