taken from: letter of vincent van gogh's brother, theo van gogh, in which he writes that these were one of vincent van gogh's last words.original text:

[...] he [vincent] himself wanted to die; when i sat at his bedside and said that we would try to get him better and that we hoped that he would then be spared this kind of despair, he said: la tristesse durera toujours. i understand what he wanted to say with those words. a few moments later he felt suffocated and within one minute he closed his eyes. a great rest came over him from which he did not come to life again.

about the quoted person:vincent van gogh is today one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated during his lifetime. he suffered of depression. among his most famous works are the potatoe eaters (1885) and a series of sun flowers (1888).in 1890 he shot himself in his chest and died. a few days after vincent van gogh died, his brother, theo van gogh, wrote the letter.