Vincent van Gogh's ear

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Last Sunday night at half past eleven a painter named Vincent Vangogh, appeared at the maison de tolérance No 1, asked for a girl called Rachel, and handed her ... his ear with these words:'Keep this object like a treasure.' Then he disappeared. The police, informed of these events, which could only be the work of an unfortunate madman, looked the next morning for this individual, whom they found in bed with scarcely a sign of life.
The poor man was taken to hospital without delay. (Hulsker (1980), pp. 380-2)

The precise chain of events that led to the celebrated incident of van Gogh slicing off his ear is not known reliably in detail. The only account attesting a supposed earlier razor attack on Gauguin comes from Gauguin himself some fifteen years later and biographers agree this account must be considered unreliable and self-serving.<ref name="PG Avant et Après">{{

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}}</ref><ref>Sweetman p. 1</ref><ref>Tralbaut p. 258</ref> It does seem likely, however, that by 23 December 1888 van Gogh had realized that Gauguin was proposing to leave and that there had been some kind of contretemps between the two.<ref>Naifeh and Smith p. 702</ref> That evening van Gogh severed his left ear (wholly or in part, accounts differ) with a razor, inducing a severe haemorrhage.<ref group =note>According to Doiteau & Leroy, the diagonal cut removed the lobe and probably a little more.</ref> He bandaged his wound and then wrapped the ear in paper and delivered the package to a brothel frequented by both him and Gauguin before returning home and collapsing. He was found unconscious the next day by the police <ref group=note>Gauguin, who had spent the night in a nearby hotel, arrived independently at the same time.</ref> and taken to hospital.<ref>Gayford (2007), 277</ref><ref>Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, Van Gogh's Own Words After Cutting His Ear Recorded in Paris Newspaper</ref><ref>{{

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}}</ref> The local newspaper reported that van Gogh had given the ear to a prostitute with an instruction to guard it carefully.<ref>Hulsker pp. 380-2</ref> In Gauguin's later account he implies that in fact van Gogh had left it with the doorman as a memento for Gauguin.<ref name="PG Avant et Après"/> Van Gogh himself had no recollection of these events and it is plain that he had suffered an acute psychotic episode.<ref>Naifeh and Smith p. 707-8</ref> Family letters of the time make it clear that the event had not been unexpected.<ref name="VGM Concordance">{{

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}}</ref> He had suffered a nervous collapse in Antwerp some three years before and as early as 1880 his father had proposed committing him to an asylum (at Gheel).<ref>Naifeh and Smith pp. 488-9, pp, 209-10</ref> The hospital diagnosis was "generalized delirium", and within a few days van Gogh was sectioned.<ref name="VGM Concordance"/>

During the initial few days of his treatment van Gogh repeatedly asked for Gauguin, but Gauguin stayed away. Gauguin told one of the policeman attending the case, "Be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him."<ref name="Gayford, 284">Gayford, 284</ref> Gauguin wrote of Van Gogh, "His state is worse, he wants to sleep with the patients, chase the nurses, and washes himself in the coal bucket. That is to say, he continues the biblical mortifications."<ref name="Gayford, 284"/><ref name="VGM Concordance"/> Theo – notified by Gauguin – visited, as did both Madame Ginoux and Roulin. Gauguin left Arles and never saw Van Gogh again.<ref group=note>They continued to correspond and in 1890 Gauguin proposed they form an artist studio in Antwerp. See Pickvance (1986), 62</ref>

Despite the gloomy initial disgnosis, van Gogh made a surprisingly speedy recovery. He returned to the Yellow House by the beginning of January, but was to spend the following month between the hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and delusions that he was being poisoned. In March, the police closed his house after a petition by 30 townspeople (including the Ginoux family), who called him "fou roux" (the redheaded madman).<ref name="VGM Concordance"/> Paul Signac visited him in the hospital and Van Gogh was allowed home in his company. In April, he moved into rooms owned by his hospital physician Dr. Rey after floods damaged paintings in his own home.<ref>Pickvance (1986). Chronology, 239–242</ref><ref>Tralbaut (1981), 265–273</ref> Around this time, he wrote, "Sometimes moods of indescribable anguish, sometimes moments when the veil of time and fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant." Two months later he left Arles and entered an asylum (at his own request) in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.<ref>Hughes (1990), 145</ref> Template:Clear

