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Van Gogh’s Ear – What Really Happened?

Most art fans have heard the story of Vincent van Gogh cutting off his own ear and giving it to his favourite prostitute. But does anyone know what really happened?

The story goes that the combination of van Gogh’s heavy drinking of absinthe, smoking, and possible poisoning from lead based oil paints, led the artist to a madness which caused him to slash off his ear on December 23, 1888, and then commit suicide in 1890.

In their book “Van Gogh’s Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence”, Hamburg, Germany based art historians Hans Kaufman and Rita Wildegans present a different theory. The pair spent ten years reviewing French police investigations, witness accounts, and the artist’s personal letters. They believe that fellow artist and friend Paul Gauguin, who was known to have had a collection of weapons including fencing swords, cut off van Gogh’s ear in self-defense.

Gauguin stayed with van Gogh in Arles, France and the two worked together for about two months. The tension between the artists grew and they quarreled often. Van Gogh was vulnerable and hyper-sensitive, and a bullying and egocentric Gauguin often threatened to leave. This was too much for the unstable van Gogh who, in his state of despair, came after Gauguin with a cut-throat razor.

Until recently, it was thought that van Gogh turned his anxiety over Gauguin on himself and severed his own ear and Gauguin, upset by his friend’s state of mind, left Arles. However, Kaufman and Wildegans believe that Gauguin, fed up with van Gogh’s mental instability, decided to leave the house after van Gogh threw a glass at him during an argument. A crazed van Gogh followed him and things became violent. Gauguin, either in anger or self-defense, lopped off part of van Gogh’s left ear.

They believe that van Gogh was so devoted to his friend that he did not report the attack and the two continued to write letters to each other. This theory is based on a phrases that van Gogh wrote to Gauguin and his brother including: “You are quiet, I will be too” and “pact of silence”. As well, van Gogh’s letter to his brother Theo describes Gauguin’s aggressive character. He wrote it was lucky Gauguin didn’t have a machine gun or other firearms.

Whether the wound was self-inflicted or not, there is no doubt that Van Gogh, bleeding from his wound, staggered into a bordello and gave a prostitute friend named Rachel his severed ear, telling her to ‘keep this object carefully’. He returned to his house where he nearly died from loss of blood and for weeks he spent his time between the hospital and home, continually crying out for Gauguin.

In July 1890, van Gogh moved to Auvers sur Oise, under the care of doctor Paul Guichet but a few days later, he shot himself in the chest and died two days later.

Source: Mail Online

Update (from ART INFO)

Letter Suggests van Gogh Lopped Off His Own Ear
“NEW YORK—Van Gogh scholar Martin Bailey claims the distressed Dutch artist slashed his own left ear lobe after learning that his more affluent art dealer brother, Theo, was getting married, contesting theories that fellow painter Paul Gauguin was to blame.” (for the full story, visit ART INFO).

Mother’s Day: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother

Happy Mother’s Day all you moms out there! In honour of this special day, I give you a selection of well known portraits of artist’s mothers. Throughout history, many artists have painted their mothers for a variety reasons; “as a loving tribute, to capture a memorable face, to work through conflicting emotions, as a family legacy, or the simple availability of a model.”

The development of photography in the 19th century however, had a significant impact on portrait painting. Many turned to photography studios to have their portraits made as a cheaper alternative. Some artists found photography to be a useful aid to composition and from the Impressionists onward , artists have found numerous ways to expand their techniques and reinterpret the portrait to compete effectively with photography:

“Henri Matisse produced powerful portraits using non-naturalistic, even garish, colors for skin tones. Cézanne relied on highly simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding detail while emphasizing color juxtapositions. Gustav Klimt’s unique style applied Byzantine motifs and gold paint to his memorable portraits. Picasso painted many portraits, including several cubist renderings of his mistresses, in which the likeness of the subject is grossly distorted to achieve an emotional statement well beyond the bounds of normal caricature.”

As a result of an increased interest in abstract and non-figurative art, portrait painting in Europe and the Americas declined in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s an 70s, however, a revival of portraiture began. Artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and other contemporary artists have made the human face a focal point of their work. As well, photographic portraiture has become fully accepted in the art world and photo portraits are exhibited alongside painters in galleries and museum.

Whether a portrait of one’s mother or family member, friend or a stranger on the street; in our era of mass-media and the web, where images can be exchanged seconds, our desire to create and commission unique images of ourselves lives on.