Vincent van Gogh: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of Painters Book 2) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2018-03-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Incident with the Razor

“Refrain until after riper reflection on both sides, from speaking ill of our poor little yellow house.”

—Vincent van Gogh to Paul Gauguin

When Gauguin first arrived in Arles, van Gogh was thrilled to have him and looked forward to a fruitful collaboration between two artists. However, as time passed it became clear that the friendship was doomed to fail. The two men had vastly different ideas on what constituted good painting, a disagreement that could have motivated them both, yet their opposing personalities made living together at the Yellow House volatile.

As time drew on, van Gogh felt increasingly belittled by Gauguin who was arrogant in his insistence that his technique was the only true way to paint. The pair got into intense arguments that lasted long into the night. Gauguin was unhappy in Arles, but van Gogh was emotionally unstable and terrified of abandonment. The friendly relationship between them disintegrated until it reached a breaking point and their frequent arguments descended into violence.

According to Gauguin who wrote about the incident to follow in his memoir, van Gogh became agitated one night in the local café. The night had been completely ordinary, and then without any warning, van Gogh threw a glass of absinthe over Gauguin. A short time later, van Gogh followed Gauguin when he left the house to take a walk. Again, without provocation, van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor. It’s possible that van Gogh knew that Gauguin was planning to leave him, and, unable to deal with the emotions that caused, he lost control.

Gauguin escaped van Gogh and spent the night at a hotel. That night, alone in the Yellow House, van Gogh performed the desperate act for which he is sadly remembered. Using an open razor, he sliced off his own ear. He wrapped the ear in newspaper and set out to a local brothel where he and Gauguin were regular customers. After handing the ear to a woman at the brothel, van Gogh returned to the Yellow House. The woman at the brothel notified the police who went immediately to the Yellow House and found van Gogh, bloody and unconscious, on the floor. The police roused van Gogh and took him to the hospital in Arles.

The woman at the brothel sent the ear on to the hospital, but it had been detached too long for the doctors to reattach it. Van Gogh asked for Gauguin frequently as he recovered, but Gauguin refused to see him. After a day or two, Gauguin left Arles for Paris and never saw van Gogh again. Later, van Gogh wrote to Gauguin and humbly asked him to “refrain until after riper reflection on both sides, from speaking ill of our poor little yellow house.” Theo took the first train he could from Paris to Arles to be with his brother. According to Theo, van Gogh showed symptoms of that “most dreadful of illness, of madness, and an attack of fievre chaude.” The doctors told Theo that it was possible that his brother would remain insane, it was too early to tell.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.