Most of you probably know the same story I do...that Vincent is supposed to have cut off part of his own ear and mailed it to a woman who had rejected him. But tonight, one of my brothers told me that he had heard some art maven on NPR say that Van Gogh lost the ear in a violent argument with another artist. Can this be true? Is the oft repeated first story apocryphal? I know that for a time, Van Gogh and another artist worked and painted together in the south of France (around Arles, if memory serves) and that they had several differences of opinion and, ultimately a falling out, but I've never read that their quarrels lead to violence. Do any of you have a certain knowledge which version is correct? Thanks. <BR><BR>

Don't know anything about new story of how he lost his ear, but wasn't Gauguin the one he fell out with?

Gauguin was the artist he painted with (he tried for ages to talk him into moving to Arles with him, wanted to start a community there) and I understand that he cut his ear off and presented it to him. which understandably made Gauguin want to leave...

Gives a whole new spin on the expression<BR>~lend me your ear~

I thought the story was that Van Gogh was gay and trying to get Gauguin to be his lover and that was why he was so anguished.

I had read Van gogh had severe tinnitis (ringing in the ear) and thought this would cure his problem. FYI; recent book on Beethoven showed forensic evidence of lead poisoning so severe it could have been the reason for his early deafness.

When he heard Marc Anthony asking people to "lend me your ear" he sent it to Rome.<BR>

Poor Vincent. Such a sad and miserable man. What if had been treated with modern medicine, would we see the same creativity?

I recall that Gauguin and Van Gogh got along fine until the winter weather forced them to work inside their house..."cabinfever". He cutoff the bottom part of his ear (~the lobe) and give it to a local prostitute, whom he *might* have been in love with? Regards, Walter

Bart, I wonder how much art is actually visions of either a madman or drug-induced? I doubt that Van Gogh's work would be as it is had he been on prozac.

van Gogh indeed had a falling out with Gaugin, who apparently was a user and looked down on van Gogh. <BR><BR>van Gogh did the ear thing after having drunk between two and three bottles of Absinthe, a clear, potent alcoholic beverage with a lot of drug properties.<BR><BR>The Absinthe available today is a weaker version without the drug properties.<BR><BR>US

Red<BR><BR>I was thinking more in terms of an anti-psychotic drug like Zyprexa for Van Gogh. Just look at the progression of his self portraits over the years and you can see quite well his descent into madness and loss of contact with reality.

Last year the Art Institute in Chicago had a retrospective of van Gogh and Gauguin and their work in Arles. According to them, van Gogh did cut off his ear after a fight with Gauguin. While friends at one point, living together and working together proved to be too difficult for them. They each suffered in their own way - but van Gogh was plagued by depression and hallucinations. You can read more about his life and his years with Gauguin at http://www.van-gogh-art.co.uk/

Absinthe was originally flavored, in part, with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), which supposedly can cause psychological problems, though some researchers question that. It was banned by many countries early in the 1900s at which point the Pernod company, the originators, developed the wormwood-free substitute that's commonly available under their name today.<BR><BR>Van Gogh of course did not actually "cut off his ear" but rather cut off a small portion of the lower lobe of his left ear. The proximal cause was his deteriorating relationship with Gauguin, but his psychological problems had a much longer and deeper history than that. Interestingly, his "Self-Portrait with Pipe and Bandaged Ear" (1889) shows the right ear as bandaged, presumably due to the use of a mirror.<BR><BR>I have the great good fortune of living in the Boston area - the MFA has several excellent Van Goghs, as well as one of the world's best collections of other Impressionists.<BR>