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Who received Vincent van Gogh’s severed ear according to different accounts?
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Vincent van Gogh
Self-Portrait, oil on artist's board on cradled panel by Vincent van Gogh, 1887; in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Following the incident on December 23, 1888, in which Vincent van Gogh lacerated his left ear, accounts regarding the recipient of the severed body part vary:
- Prostitute: A long-standing, sensationalized narrative reports that van Gogh delivered the ear to a prostitute named Rachel at a nearby brothel, instructing her to "guard this object carefully."123
- Cleaning Woman: More recent research by art historians has suggested that the recipient may have been a cleaning woman named Gabrielle Berlatier rather than a prostitute.3
These differing accounts are part of a broader re-examination of the event, which also includes theories that the injury may have been caused by his fellow artist Paul Gauguin during a heated argument, rather than being a purely self-inflicted act of mutilation.123