It’s the one thing everyone knows. Even if you couldn't pick a "Sunflowers" painting out of a lineup, you know about the ear. We’ve been told the story since elementary school: a tortured genius, driven mad by his own brilliance, takes a razor to his head in a fit of psychotic despair. But history is rarely that tidy. When you ask did Van Gogh really cut off his ear, the answer involves a messy cocktail of absinthe, a failing friendship with Paul Gauguin, and a local prostitute named Rachel.
He didn't just snip a piece of the lobe.
Actually, the reality is much more gruesome than the sanitized version in most textbooks. For decades, art historians went back and forth on the extent of the damage. Was it just a tiny piece of cartilage? Or did he go full Mike Tyson on himself? Thanks to a 2016 discovery by researcher Bernadette Murphy, we finally have the sketches from the doctor who treated him. Dr. Félix Rey’s drawings show that Vincent took off almost the entire thing.
The Arles Incident: What Actually Went Down
In December 1888, Vincent van Gogh was living in the "Yellow House" in Arles, France. He was obsessed with the idea of a "Studio of the South," a place where artists could live together and work. Paul Gauguin was his first—and only—recruit. They were like oil and water. Gauguin was arrogant, slick, and traditionally successful; Vincent was erratic, messy, and desperate for connection.
They fought. They fought a lot.
They argued about the nature of art, about who was better, and about the very air they breathed. By December 23, the tension snapped. After a heated confrontation where Van Gogh may have stalked Gauguin with a razor, Vincent went back to his room alone. In a state of total mental collapse, he used that same razor on his own head.
He didn't stop at the lobe. The blade sliced through the external ear, leaving only a tiny fragment of the lower lobe attached. He wrapped the severed flesh in newspaper, walked to a local brothel, and handed it to a woman. Imagine being that woman. You’re just doing your job, and a bleeding, pale Dutchman hands you a piece of himself as a "keepsake." He then went home, crawled into bed, and nearly bled to death before the police found him the next morning.
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Why the "Lobe Only" Myth Persisted
For over a century, the narrative was that it was just a small piece. Why? Partly because Gauguin said so. Gauguin wasn't exactly a reliable narrator; he wanted to distance himself from the madness as much as possible. If it was just a "nick," it felt less like a tragedy he had triggered.
Also, Van Gogh’s own self-portraits are deceptive. If you look at Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, the bulk of the bandage makes it look like the ear is still there, just tucked away. He was also painting a mirror image, so the bandage appears on the right side, even though he actually cut his left ear. This confusion led many to believe the injury was minor.
The 1888 medical reports were also buried in archives for years. It wasn't until Murphy tracked down the descendants of Dr. Rey that the truth came out. The doctor had drawn a diagram for novelist Irving Stone in the 1930s, clearly showing the line of the cut encompassing the entire auricle.
The Gauguin Conspiracy: Did He Do It?
There is a fringe theory that pops up every few years in art history circles. Two German historians, Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans, argued in their book Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence that Van Gogh didn't do it at all.
They claim Gauguin, an expert fencer, accidentally sliced Vincent’s ear off during a fight with a rapier.
It sounds like a movie plot. The theory suggests the two artists agreed to a "pact of silence" to keep Gauguin out of jail and protect Vincent’s dignity. It’s a fascinating idea, but most Van Gogh experts, including those at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, don't buy it. The primary evidence remains Vincent’s own behavior and the fact that he never once blamed Gauguin in his many letters to his brother, Theo. Vincent was many things, but a calculated liar to his brother wasn't one of them. He took the blame because the breakdown was his own.
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The Role of Mental Health and Absinthe
We can't talk about did Van Gogh really cut off his ear without talking about what was happening in his brain. It wasn't just "sadness."
Modern doctors have looked back at his symptoms—the hallucinations, the periods of intense energy followed by catatonic depression, and the gastric distress—and proposed various diagnoses:
- Bipolar Disorder: The highs of his productivity followed by the low of the ear incident.
- Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: This could cause the "absences" and bouts of rage he described.
- Porphyria: A metabolic disorder that can cause hallucinations and physical pain.
- Lead Poisoning: He was known to lick his brushes and even try to eat his paint.
And then there’s the booze. Absinthe in the 19th century wasn't the regulated stuff you find in bars today. It was high-proof, often adulterated with chemicals, and contained thujone, which was thought to cause tremors and seizures in high doses. Vincent was drinking it like water. When you combine severe malnutrition, a genetic predisposition to mental illness, and a bottle of green fairy, a razor blade starts to look like a solution to the noise in your head.
Life After the Razor
The aftermath was arguably more productive than the time leading up to it. After his release from the hospital in Arles, he realized he couldn't live alone anymore. He voluntarily checked himself into the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
This is where it gets interesting.
The ear was gone, his reputation in Arles was ruined (the locals actually signed a petition to have him kicked out), but his art exploded. In the asylum, he painted The Starry Night. He painted the olive trees. He painted the irises. The physical loss of the ear seemed to signal a total break from reality that allowed him to see the world in those swirling, vibrating colors we recognize today.
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He wrote to Theo, "I am not precisely insane." He knew he had crises, but he viewed them as a physical ailment, like a fever. He was trying to heal through work. Sadly, it didn't last. Less than two years after the ear incident, he would be dead from a gunshot wound—another "fact" that historians still argue over.
Actionable Insights for Art Lovers and History Buffs
If you're fascinated by the intersection of art and psychology, don't just take the "crazy artist" trope at face value. Understanding the reality of Van Gogh's life changes how you see his work.
- Visit the Van Gogh Museum virtually: They have an extensive digital archive of his letters. Reading his own words about the "attack" is far more chilling and humanizing than any documentary.
- Look for the 2016 sketches: Search for the "Bernadette Murphy Dr. Rey sketches" to see the medical proof of the injury. It puts the "just a lobe" myth to rest forever.
- Contextualize the colors: When you see his late works, notice the heavy impasto (thick paint). This wasn't just a style; it was a physical manifestation of his urgency. He felt he was running out of time.
- Separate the art from the myth: Van Gogh didn't paint because he was mentally ill; he painted in spite of it. The ear incident was a failure of his health, not the source of his talent.
The story of the ear is a reminder that we often prefer a romanticized version of suffering over the gritty, painful reality. Vincent wasn't trying to be a "tortured artist" for the history books. He was a man in agony, reaching for a razor in a dark room, trying to make the ringing in his head stop.
Next time you see a Van Gogh print on a coffee mug or a tote bag, remember that the man behind the yellow swirls was a human being who lost almost everything—including his ear—to the very intensity that made his art immortal.
Key Takeaways for Your Next Museum Visit
- Check the Side: In any self-portrait painted after 1888, look at which side is bandaged. It’s always his right side in the painting because he used a mirror, but the actual injury was his left.
- Look for Dr. Rey: Vincent painted a portrait of the doctor who treated his ear. Dr. Rey reportedly hated the painting and used it to patch a chicken coop. It’s now worth tens of millions of dollars.
- The "Rachel" Mystery: The woman he gave the ear to was likely a maid at the brothel, not necessarily a high-end prostitute, according to recent archival research. She was someone he likely saw as an underdog, much like himself.
The truth about Van Gogh’s ear doesn't make him less of an artist. It makes him more of a person. It grounds the legend in the reality of a cold, lonely night in Arles where things went horribly wrong.
Source Documentation & References
- Murphy, B. (2016). Van Gogh's Ear: The True Story.
- The Van Gogh Museum Archives, Amsterdam.
- Letters of Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, 1888-1890.
- Kaufmann, H., & Wildegans, R. (2008). Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence.