Why Did Van Gogh Cut Off His Own Ear? - Google Arts & Culture (2024)
Van Gogh's friend and fellow painter, Paul Gauguin planned to visit in October. Eagerly anticipating his impending visit, in this letter to his friend Van Gogh promised that, en route from Pont-Aven to Arles, Gauguin would see "miles and miles of countryside of different kinds with autumn splendors."
Van Gogh also reported that a recent bout of eyestrain forced him to remain indoors and paint an interior "with a simplicity à la Seurat." This painting was The Bedroom — sketched and vividly described here — in which he "had wished to express utter repose with all these very different tones."
Van Gogh expressed his desire to talk with Gauguin about this and other paintings, admitting that "I often don't know what I'm doing, working almost like a sleepwalker."
The circ*mstances in which Van Gogh cut off his ear are not exactly known, but many experts believe that it was following a furious row with Gauguin
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (/ɡoʊˈɡæn/; French: [øʒɛn ɑ̃ʁi pɔl ɡoɡɛ̃]; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements.
Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear when tempers flared with Paul Gauguin, the artist with whom he had been working for a while in Arles. Van Gogh's illness revealed itself: he began to hallucinate and suffered attacks in which he lost consciousness. During one of these attacks, he used the knife.
Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions. Though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed his left ear.
Yes, but with more difficulty. The outer part of your ear, known as the pinna, funnels sound into your ear canal, like a megaphone in reverse. If someone cut it off, everything would sound quieter. (A wound that scabbed over would make the sound suppression more severe.)
Although his physicians diagnosed Van Gogh as having epilepsy and madness, Hargrave (2011) writes that the painter was known to have suffered from tinnitus, which he described as ringing or roaring in the ears, as well as impaired hearing and intolerance of loud noises (classic Meniere's symptoms).
He often longed for a wife and a family, but he remained single. His unlucky love streak continued in Paris, to where he moved at the age of 32 (in 1886). In the City of Love, Vincent met Agostina Segatori. She was the Italian owner of the restaurant Le Tambourin, on the Boulevard de Clichy.
Van Gogh offered the ear to a woman, telling her to “keep this object carefully.” Later that evening he was found unconscious and taken to a nearby hospital. Although his severed ear was eventually brought there as well, the medical assistant taking care of van Gogh determined too much time had passed to reattach it.
After marrying Theo, Jo went to live with him in Paris, where their son Vincent Willem was born in 1890. Theo died less than a year later and Jo returned to the Netherlands, where she married her second husband, Johan Cohen Gosschalk.
While depression is most often singled out as the culprit, most likely due to the famous ear-cutting incident, a more nuanced view of Van Gogh's condition is being looked at. The modern diagnosis for Van Gogh's illness now includes Meniere's disease.
Vincent took the ear and wrapped it in newspaper. With a hat pulled down over his wound, he, with ear in hand, left the house to go to a “maison de tolerance”, a brothel close to the house. There he asked for a girl named Rachel who he gave the ear to saying “Guard this object carefully.”
Van Gogh died in Auvers-sur-Oise on 29 July 1890. He is buried in the municipal cemetery next to his brother Theo. Both graves and the village, an outdoor museum with reproductions of his paintings (free map available from the Tourist Office) have become a pilgrimage for art lovers.
The expression 'Van Gogh's ear for music' is used to describe someone who is tone-deaf. The reason for this is the painter losing his ear, either by cutting it off himself, or by losing it during a fight with fellow artist Gauguin, depending on your source of information.
Vincent van Gogh was 35 years old when he cut off his left ear just before Christmas, 1888. It was the beginning of a period of uncertainty. Several severe crises and attacks followed, but it remained unclear what exactly Vincent was suffering from. Yet, it had a serious impact on his life.
In her book, Murphy suggests that van Gogh's bequeathing of his ear may have been a deluded attempt at helping to heal the woman. “[Berlatier] had had a very nasty scar on her arm following the bite,” Murphy told the Daily Telegraph. “Van Gogh was somebody who was very touched by people in difficulty.
Inspired by the view from his window at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy, in southern France, where the artist spent twelve months in 1889–90 seeking reprieve from his mental illnesses, The Starry Night (made in mid-June) is both an exercise in observation and a clear departure from it.
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