Mystery Solved: We Now Know Who Van Gogh Gave His Ear To

You don't have to be an art historian to know the story of Vincent van Gogh cutting off his own ear and giving it to a woman as a token of affection. The unlucky recipient of the appendage has managed to stay a mystery for 130 years—until now. This week, The Art Newspaper identified a woman named Gabrielle Berlatier as the object of van Gogh's unconventional attention.

Berlatier was a farmer’s daughter from a little village in France called, Moules. Bit by a dog as a teenager, Berlatier contracted rabies and the medical treatment put her parents in serious debt. According to The Art Newspaper, new evidence suggests that Berlatier worked in a brothel after her recovery, one point becoming a cleaner at the Café de la Gare to make more money for her family. The cafe was run by Van Gogh’s friends, Joseph and Marie Giroux, and the painter had a room there where he stayed from May to September in 1888. It was at the Café that Van Gogh presented her with his ear.

The new information changes the common narrative surrounding this morbid moment in art history. Historians have speculated that van Gogh gave his ear to a madame of the brothel at 1 Rue Bout d'ArlesIf. The incident takes on a different tone if Berlatier, a cleaner in one of van Gogh's favored haunts, was more than an aquantence, but somebody with whom van Gogh was familiar with.

It's important to note that The Art Newspaper didn't do all that heavy lifting themselves. They were part of an inquiry nearly a century in the making. Gabrielle’s name was first mentioned in 1936 in an article that cited the policeman who had been called to the brothel the night van Gogh clipped his ear off. Last week, writer Bernadette Murphy published a book called Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story where she revealed that she had discovered Gabrielle’s surname, but had promised her family that she would keep it a secret. It was then that The Art Newspaper launched their own investigation into the van Gogh ear conundrum. Going off the research in Murphy’s book, the publication sourced an open archive that eventually led them to Berlatier to solve the mystery once and for all.

For more information about the van Gogh story take a look at Bernadette Murphy’s book, here.

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