Why Van Gogh actually cut off his ear

The Dutch painter's life was surrounded by legends and mysteries.
Why Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear.
The Dutchman Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is one of the greatest masters of universal art and also the paradigm of the tormented painter, the solitary genius, whose life is still surrounded by legends and mysteries.

Influenced by the realism of Millet and Rembrandt, and above all by impressionism, Van Gogh did not sell a single painting during his lifetime. However, today his more than a thousand works, including paintings and drawings, are of incalculable value.

The paintings from his later years, such as Sunflowers, Bedroom in Arles, Yellow House and Starry Night, highlight the skill of this great exponent of post-impressionism. In 1889, Van Gogh painted Self-Portrait with a Severed Ear, considered to be a testimony to one of the best-known, and most mysterious, episodes of his eventful life.
Why Van Gogh actually cut off his ear
An article on the National Geographic website relates that everything happened during the night of December 23, 1888. Van Gogh then cut off part of his left ear. The next morning, the police found him in his house in Arles (France), unconscious and covered in blood. The painter did not remember exactly what had happened.

It should be noted that Van Gogh was then a little-known painter who had dedicated himself to art thanks to the help of his younger brother, Theo, who was a dealer. It was his brother who provided him with financial and moral support, and who tried, unsuccessfully, to sell his works.

Since February 1888, Van Gogh had been living in Arles, in the Yellow House that he immortalised in one of his paintings and which, according to his wishes, was to become an art centre. The project had little success, because of all the colleagues he invited, only Paul Gauguin came, the article explains.
Gauguin accepted the invitation reluctantly, probably because of the insistence of Theo, who was his gallery owner. Van Gogh and Gauguin lived together for two months, and apparently they got on quite badly.

The National Geographic publication states that at the end of December, things got worse. Van Gogh received a letter from Theo announcing his engagement to Johanna Bonger. The announcement would have had a great impact on the fragile mental health of the painter who feared the departure of his financial and moral support.
On 23 December, Gauguin and Van Gogh argued heatedly. The French painter told his colleague that he wanted to leave Arles. Van Gogh then allegedly threatened him with a knife. Gauguin followed through on his decision and, feeling abandoned, Van Gogh allegedly caused a deep wound to his left ear.

However, some researchers believe that, rather than the argument with Gauguin, what led Van Gogh to cut off his left earlobe was a state of depression caused by the news of Theo's engagement to Johanna. In any case, the mystery remains unsolved.

What seems to be clearer is the extent of the self-mutilation. A letter written by the French painter Paul Signac and kept at the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) says the following: “I saw him for the last time in Arles in the spring of 1889, he had the famous band around his head. A few days earlier, he had cut off his earlobe.”