Van Gogh's Ear: The True Story - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1784740616 ISBN 13: 9781784740610

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 1770

Synopsis

The best-known and most sensational event in Vincent van Gogh's life is also the least understood. For more than a century, biographers and historians seeking definitive facts about what happened on a December night in Arles have unearthed more questions than answers. Why would an artist at the height of his powers commit such a brutal act? Who was the mysterious "Rachel" to whom he presented his macabre gift? Did he use a razor or a knife? Was it just a segment_or did Van Gogh really lop off his entire ear? In Van Gogh's Ear, Bernadette Murphy reveals, for the first time, the true story of this long-misunderstood incident, sweeping away decades of myth and giving us a glimpse of a troubled but brilliant artist at his breaking point. Murphy's detective work takes her from Europe to the United States and back, from the holdings of major museums to the moldering contents of forgotten archives. She braids together her own thrilling journey of discovery with a narrative of Van Gogh's life in Arles, the sleepy Provençal town where he created his finest work, and vividly reconstructs the world in which he moved_the madams and prostitutes, café patrons and police inspectors, shepherds and bohemian artists. We encounter Van Gogh's brother and benefactor Theo, his guest and fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and many local subjects of Van Gogh's paintings, some of whom Murphy identifies for the first time. Strikingly, Murphy uncovers previously unknown information about "Rachel"_and uses it to propose a bold new hypothesis about what was occurring in Van Gogh's heart and mind as he made a mysterious delivery to her doorstep. As it reopens one of art history's most famous cold cases, Van Gogh's Ear becomes a fascinating work of detection. It is also a study of a painter creating his most iconic and revolutionary work, pushing himself ever closer to greatness even as he edged toward madness_and one fateful sweep of the blade.

About this title

About the Author

Bernadette Murphy was born and brought up in the UK. She has lived in the south of France for most of her adult life and worked in many different fields. A series of chance events led her to start investigating the life of Van Gogh in Arles, but little did she know at the time quite what an exciting adventure it would turn out to be. Van Gogh's Ear is her first book.

Review

"This book has the pace of a detective novel, sending fresh blood pulsing through an old tale as Murphy recreates the heartbreaking drama of Van Gogh's loosening grip on reality." * Daily Mail * "Murphy's revelations are fascinating and add intriguing details to the great crisis of Van Gogh's life." -- Michael Prodger * The Times * "Murphy's book rescues the real Van Gogh from the lazy cliches of tea towel memorabilia by painting an electric, nuanced portrait of a man who achieved artistic brilliance despite his mental health issues and not because of them. In doing so, she allows for a version of his history in which her subject's passion for life, art and humanity blooms like the sunflowers he painted." * Daily Mail * "She knows Provence with an intimacy that's rare in the ear genre. Her descriptions of the people, their landscape, their customs are unusually detailed... Her second stand-out quality is a doggedness that goes beyond the usual art-historical drives. Relentlessly she wrestles with the book's central mystery." -- Waldemar Januszczak * Sunday Times * "No one before has built up such a detailed picture of the people who surrounded the great artist." -- Martin Gayford * Daily Telegraph *

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 1770
• ISBN 10: 1784740616
• ISBN 13: 9781784740610
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English