What Really Happened to Van Gogh's Ear
Beneath The Paint
90 views
On 23 December 1888, Vincent van Gogh walked into a brothel in Arles and handed a young woman his ear. For more than a century the story was that he cut off his earlobe and gave it to a prostitute. A doctor's drawing, found folded in half in a California library in 2010, and a young woman's name in the records of the Pasteur Institute changed that story.
0:00 Arles, 23 December 1888
0:38 The Yellow House
1:37 Two months
2:12 That night
3:10 The morning
4:26 The hospital
4:52 Box 91
6:09 Rachel
7:31 Home
8:06 Thirty names
8:38 A lullaby
What do you think pushed him that night: Gauguin leaving, or Theo's news? Tell me in the comments.
A NOTE ON THE PICTURES
The newspaper page, the documents, the archive, the prescription pad and the ear sketches are our own illustrations. The sketches follow what Dr Félix Rey's drawing of 1930 is reported to show; the drawing itself is in the Irving Stone papers at the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. The newspaper's words are set from the report as printed on 30 December 1888. The Yellow House is graded to night for the evening of 23 December, and the Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear is turned round once to show the side he injured.
SOURCES
Vincent van Gogh, The Letters (Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING, vangoghletters.org): letters 602, 674, 682, 724, 726, 728, 736, 739, 743, 745 and 750, with the editors' notes; and the edition's Documentation (Dr Rey's reports to Theo, the hospital's letter to the mayor, the petition, the police report, Dr Peyron's register at Saint-Rémy).
Le Forum Républicain, Arles, 30 December 1888, in the edition's English translation.
Paul Gauguin, Avant et après (written 1903), translated by Van Wyck Brooks as Paul Gauguin's Intimate Journals (1921).
Theo van Gogh to Jo Bonger, 28 December 1888, in Brief Happiness (1999).
UC Berkeley Library, "The tale of the Van Gogh note" (2017) and "What actually happened to Vincent van Gogh's ear?" (2019), with Bernadette Murphy.
Bernadette Murphy's research, published in 2016.
Martin Bailey, "Name of mystery woman who received Van Gogh's ear revealed for first time", The Art Newspaper, July 2016, and "Uncovering Van Gogh's infamous days in Arles", Apollo, December 2016.
Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans, Van Goghs Ohr: Paul Gauguin und der Pakt des Schweigens (2008); NPR, "Who Really Cut Off Van Gogh's Ear?" (2009), with Louis van Tilborgh of the Van Gogh Museum.
MUSIC
Frédéric Chopin, Preludes Op. 28: No. 4 in E minor, No. 6 in B minor and No. 20 in C minor. Johannes Brahms, Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2 and Wiegenlied (Lullaby) Op. 49 No. 4. Public domain, from Mutopia Project editions (public domain), performed with MuseScore's MS Basic sounds (MIT licence). The other cues are original.
#VanGogh #ArtHistory #VideoEssay #Arles
What Really Happened to Van Gogh's Ear
Beneath The Paint
90 views
On 23 December 1888, Vincent van Gogh walked into a brothel in Arles and handed a young woman his ear. For more than a century the story was that he cut off his earlobe and gave it to a prostitute. A doctor's drawing, found folded in half in a California library in 2010, and a young woman's name in the records of the Pasteur Institute changed that story.
0:00 Arles, 23 December 1888
0:38 The Yellow House
1:37 Two months
2:12 That night
3:10 The morning
4:26 The hospital
4:52 Box 91
6:09 Rachel
7:31 Home
8:06 Thirty names
8:38 A lullaby
What do you think pushed him that night: Gauguin leaving, or Theo's news? Tell me in the comments.
A NOTE ON THE PICTURES
The newspaper page, the documents, the archive, the prescription pad and the ear sketches are our own illustrations. The sketches follow what Dr Félix Rey's drawing of 1930 is reported to show; the drawing itself is in the Irving Stone papers at the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. The newspaper's words are set from the report as printed on 30 December 1888. The Yellow House is graded to night for the evening of 23 December, and the Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear is turned round once to show the side he injured.
SOURCES
Vincent van Gogh, The Letters (Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING, vangoghletters.org): letters 602, 674, 682, 724, 726, 728, 736, 739, 743, 745 and 750, with the editors' notes; and the edition's Documentation (Dr Rey's reports to Theo, the hospital's letter to the mayor, the petition, the police report, Dr Peyron's register at Saint-Rémy).
Le Forum Républicain, Arles, 30 December 1888, in the edition's English translation.
Paul Gauguin, Avant et après (written 1903), translated by Van Wyck Brooks as Paul Gauguin's Intimate Journals (1921).
Theo van Gogh to Jo Bonger, 28 December 1888, in Brief Happiness (1999).
UC Berkeley Library, "The tale of the Van Gogh note" (2017) and "What actually happened to Vincent van Gogh's ear?" (2019), with Bernadette Murphy.
Bernadette Murphy's research, published in 2016.
Martin Bailey, "Name of mystery woman who received Van Gogh's ear revealed for first time", The Art Newspaper, July 2016, and "Uncovering Van Gogh's infamous days in Arles", Apollo, December 2016.
Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans, Van Goghs Ohr: Paul Gauguin und der Pakt des Schweigens (2008); NPR, "Who Really Cut Off Van Gogh's Ear?" (2009), with Louis van Tilborgh of the Van Gogh Museum.
MUSIC
Frédéric Chopin, Preludes Op. 28: No. 4 in E minor, No. 6 in B minor and No. 20 in C minor. Johannes Brahms, Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2 and Wiegenlied (Lullaby) Op. 49 No. 4. Public domain, from Mutopia Project editions (public domain), performed with MuseScore's MS Basic sounds (MIT licence). The other cues are original.
#VanGogh #ArtHistory #VideoEssay #Arles