3 ms·
Rembrandt van Rijn is known as Rembrandt. Vincent van Gogh is known as van Gogh.
by joarv0249nw 2y ago
Rembrandt van Rijn is known as Rembrandt.
Vincent van Gogh is known as van Gogh.
- throw_pm23 2y agoYes, I guess in most of Europe the 200-250 years between Rembrandt and van Gogh is exactly when family names solidified from a simple description "the one from village X" or "son of Y" or "the one with a red hair" to become a hereditary name essentially detached from its meaning.
- seszett 2y agoAlso, van Gogh's popularity came from France, the work he did in France, and in France by this time family names had been standard there for a long time already (since around the 16th century), much earlier than in the Netherlands.
- saalweachter 2y agoSpecifically, in 1811 Napoleon made surnames mandatory for the Dutch. A number of Dutch, displeased with Napoleon and thinking the surname thing wouldn't last, took... unfortunate surnames.
- xeonmc 2y agoWhere do Dick Van Dyke fit in all of this?
- Quarrel 2y agoHe is far too alive for us to worry about that. (Luckily, these posts are explicitly datestamped .. !)