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What Happened Just Before vanGogh Cut Off His Ear Lobe & Painted Himself Bandaged

Guest post by: Barbara Garro

Article Overview: The collaboration between vanGogh and Gauguin in Arles, France I found profoundly interesting, as a study of both of their lives and their painting styles I enjoyed studying.

What Happened Just Before vanGogh Cut Off His Ear Lobe & Painted Himself Bandaged

The Brooder and The Beast I find fascinating interactions, friendships, and purposeful collaborations between two artists. You probably are familiar with the competitive friendship between Matisse and Picasso. Are you also, like me, curious about the 9-week Studio of the South creative collaboration between Gauguin and vanGogh?

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Vincent vanGogh (1853-1890) were only five years apart in age, yet vanGogh admired Gauguin as a hero and Gauguin saw himself as mentor, to the point of arrogantly attempting to postdate vanGogh's sunflower paintings to after his arrival at The Yellow House in Arles. To get Gauguin to join him in Arles, VanGogh persisted with Theo, asking him to give the ill and impoverished Gauguin a monthly allowance, too, stating that he saw Gauguin as the Abbott of the artists' colony he hoped to establish. VanGogh asked his friend, fellow artist Emile Bernard to convince Gauguin to come, hoping that Bernard would join them, as well. After much delay on Gauguin's part, he finally agreed to go to stay with vanGogh at his Studio of the South.

Both had a high interest in the people they painted. Both were troubled painters, living out lives of tortured souls beset by health problems, financial worries and painted to exhaustion in bursts of activity. The Brooder and the Beast had difficulties living together. Gauguin called it "an incompatibility of temper." VanGogh described to Theo that his conversations with Gauguin seemed like "…our nerves were so strained there wasn't a spark of vital warmth left in us." Gauguin said, "During the latter days of my stay, Vincent would become excessively rough and noisy, and then silent."

VanGogh irritated Gauguin with his sloppiness and lack of attention to finances. Gauguin placed their resources on an organized budget. You can see the differences vanGogh saw in his paintings of the chairs of each, one Spartan and sturdy and the other fancy holding a lit candle. You can see their irritations with each other in their portraits of one another. Some say the cynical, sarcastic Gauguin helped cause the terminal mental deterioration of vanGogh. Gauguin, a complete egotist who thought little of the pain he caused others, seemed to be unskilled in kindness.

While Gauguin enjoyed feminine companionship most of his life, wife, mistresses, and liaisons, vanGogh rarely enjoyed more than anonymous brothel affection. Gauguin is said to have had a savage persona, which he flaunted with eccentric actions, outlandish clothing, his pet monkey and 13-year-old mistress from Ceylon. Not surprisingly, people found VanGogh's erratic personality and melancholy difficult. Aware, vanGogh expressed thoughts on madness and mental troubles in his correspondence with Theo.

The two avant-garde artists shared total commitment to their art while exhibiting vastly different temperaments and painting styles. It was after vanGogh tossed a glass of absinthe at Gauguin in a café and rushed at him at night with a razor that Gauguin wrote to Theo that he was leaving. VanGogh's dream of hosting an artist colony seemed to be fizzling with Gauguin's threat of departure.

After the not carried out razor attack, Gauguin went to sleep at a hotel and vanGogh went back to The Yellow House and cut off part of his ear. Near midnight, he delivered his severed lobe to Rachel at the brothel they frequented. Gauguin was accused by the police of killing vanGogh. On further investigation with Gauguin of the body in The Yellow House, the police discovered vanGogh was not yet dead.

Even though both enjoyed the generosity of family, life burdened them. Both despaired and sought out the ultimate escape through suicide. VanGogh succeeded in 1890 while Gauguin's suicide attempt in 1897 failed and he painted on for five more years. The most compelling difference in the lives of the two comes from Gauguin finding a pocket of paradise in Tahiti while vanGogh's dream surrounding his Yellow House of light never materialized to bring him the companionship and happiness he so desperately sought.

Interestingly, both allowed their paintings to be influenced by the other's style while they were together in Arles. Gauguin experimented with thicker paint applied with a palette knife. VanGogh experimented with abstracts and painting out of imagination. Both, not surprisingly, went back to their signature styles afterward, vanGogh quick and spontaneous en plein air and Gauguin studied and thoughtful from sketches often painted in the studio.

See the differences in painting styles of these two artists by looking at their self-portraits and their portraits of each other. Compare Gauguin's "Vision of the Sermon" with vanGogh's "Still Life with Bible and Zola's 'Joie de vivre'", and the sunflowers both painted. Look at how each painted Madame Ginoux. VanGogh has her brooding alone while Gauguin has her aware and curious amid her customers in the Café.

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Article Tags: Arles, Art, France, Gauguin, Painters, Painting, Painting Styles, The Yellow House, vanGogh



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