You know how the story goes; Vincent Van
Gogh falls madly in love with a prostitute, "Rachel", in
Arles, France. In a fit of psychological suspension, Van
Gogh cuts off his own ear and delivers it to "Rachel". Depending on the story teller's preferences, he either sent his ear in an envelope in the mail, visited Ms.
Thang in her brothel to hand deliver the ear, or presented it as a gift, wrapped with all the bells and whistles to solidify his fragile sanity.
But recently, German art historians Hans
Kaufmann and Rita
Wildegans have proposed a much more sane and down right awesome theory to account for the missing
pinna: Van
Gogh lost his ear in a swash buckling sword [fencing] match with none other than Paul Gauguin!
In
Kaufmann and
Wildegans story, Gauguin was visiting Van
Gogh and earlier in the night, prior to the incident, Gauguin and Van
Gogh had been engaged in a heated dispute. Gauguin left the house, only after Van
Gogh had thrown a glass at him, and headed for the streets.
Unbeknownst to him, Van
Gogh had tailed Gauguin and the two met in front of a brothel, where Gauguin is suspected of drawing a fencing sword and chopping off Van
Gogh's famous ear, whether by accident or by choice, it is hard to conclude. Van
Gogh picked up his ear, ran in to the brothel and handed it to "Rachel", the unknown
prostitute.
Following the event, Gauguin fled
Arles and the police questioned both artists. So
infatuated with Gauguin, Van
Gogh led law enforcement to believe he had cut his own ear off and for decades this story was accepted. Two years following the loss of his ear, Van
Gogh shot himself, but in his final recorded words to Gauguin stated, "you are quiet, I will be, too".
Despite it being an interesting alternative to the tortured artists theory,
Kaufmann and
Wildegan's newly postulated story is having a hard time convincing fellow art historians. I am just afraid I will never get to say, "it was Mr. Gauguin, in front of the brothel, with the
épée" again!
