What are the two theories of van Gogh's ear?
It is popular belief that the Dutch painter took a razor to his ear after an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin. But a new theory bolsters the idea that Van Gogh's infamous mutilation may have been provoked by the news of his brother's engagement.
This has led others to have different ideas about what might have taken place. Rather than an epileptic seizure accidentally causing him to cut his ear, or a fit a lunacy causing a madman to harm himself, others believe that perhaps the eccentric artist, Paul Gauguin is actually the culprit.
A new study claims that Vincent van Gogh was malnourished, sleep deprived, and mentally ill, but was ultimately pushed to extremes by alcohol addiction, cutting off his ear during a psychotic episode fueled by alcohol withdrawal.
The ear was given to a cleaner at a brothel, not a prostitute. For a long time, the accepted story was that van Gogh gifted the bloody appendage to a woman named Rachel, a prostitute at the brothel van Gogh frequented while living in Arles, in southern France.
After Murphy's discovery, the Van Gogh Museum's authoritative website on the artist's letters states that he “did indeed cut off his entire ear”.
During his 15-month stay in the city of Arles, in the south of France, an aspiring artist Vincent van Gogh would paint more than two hundred paintings that captured the people and places he encountered.
Historians now claim that van Gogh lost his ear in a fight with Paul Gauguin. PASSAU, Germany, May 5, 2009 — -- He's known as the tortured genius who cut off his own ear, but two German historians now claim that painter Vincent van Gogh lost his ear in a fight with his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.
As he lay on his death bed, having apparently shot himself, Vincent Van Gogh is said to have uttered the final words, "The sadness will last forever". It's hard to imagine a bleaker prophecy from the famed and deeply troubled Dutch artist.
The most widely accepted account is that van Gogh cut off his ear lobe in a fit of mania after getting in a fight with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, and then gave it to a prostitute named Rachel as a token of affection.
The recipient of Vincent van Gogh's ear has been named almost 130 years after the artist cut it off in Paris. The Art Newspaper reported that after the incident on 23 December 1888, Van Gogh gave it to a young woman named Gabrielle Berlatier.
Was Van Gogh's ear reattached?
However, this was the last he saw of his dear friend Vincent. Van Gogh was admitted to the hospital under the care of doctor Félix Rey. In one of his letters, he says that the severed ear was given to him a little too late to be reattached. However, he did preserve it in an alcohol solution and kept it on his desk.
The recipient of Vincent van Gogh's ear has been named almost 130 years after the artist cut it off in Paris. The Art Newspaper reported that after the incident on 23 December 1888, Van Gogh gave it to a young woman named Gabrielle Berlatier.
Plagued by psychiatric illness throughout his life, van Gogh committed suicide in 1890. Evidence suggests that he had manic depression, a chronic mental illness thought affects many creative people.