>> The story behind " Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear " by Vincent van Gogh

The exact sequence of events that led to Van Gogh's removal of his ear is not known. Gauguin claimed, fifteen years later, that the night followed several instances of physically threatening behaviour. Their relationship was complex, and there may have been a sum of money owed by Theo to Gauguin, while Gauguin was suspicious that the brothers might be exploiting him financially.  Van Gogh seems to have attacked Gauguin on the night of 23 December, possibly with a razor, but this is uncorroborated. 

Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889

It seems likely that Van Gogh had realised that Gauguin was planning to leave  and that there had been some kind of contretemps between the two. That evening, Van Gogh severed his left ear (either wholly or in part; accounts differ) with a razor, inducing a severe haemorrhage. He bandaged his wound, wrapped the ear in paper, and delivered the package to a Rachel, a prostitute at a brothel frequented by both him and Gauguin. Van Gogh was taken by Roulin to either his home or a hotel, where he collapsed. He would have likely bled to death had he not been found unconscious the next morning by the police and taken to the hospital. 

Gauguin's account implies that Van Gogh left his ear with the doorman as a memento for Gauguin. Van Gogh had no recollection of the events, and it is plain that he had suffered an acute psychotic episode. Family letters of the time make it clear that the event had not been unexpected. He had suffered a nervous collapse three years before in Antwerp, and as early as 1880 his father had proposed committing him to an asylum at Geel. The hospital diagnosis was "generalised delirium", and within a few days the local police ordered that he be placed in hospital care, against his will. 

During the first days of his treatment, Van Gogh repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for Gauguin. The French artist 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 wrote of Van Gogh, "His state is worse, he wants to sleep with the patients, chase the nurses, and washes himself in the coal bucket. That is to say, he continues the biblical mortifications." Theo was notified by Gauguin and visited, as did Madame Ginoux and Roulin. Gauguin left Arles, never to see Van Gogh again. 

Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889

Despite the pessimistic diagnosis, Van Gogh recovered and returned to the Yellow House by the beginning of January, but spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and delusions of poisoning. That 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). Paul Signac spent time with him in the hospital, and Van Gogh was allowed home in his company. In April, he moved into rooms owned by his physician Dr Rey after floods damaged paintings in his own home. 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." Two months later, he left Arles and voluntarily entered an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. 
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