Today in History—December 23: The Incident at the Yellow House

Name an artist, any artist. If you said Vincent van Gogh, perhaps you were primed by our reference to ears: Van Gogh famously cut off his left earlobe with a razor on December 23, 1888. The Dutch Post-Impressionist painter lived a life of indecision and turmoil. One person who always had his back, though, was his brother Theo van Gogh, who supported him financially throughout his life and encouraged his talent for painting. Even when van Gogh’s artworks didn’t sell, and his mental health deteriorated, his brother never lost faith in him.

Van Gogh’s roundabout path led him from his birthplace in the Netherlands to a job in London, art studies in Brussels, back to his parents’ home, then to Paris, where he lived with his brother, and finally to Arles in southeastern France. Initially, all was well. Van Gogh even persuaded the French artist Paul Gauguin to move into the famed “Yellow House” with him. The brightly colored building also served as the subject (and title) of one of van Gogh’s most famous paintings, and his letters upon moving in were hopeful. He wrote, “There I can live and breathe, think and paint.”

Van Gogh, however, had always struggled with interpersonal relationships. The artist got into a heated argument with Gauguin after just a couple of months of peace. After threatening his roommate with a razor, van Gogh cut off a portion of his own ear. He then went to the red-light district of Arles and gifted the severed lobe to a sex worker. (Some accounts suggest that it was a cleaning woman who received the lobe.) Van Gogh later said that he had no recollection of the incident, and he was institutionalized soon after. His mental health steadily worsened, and he eventually died by suicide. Today, he is remembered as one of the greatest artists of all time.