1 Saint-Rémy (May 1889 – May 1890)
2 Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890)
3 Death
4 Work
5 Legacy
- 5.1 Posthumous fame
- 5.2 Influence
6 Footnotes
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links
10 See also

Saint-Rémy (May 1889 – May 1890)

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On 8 May 1889, accompanied by his carer, the Reverend Salles, Van Gogh committed himself to the hospital at Saint Paul-de-Mausole. A former monastery in Saint-Rémy less than Template:Convert from Arles, the monastery is located in an area of cornfields, vineyards and olive trees at the time run by a former naval doctor, Dr. Théophile Peyron. Theo arranged for two small rooms – adjoining cells with barred windows. The second was to be used as a studio.<ref name=callow246>Callow (1990), 246</ref> thumb|upright|left|Vincent van Gogh's room in Saint Paul de Maussole During his stay, the clinic and its garden became the main subjects of his paintings. He made several studies of the hospital interiors, such as Vestibule of the Asylum and Saint-Remy (September 1889). Some of the work from this time is characterized by swirls – including one of his best-known paintings The Starry Night.<ref>Carol Vogel, NY Times. Retrieved 1 July 2010.</ref> He was allowed short supervised walks, which led to paintings of cypresses and olive trees, like Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background 1889, Cypresses 1889, Cornfield with Cypresses (1889), Country road in Provence by Night (1890). That September he also produced a further two versions of Bedroom in Arles.

Limited access to the world outside the clinic resulted in a shortage of subject matter. He was left to work on interpretations of other artist's paintings, such as Millet’s The Sower and Noon – Rest from Work (after Millet), as well as variations on his own earlier work. Van Gogh was an admirer of the Realism of Jules Breton, Gustave Courbet and Millet<ref>Jules Breton and Realism, Van Gogh Museum</ref> and compared his copies to a musician's interpreting Beethoven.<ref>Pickvance (1984), 102–103</ref><ref>Pickvance (1986), 154–157</ref> Many of his most compelling works date from this period. His The Round of the Prisoners (1890) was painted after an engraving by Gustave Doré (1832–1883). It is suggested that the face of the prisoner in the center of the painting and looking toward the viewer is Van Gogh himself, although the noted Van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker discounts this.<ref name="Tra286">Tralbaut (1981), 286</ref><ref>Hulsker (1990), 434</ref>

Towards the end of his stay, Van Gogh suffered a severe relapse lasting two month between February and April 1890. Nevertheless he was able to paint and draw a little during this time and he later wrote Theo that he had made a few small canvases "from memory ... reminisces of the North."<ref>{{

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}}</ref> Amongst these was Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset. Hulsker believes that this small group of paintings formed the nucleus of many drawings and study sheets depicting landscapes and figures that Van Gogh worked on during this time. He comments that, save for this short period, Van Gogh's illness had hardly any effect on his work but in these he sees a reflection of Van Gogh's mental health at the time.<ref name="Hulsker 1990, 390, 404">Hulsker (1990), 390, 404</ref> Also belonging to this period is Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate'), a color study that Hulsker describes as "another unmistakable remembrance of times long past."<ref name="Hulsker 1990, 390, 404"/><ref>Tralbaut (1981), 287</ref>

In February 1890, he painted five versions of L'Arlésienne (Madame Ginoux), based on a charcoal sketch Gauguin had produced when Madame Ginoux sat for both artists at the beginning of November 1888.<ref>Pickvance (1986) 175–177</ref> The version intended for Madame Ginoux is lost. It was attempting to deliver this painting to Madame Ginoux in Arles that precipitated his February relapse.<ref name = "Hulsker440">Hulsker (1990), 440</ref>

