The key result of our study is the following:
The traditional legend of Van Gogh’s self-mutilation is a doubtful myth that is not backed by real evidence. The events of 23/24 December 1888 in Arles did not happen as told by Gauguin and as repeated in the historiography ever since: It was not Vincent Van Gogh who cut off his ear himself with a razor, but his colleague and housemate Paul Gauguin, a short-tempered and ruthless character and skilled fencer, who during a confrontation outside the brothel of Arles, cut off van Gogh’s left ear with his sharp fencing weapon, either accidentally or on purpose. Gauguin, in order to escape criminal prosecution, subsequently invented and spread the legend of Van Gogh’s self-mutilation and of his “madness”.
Which methods did you use for your research?
Our theory is based on a thorough and critical analysis of all available documents, facts, artworks, and of the behaviour of the persons concerned. We also used applied logic, common sense and some methods of criminalistics. We went “back to the roots”, back to the original sources, often written in French, rather than relying on existing translations.
First of all, we subjected all the relevant and available textual sources (letters, diaries, autographs, notes, etc.) to a particular analysis, the “historical-critical method”. And we analysed them in their original language (mostly in French, sometimes in Dutch), because in translated versions we often found mistakes and ambiguities.
We approached every particular document with our particular questions; we analysed pictorial surces, paintings, drawings or sketches of both artists, applying iconologic methods; we also analysed the personal development, the character, the psychology and the behaviour of both artists, and we applied methods of criminalistics, such as the recontruction of the geographical situation in Arles and of the sequence of the events around the ear-cutting affair; and even forensic reflections, e.g. what does it mean that “an artery (of the ear) was severed”?
Finally, we submitted our findings to a plausibility check. A scientific thesis is not a matter of opinion, conjecture or belief, but a matter of facts, of critical rationality and of methodical approach, combined with common sense. The criteria for a scientific analysis must be:
- Is it comprehensive, materially logical, plausible and consistent?
- Does it include all relevant information?
- Is it based on a critical dealing with the sources?
- Does it consider also possible objections or different explanations?
Our endeavour has been to live up to these standards throughout or analysis.
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What made you reopen a ‘cold case’ and start your research on the partnership between Van Gogh and Gauguin in Arles?
That was more or less coincidence: During a visit to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg in 1996, we suddenly were standing in front of Paul Gauguin’s painting “Sunflowers on a Chair” (1901). This painting intrigued us:
Gauguin, Sunflowers on an armchair, 1901 [W 603], link to source
Gauguins sunflowers are clearly an allusion to his dead colleague Van Gogh, while the symbolistic “eye” in the strange sunflower in the background reminded us of Victor Hugo’s poem “La Conscience” (The Conscience) (1859), where God’s eye haunts the fratricide Cain for the rest of his life.
English translation, e.g. in: https://medium.com/@philnicolasjames/la-conscience-by-victor-hugo-b96e7266a98; German translation in: Kaufmann/Wildegans 2008, p. 19-20]
Gauguin’s strange painting motivated us to find out more about the relationship, the living and working community of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in Arles in 1888 that ended abruptly with the famous “ear incident”. At the start, we had no idea of what would come out of our research, and in hindsight it seems quite naïve that we began to re-examine all the old documents and the bulk of publications around that case. One strong incentive was our historical interest to track down the origins of the “self-mutilation” story. That is why we started a research project that kept us occupied for more than ten years (with many interruptions, of course).
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