Ears another side to the story
Ξ May 5th, 2009 | → | ∇ General |
We’ve all heard the story before. “Van Gogh cut off his ear!” Nothing much else is known about this great painter, who I might add, was about 100 years ahead of his time. Imagine how many people missed their chance way back then when they did not buy his art. He did sell one painting to be sure, problem is it was his brother that purchased it because he felt sorry for his brother. That act infuriated Vincent. Those that had the opportunity to buy his work while he was alive would have made their descendents very wealthy indeed. Below is a different opinion regarding the story of Van Gogh’s ear
Also check out the link to an amazing video that ties together some of Van Gogh’s paintings and the song Starry Starry Night by Don McLean. How many of you knew that this song was about Vinnie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM
ENJOY!
Art historians claim Van Gogh’s ear ‘cut off by Gauguin’
- Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 May 2009 21.55 BST
- Article history
‘Self-portrait with cut ear’ by Vincent Van Gogh. Photograph: Roger-Viollet/Rex Features
Vincent van Gogh’s fame may owe as much to a legendary act of self-harm, as it does to his self-portraits. But, 119 years after his death, the tortured post-Impressionist’s bloody ear is at the centre of a new controversy, after two historians suggested that the painter did not hack off his own lobe but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.
According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.
But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists’ letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.
In Van Gogh’s Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, published in Germany, Hamburg-based academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans argue that the official version of events, based largely on Gauguin’s accounts, contain inconsistencies and that both artists hinted that the truth was more complex.
Van Gogh and Gauguin’s troubled friendship was legendary. In 1888, Van Gogh persuaded him to come to Arles in the south of France to live with him in the Yellow House he had set up as a “studio of the south”. They spent the autumn painting together before things soured. Just before Christmas, they fell out. Van Gogh, seized by an attack of a metabolic disease became aggressive and was apparently crushed when Gauguin said he was leaving for good.
Kaufmann told the Guardian: “Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this ‘madman’. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear.” Kaufmann said it was not clear if it was an accident or an aimed hit.
While curators at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam stand by the theory of self-mutilation, Kaufmann argues that Van Gogh dropped hints in letters to his brother, Theo, once commenting : “Luckily Gauguin … is not yet armed with machine guns and other dangerous war weapons.”
on May 6th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I did know that Don McLean’s song was about Van Gogh. I really enjoyed hearing the song played while Vincent’s paintings were shown in the video.
For what it’s worth, I tend to believe the new theory presented by Kaufmann and Wildegans. Seems more likely.
I hope that you will continue to share both your love of music and artwork with us.