Vincent Van Gogh was an influential 19th century artist. In 1890, struggling with depression and insanity, he went to a nearby field and shot himself in the chest, stumbled back to his house where his brother Theo nursed him for two days, before he finally died.
He had been troubled by mental health issues throughout his life, and particularly during the last few years before his suicide. In some of these later periods, he chose not to paint or was not allowed to by attending family and medical professionals. There has been much debate over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to get to the root of Van Gogh's illnesses, and some 30 different diagnoses have been offered. The suggested diagnoses include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and a fondness for alcohol and absinthe.
It is generally acknowledged that he cut off the lobe of his left ear during a seizure on Christmas Eve, December, 1888. However, the most recent proposed different theory, published in a book last year, is that, Gaugin, Van Gogh's friend and an expert fencer, sliced off Van Gogh's earlobe with his sword during a fight.
Ann Landi writes in the September issue for ARTnews about the infatuation with the craziness of the artist. What is this powerful grasp Van Gogh has on the public imagination?
To read Ann Landi's article Click Here
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