> On 23 December 1888, Vincent cut off his left ear in a state of total confusion.
The evidence we have now strongly points to that Gauguin cut it off during an argument.
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First time I’m hearing this theory. Could you elaborate?
I'll try to do it justice in a comment but the book is here: "Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence," by Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans
A lot of circumstantial evidence but it's pretty telling. Paul Gauguin was an expert swordsman who carried a particular sword with him at all times. He and Vincent would have terrible fights when they lived together in Arles. We know that Paul was scheduled to move away the next day and that night they had a big fight and that Paul left town immediately in a rush leaving his sword behind. The new evidence that was found recently is a doctor's rendering of the cut ear. It's an extremely clean cut from the top, straight down.
There's more to it but those are some interesting details.
Thank you. This is incredibly fascinating, and it makes the whole episode so much sadder.
The video here explains it well.
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/vincent-van-...
Very sad.
Hmm, there's nothing in that video about this new theory? It still claims that he cut it himself, and uses Paul more as a justification for why he would've been under stress/confusion.
As I read about all this, I kept thinking, “what makes us so sure he did it to himself?”
Yeah, it's quite funny. We know they argued violently and that Gauguin was armed with a sword. We know that Gauguin rushed out of town that night leaving his sword behind. We know that the argument was directly in front of a brothel. We know that Vincent opened the door and handed the receptionist his ear in paper saying, "Hold this for me," then went home and fell asleep, and later refused to talk about the incident in any way.
From this we came up with: after an argument with Gauguin, he cut off his own ear and gave it to a prostitute he probably was in love with, which shows how crazy he was.
I mean, now we have the doctor's rendering and it's clearly a sword cut, but couldn't we have figured this out before? Really?
This drawing?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Drawing_...
yeah it's funny to think how much of history is likely to be retold incorrectly