His work was praised by Albert Aurier in the Mercure de France in January 1890, when he was described as "a genius."<ref>Aurier, G. Albert. "The Isolated Ones: Vincent van Gogh", January 1890. Reproduced on vggallery.com. Retrieved 25 June 2009.</ref> That February he was invited by Les XX, a society of avant-garde painters in Brussels, to participate in their annual exhibition. At the opening dinner, Les XX member Henry de Groux insulted Van Gogh's work. Toulouse-Lautrec demanded satisfaction, while Signac declared he would continue to fight for Van Gogh's honor if Lautrec should surrender. Later, while Van Gogh's exhibit was on display with the Artistes Indépendants in Paris, Monet said that his work was the best in the show.<ref>Rewald (1978), 346–347; 348–350</ref> In February 1890, following the birth of his nephew Vincent Willem, he wrote in a letter to his mother, that with the new addition to the family, he "started right away to make a picture for him, to hang in their bedroom, branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky."<ref>Tralbaut (1981), 293</ref> Template:Clear

Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890)

Template:See also [[File:VanGogh Daubigny.jpg|thumb|Daubigny's Garden, July 1890, Auvers, Kunstmuseum Basel, one of Van Gogh's late works<ref name="Pickvance 1986, 272-273">Pickvance (1986), 272–273</ref>|alt=An enclosed garden surrounded by trees, with a large house in the background, and another house off to the right. On the green lawn foreground is a cat, in the center of the lawn is a bed of flowers and at the rear of the lawn is a bench, a table and a few chairs. Nearby is a lone figure]]

In May 1890, Van Gogh left the clinic in Saint-Rémy to move nearer the physician Dr. Paul Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise, and also to Theo. Gachet was recommended by Camille Pissarro, had treated several other artists, and was himself an amateur artist. Van Gogh's first impression was that Gachet was "...sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much."<ref>Letter 648 Vincent to Theo, 10 July 1890</ref> In June 1890 he painted several portraits of the physician, including Portrait of Dr. Gachet, and his only etching; in each the emphasis is on Gachet's melancholic disposition. Van Gogh stayed at the Auberge Ravoux, where he paid 3 francs and 50 centimes to rent an attic room measuring Template:Convert.

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Before he left, In his last weeks at Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh's thoughts returned to his "memories of the North",<ref>{{

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}}</ref> and several of the approximately 70 oils he painted during his 70 days in Auvers-sur-Oise, such as The Church at Auvers, are reminiscent of northern scenes.<ref>Rosenblum, Robert (1975), 98–100</ref>

Wheat Field with Crows (July 1890) is an example of the double square technique he developed in the last weeks of his life. In its turbulent intensity, it is among his most haunting and elemental works.<ref name=pickvance_lastworks>Pickvance (1986), 270–271</ref> It is often mistakenly believed to be his last work, Hulsker lists seven paintings that postdate it.<ref>Hulsker (1980), 480–483. Wheat Field with Crows is work number 2117 of 2125</ref>

Barbizon painter Charles Daubigny had moved to Auvers in 1861, and this in turn drew other artists there, including Camille Corot and Honoré Daumier. In July 1890, Van Gogh completed two paintings of Daubigny's Garden; one of these is likely to be his final work.<ref name="Pickvance 1986, 272-273"/> There are also paintings that show evidence of being unfinished, including Thatched Cottages by a Hill.<ref name=pickvance_lastworks /> Template:Clear

Death

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On 22 February 1890, Van Gogh suffered a new crisis that was "the starting point for one of the saddest episodes in a life already rife with sad events."<ref name = "Hulsker440"/> This period lasted until the end of April, during which time he was unable to bring himself to write though he did continue to draw and paint.<ref name = "Hulsker440"/> Hughes writes that from May 1889 to May 1890 he, "had fits of despair and hallucination during which he could not work, and in between them, long clear months in which he could and did, punctuated by extreme visionary ecstasy."<ref>Hughes (2002), 8</ref>

On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a revolver (although no gun was ever found).<ref name ="S342ff">Sweetman (1990), 342–343</ref> There were no witnesses and his location when he shot himself is unclear. Ingo Walther writes that "Some think Van Gogh shot himself in the wheat field that had engaged his attention as an artist of late; others think he did it at a barn near the inn."<ref>Metzger and Walther (1993), 669</ref> Biographer David Sweetman writes that the bullet was deflected by a rib bone and passed through his chest without doing apparent damage to internal organs—probably stopped by his spine. He was able to walk back to the Auberge Ravoux and was eventually attended to by two physicians, neither of whom was qualified to remove the bullet by surgery. The physicians left Van Gogh alone in his room, smoking his pipe. The following morning (Monday), Theo rushed to be with Van Gogh as soon as he was notified and found him in surprisingly good shape, but within hours Van Gogh began to fail due to an untreated infection caused by the wound. Van Gogh died in the evening, 29 hours after he supposedly shot himself. According to Theo, his brother's last words were: "The sadness will last forever."<ref name="S342ff" /><ref>Hulsker (1980), 480–483</ref>

