vincent van gogh died a poor man, only ever having sold one painting.

Traditional galleries shunned him. Art collectors dismissed him as a madman. No one with any power or proper influence dared to associate with him. So how did he become one of the most famous artists in history? 

Johanna van Gogh. 

It’s a name you’ve likely never heard before, but if you search for the most remote, quiet corner of the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, you’ll find a single portrait of Johanna. It will tell you that she’s the one “responsible for making Vincent the famous artist he is today.” That in fact, all of this was by the virtue of a woman that history has all but forgotten.

Vincent’s story has been told a thousand different ways, but Johanna has remained a silent blip, a passing mention, a vague entity that exists somewhere in the background. But without her, Vincent van Gogh would have been quietly absorbed into the fabric of time without us ever knowing he existed. 

It’s time to tell HER story.

JOHANNA is a one-hour drama that tells the story of Johanna van Gogh, who after the tragic deaths of her husband and brother-in-law, rages against an oppressive society and hostile art industry to make Vincent van Gogh one of the most famous artists in the world. 

It’s a show about power, change, and obsession with winning against the structures and institutions that tell her it can’t be done. It’s about choices made, bridges burned, and the turning of the tide.