page_title: Vincent van Gogh
section_title: Hospital in Arles (December 1888)
hierarchical_section_title: Vincent van Gogh / Life / Artistic breakthrough / Hospital in Arles (December 1888)
caption_attribution_description: Afrikaans: Uittreksel uit Le Forum Républicain van 30 Desember 1888, 'n streekskoerant van Arles, Frankryk, wat berig gee van Vincent van Gogh se verminking van sy oor:Laas Sondag om 11.30 nm het skilder Vincent Vangogh, 'n boorling van Nederland, by die gelisensieerde bordeel nr. 1 gearriveer, vraende na "Rachel", en sy oor aan haar gegee met die woorde: "Bewaar hierdie voorwerp noukeurig". Hy het toe verdwyn. Sodanig van hierdie daad ingelig, wat slegs dié van 'n jammerlik versteurde kon wees, het die polisie die volgende oggend opgedaag by die persoon wat sy in die bed lêend gevind het, wat kwalik 'n teken van lewe getoon het. Hierdie mistroostige man is sonder versuim in die hospitium opgeneem. English: Info Excerpt from Le Forum Républicain of 30 December 1888, a local (Arles, France) newspaper reporting on Vincent's van Gogh's mutilation of his ear:Last Sunday, at 11.30 pm, the painter Vincent Vangogh, a native of Holland, arrived at licensed brothel no. 1, asking for Rachel by name, and gave her his ear saying: "Keep this object preciously". He then disappeared. Informed of this fact, which could only be that of a poor insane person, the police went the next morning to the person she found lying in bed, who showed almost no sign of life. This unhappy man was admitted to the hospice as a matter of urgency. Français&#160;: Forum Républicain, journal de l'arrondissement d'Arles, 30 décembre 1888:Dimanche dernier, à 11 heures 1/2 du soir, le nommé Vincent Vangogh, peintre, originaire de Hollande, s'est présenté à la maison de tolérance n°1, a demandé la nommée Rachel, et lui a remis ... son oreille en lui disant: "Gardez cet objet précieusement". Puis il a disparu. Informée de ce fait qui ne pouvait être que celui d'un pauvre aliéné, la police s'est rendue le lendemain matin chez cet individu qu'elle a trouvé couché dans son lit, ne donnant presque plus signe de vie. Ce malheureux a été admis d'urgence à l'hospice.
context_page_description: Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.
  Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet, and thoughtful. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881, having moved back home with his parents. His younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept a long correspondence by letter.
context_section_description: The exact sequence of events which led to Van Gogh's mutilation of his ear is not known. Gauguin stated, 15 years later, that the night followed several instances of physically threatening behaviour. Their relationship was complex, and Theo may have owed money to Gauguin, who was suspicious that the brothers were exploiting him financially. It seems likely that Van Gogh had realised that Gauguin was planning to leave. The following days saw heavy rain, leading to the two men being shut in the Yellow House. Gauguin reported that Van Gogh followed when Gauguin left the house for a walk, and "rushed towards me, an open razor in his hand". This account is uncorroborated; Gauguin was almost certainly absent from the Yellow House that night, most likely in a hotel.
  After the altercation with Gauguin, Van Gogh returned to his room, where he was assaulted by voices and severed his left ear with a razor (either wholly or in part; accounts differ), causing severe bleeding. He bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper, and delivered the package to a woman at a brothel Van Gogh and Gauguin both frequented. Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital, where Félix Rey, a young doctor still in training, treated him. The ear was delivered to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it as too much time had passed.
  Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he may have suffered an acute mental breakdown. The hospital diagnosis was "acute mania with generalised delirium", and within a few days the local police ordered that he be placed in hospital care. Gauguin immediately notified Theo, who on 24 December had proposed marriage to his old friend Andries Bonger's sister Johanna. That evening Theo rushed to the station to board a night train to Arles. He arrived on Christmas Day and comforted Vincent, who seemed to be semi-lucid. That evening he left Arles for the return trip to Paris.
  During the first days of his treatment, Van Gogh repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for Gauguin, who asked a policeman attending the case to "be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him." Gauguin fled Arles, never to see Van Gogh again. They continued to correspond and in 1890 Gauguin proposed they form a studio in Antwerp. Meanwhile, other visitors to the hospital included Marie Ginoux and Roulin.
  Despite a pessimistic diagnosis, Van Gogh recovered and returned to the Yellow House on 7 January 1889. He spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and delusions of poisoning. In March, the police closed his house after a petition by 30 townspeople (including the Ginoux family) who described him as "le fou roux" (the redheaded madman); Van Gogh returned to hospital. Paul Signac visited him twice in March; in April Van Gogh moved into rooms owned by Dr Rey after floods damaged paintings in his own home. Two months later, he left Arles and voluntarily entered an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Around this time, he wrote, "Sometimes moods of indescribable anguish, sometimes moments when the veil of time and fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant."
  Van Gogh gave his 1889 Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey to Dr Rey. The physician was not fond of the painting and used it to repair a chicken coop, then gave it away. In 2016, the portrait was housed at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and estimated to be worth over $50 million.
caption: Local newspaper report dated 30 December 1888 recording Van Gogh's self-mutilation.[140]
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