[[File:Grave of Vincent van Gogh.jpg|left|thumb|Vincent and Theo buried together in Auvers-sur-Oise. Vincent's stone bears the inscription: Ici Repose Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Theo's Ici Repose Theodore van Gogh (1857–1891)|alt=Two graves and two gravestones side by side; heading behind a bed of green leaves, bearing the remains of Vincent and Theo Van Gogh, where they lie in the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. The stone to the left bears the inscription: Ici Repose Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and the stone to the right reads: Ici Repose Theodore van Gogh (1857–1891)]]

Van Gogh was buried on 30 July in the municipal cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise at a funeral attended by Theo van Gogh, Andries Bonger, Charles Laval, Lucien Pissarro, Émile Bernard, Julien Tanguy and Dr. Gachet amongst some 20 family and friends, as well as some locals. The funeral was described by Émile Bernard in a letter to Albert Aurier.<ref>Pomerans (1997), 509</ref><ref>"Letter from Emile Bernard to Albert". Van Gogh's Letters. Retrieved 17 July 2011.</ref> Theo suffered from syphilis and his health declined rapidly after Vincent's death. Weak and unable to come to terms with Vincent's absence, he died six months later, on 25 January, at Den Dolder.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The original burial plot was leased for 15 years; the intention was to bury Vincent alongside Theo. Vincent's remains were exhumed on 13 June 1905, in the presence of Jo Bonger, Dr. Gachet and others, and relocated, eventually for Theo to be buried beside him. The precise location of the original grave is no longer known. In 1914, the year she had Van Gogh's letters published, Jo Bonger had Theo moved from Utrecht and reburied with Vincent.<ref>Sweetman (1990), 367</ref>

While many of Van Gogh's late paintings are somber, they are essentially optimistic and reflect his desire to return to lucid mental health right up to the time of his death. Yet some of his final works reflect his deepening concerns. Referring to his paintings of wheatfields under troubled skies, he commented in a letter to his brother Theo: "I did not have to go out of my way very much in order to try to express sadness and extreme loneliness." Nevertheless, he adds in the same paragraph: " ... these canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words, that is, how healthy and invigorating I find the countryside."<ref>Vincent van Gogh, "Letter to Theo van Gogh, written c. 10 July 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise", translated by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, letter number 649. Retrieved 1 August 2011.</ref><ref>Rosenblum, Robert (1975), 100</ref>

There has been much debate over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label its root, with some 30 different diagnoses.<ref name="Blumer">Blumer, Dietrich. ""The Illness of Vincent van Gogh". American Journal of Psychiatry, 2002</ref> Diagnoses include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and consumption of alcohol, especially absinthe.

In Van Gogh: the Life, a biography published in 2011, authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith argue that Van Gogh did not commit suicide. They contend that he was shot accidentally by two boys he knew who had “a malfunctioning gun”.<ref name = "BBCVanGogh">{{

}}</ref> Prominent skeptic Joe Nickell also was not convinced.<ref name=nickell>Template:Cite journal</ref> Nickell analyzed the questions raised by Naifeh and Smith to support their new theory and claimed that they could be addressed with more plausible answers. He maintained that Naifeh and Smith ignored the well-known psychological state of Van Gogh, as well as reliable testimony from Adeline Ravoux, daughter of the innkeeper Gustave Ravoux, the owner of the gun. According to Nickell, Naifeh and Smith make many assumptions about the circumstances surrounding the incident. He asserts that they also misrepresent the remarks of Rene Secretan, one of the two boys, who in 1956 admitted to having tormented the artist, but not to having shot him. Nickell concludes that their theory is the result of the logical fallacy of 'confirmation bias' – "start the investigation with a supposed answer and work backward to the evidence."<ref name=nickell/> Template:Clear

Vincent van Gogh's ear

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Saint-Rémy (May 1889 – May 1890)

Auvers-sur-Oise (May–July 1890)

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