Very good detective work, and of course logic is not always applicable in cases where something illogical is being investigated, suicide being far more so than homicide. Of course both can be irrational acts, but all things much be considered from various angles.
You have carried my suggestion of 'interaction' with these boys further, and I had not thought of the possibility they well might have been trying to stop him from suicide. A struggle ensued, and the gun discharged. That would explain the uncharacteristic angle of the wound, and that it was aimed at his stomach.
So, Inspector Poirot, I think you might have solved the case?
Then what of the pistol. I have illustrated a pinfire of the same size and presumably caliber of the one auctioned. The 'apache' theory is tenuously applied to suggest only ruffians of the times who indeed carried pinfire revolvers.
In the scenario you suggest, it well might have been dropped, and the boys frightened by the resulting shot, the gun not theirs, might simply have run. Van Gogh, knowing their intent and not wishing to implicate them, would have taken the blame. Not expecting to die, and incapacitated, he never thought more on the gun, so it remained in situ for years until c. 1960, covered by whatever vegetation was there in the field.
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