Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin: a friendship that ended with a severed ear

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The relationship between the two brilliant artists was very difficult, their friendship experienced the whole gamut of emotions - from mutual admiration to complete rejection. The two months together in Arly in 1988 were very fruitful for the Dutchman. Vincent Van Gogh, and for the Frenchman Paul Gauguin - creatively, they certainly enriched each other. But the confrontation between two complex characters and irreconcilable disputes about the nature of art ended with Van Gogh's severed ear. Until now, discussions about who did this and why did not subside.

A year before this incident, in 1887, the artists met at the Tambourine cafe and exchanged canvases as a sign of friendly sympathy. Van Gogh gave a friend one of the first still lifes with sunflowers, and in return received a Breton landscape from Gauguin. A year later, the Dutchman invited the Frenchman to exchange self-portraits and invited him to his place in Arles.

Van Gogh settled in Arles with the goal of creating an art studio here that would bring together artists with a similar understanding of art. Paul Gauguin stayed in Arles for only two months. The creative dialogue that has begun quickly develops into irreconcilable disputes. The domineering and categorical Frenchman is infuriated by Van Gogh's frequent mood swings. Gauguin is trying to dictate his own rules. He wrote in exasperation: “From the very beginning I was shocked by the terrifying mess in Vincent's house. The work cabinet was filled to the brim with tubes of paint: new and almost empty, all of them open! His speeches were often chaotic, it was difficult for me to understand their logic. His artistic tastes often baffled me. " He didn’t like Arles: “The most trashy hole in the South. Everything here is shallow, vulgar - the landscape and the people."

The last quarrel ends in a famous episode - the Dutchman has lost his earlobe. There are many versions regarding this incident. Traditionally, it was believed that Van Gogh, in a fit of mental disorder, rushed at a friend with a razor, but as a result he cut off the lower part of his left ear. Then he wrapped her in a rag and took her to the brothel to the prostitute Rachel. She fainted from such a gift, and the artist was then placed in a clinic for the mentally ill. Gauguin left without saying goodbye, although their correspondence continued after this incident.

In 2009, publications appeared in which Hamburg scientists argued that in fact, Gauguin cut off Van Gogh's earlobe in the heat of a quarrel. Allegedly, based on the correspondence between the Dutch artist and his brother Theo, it can be assumed that this is the work of Gauguin. But at the moment this fact remains unproven - it is difficult to draw conclusions based on the letters of a person suffering from mental disorders.

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