Vincent van Gogh may not have cut off his own ear in a fit of drunken madness, but lost it in a fight with his friend Paul Gauguin, according to new research.
In the traditional story, the disturbed Dutch painter severed his left ear with a razor blade after a furious row with Gauguin over a prostitute called Rachel and the nature of art.
But in a new book based on the original police investigation, witness accounts and letters sent by the two artists, two German academics argue that the row in Arles, southern France, in 1888 ended with Gauguin — a keen fencer — cutting his friend’s ear off with his sword.
Hans Kaufmann, one of the authors of Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence,said it was not clear whether the blow was an accident or a deliberate attempt to injure Van Gogh, but afterwards both men agreed to tell the police the self-harm story to protect Gauguin.
Mr Kaufmann said the traditional version of events is based on contradictory and improbable evidence, and no independent witness statement exists.
"Gauguin was not present at the supposed self-mutilation," he told Le Figaronewspaper in France.
“As for Van Gogh, he didn’t confirm anything. Their behaviour afterwards and various suggestions by the protagonists indicate they were hiding the truth.”
The bloody confrontation in front of the brothel where Rachel worked was partly sparked by Gauguin’s decision to leave Arles, where Van Gogh had hoped to set up an artists’ commune, Mr Kaufmann said.
Gauguin fled afterwards, leaving Van Gogh feeling crushed, and seven months later, following a furious burst of creativity, the Dutchman killed himself.