Van Gogh was not only a top-class painter but a speed walker too

VINCENT Van Gogh was not only a top-class painter but a speed walker too.

The artist – best known for his paintings of sunflowers and for hacking off his own ear – walked at more than 4.5mph, race walking pace.

Letters on show at a Royal Academy exhibition in London reveal that the Dutch-born artist regularly walked nearly four miles in 45 minutes when he lived in London.

In 1879, when he worked in the village of Petit Wasmes in Belgium as a missionary, he walked 50 miles to Brussels after the church sacked him.

Race walker John Powell, of Highgate Harriers, in north London, said: “At 4.5mph you are a speed walker – there are no two ways about it.”

The Real Van Gogh: the Artist and his Letters, is at the Royal Academy until April 18.

via Express.co.uk – Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Van Gogh was a real pacesetter.