Painter Vincent Van Gogh’s infamous act of cutting off his ear is well documented but a new book has published definitive evidence and has for the first time identified the woman to whom he presented the “grisly” package.
“Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story”, authored by UK-born writer Bernadette Murphy, “reveals previously unpublished evidence about the painter’s notorious breakdown,” publishers Penguin India said.
According to existing theories, the post-impressionist artist who painted the iconic “Starry Night,” cut off his ear with a blade on a cold December night in 1888 and sent the severed organ to a prostitute named Rachel, frequented by him and French colleague Paul Gauguin. However, Murphy debunks the ‘Rachel Myth’ in the book.
“Long presumed to be a prostitute, Murphy has discovered that Rachel was in fact Gabrielle, a maid in the red-light district of Arles in France and working at the brothel Vincent went to that night,” publishers said.
“After seven years of meticulous research, Murphy has reconstructed Van Gogh’s time in Arles, and casts new light not only on why he committed such a brutal act but also on how we view him, his art and his madness,” they said.
As part of the research, the author examined the lives of all the local prostitutes in Arles to uncover the story of this “mysterious girl, who was not a prostitute as has long been assumed, suggesting why the painter chose to give her his gruesome gift.”
The book also brings to the readers a previously unpublished diagram showing exactly how much of his ear the artist really cut off.
The sketch by Dr Felix Rey, who treated Van Gogh the day after his breakdown is currently housed in the Bancroft Library of University of California in Berkeley.
From Agencies, Feature image courtesy boredpanda
