Van Gogh had settled in the town of Arles in southern France, where, in February of that year, he had hoped to start a community of like-minded artists. However, nobody else was willing to abandon Paris to join him and it was only when Vincent’s brother Theo offered to pay his train fare that one artist, Paul Gauguin, was persuaded to go south. Theo knew just how mentally unstable Vincent was, and he feared for the consequences if Vincent was left on his own.
To start with, the two artists struck up a relationship and they lived and painted together for two months. However, Gauguin then came to realise that the differences between them were greater than the similarities and he sought to bring the arrangement to an end.
Van Gogh was extremely distressed by this prospect and became violent towards Gauguin. Things came to a head on Christmas Eve when he attacked Gauguin with a razor, although he failed to wound him. It was after this that he shut himself away and used the razor to cut off part of his ear. It was apparently his intention to give it to his favourite prostitute as a somewhat bizarre Christmas present.
Paul Gauguin left the following day and the two artists never saw each other again. Gauguin settled in Brittany before going even further away – to Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. Vincent Van Gogh did not stay in Arles for much longer before committing himself to a mental asylum and then returning to Paris, where he shot himself in July 1890. It was a sad end for a tormented genius.
© John Welford
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