(CNN) – it Was the eve of christmas Eve in 1888, specifically a frosty Sunday in the French city of Arles, where Vincent Van Gogh grabbed a razor blade that you had on your table and cut off his left ear.
why? No one knows for sure. Some of the theories that are most popular include: madness, alcoholism, a fight bloody with his friend, the artist, Paul Gauguin, or your desire to be pampered by his mother.
more than a century of the incident, still this is one of the moments most talked about the life of the Dutch painter.
A new book suggests another possible reason: heard the wedding march.
Van Gogh had a nervous breakdown and cut off his ear after learning that his brother Theo is married. At least that is what has Martin Bailey, an expert in art, in his book 'Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence'.
"it Was fear that led to that breakdown," says Baylee in an interview with CNN. "The fear of being abandoned emotionally and financially."
Some historians trivialize this theory, assuming that Van Gogh learned of the commitment of his brother long before this episode. Bailey did not agree.
"There are theories more ridiculous. I see the facts and it is almost certain that the news of the wedding came to him that day," he says.
"It’s a matter of collecting the information. We don’t have that letter, but in another that Van Gogh sent in January, mentions that he received money from his brother on the 23rd of December."
Bailey believes that money came in the same letter, with the news that Theo and the merchant of art, Jo Bonger, they were committed.
To the left, a portrait of Theo Van Gogh made for his famous brother, Vincent Van Gogh. (Credit: Ilvy Njiokiktjien/AFP/Getty Images)
"What other researchers of Van Gogh have not taken into account is that the bride received the 23rd of December a telegram from his older brother, Henry, congratulating him," says Bailey.
The author adds that Theo (the brother of Van Gogh), he wrote to his mother two days before telling him that I wanted to give the information directly to your brother so that we will not arrive at another place.
Van Gogh and his brother were nearby. At that time, the painter –who was struggling to get ahead– it depended on financially by his brother Theo.
Probably Van Gogh was distressed that the marriage of Theo would harm their close relationship and the pressure of raising a family would trigger that Theo will send less money to your brother, ” says Bailey.
"Possibly there was something of jealousy. Theo found love, whereas Vincent had not been able to maintain stable relationships," says Bailey in his book
The book of Bailey focuses on the stay of Van Gogh in Arles, south of France, where he lived in a self-described "yellow house".
"The sunny mood of the south opened their eyes to a new way to use light and colours (in his paintings). I had never been so dramatic and bold. It was a period of great creativity, and it was the first time that he had his own home," says Bailey.
But it is the chapter on the ear", as many call it, what catches the attention of the readers.
A replica of the famous Van Gogh’s ear, exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art, the ZKM in Germany in 2014.
"it Is the story of Van Gogh that everyone wants to hear. I had to include it when writing about that period," he says. "There was a great interest, both now and in that time. The newspapers wrote about the fact."
Then cut off his ear, Van Gogh put on his hat and went to a brothel near you to give you the lobe mutilated, wrapped in paper, to a young man who was recently identified as Gabrielle Berlatier.
Berlatier fainted to see the ear, Van Gogh fled, and there is generated the chaos caused a stir in the local press.
Bailey says that Van Gogh had described the events as "a simple episode of insanity of an artist followed by an episode of fever due to important loss of blood, after having hurt an artery".
While the wound healed, the ear cut off, he was so disfigured that he became a constant reminder of what the painter had done.
Although the news of the wedding was what drove Van Gogh to the brink of insanity, Bailey told CNN that this episode was not the only reason.
"there is Still much debate about the medical problems of Van Gogh, and there are thousands of studies in medical journals about this. The wedding was only the trigger", says the author.
even Though their own doctors believed that the artist suffered from epilepsy, experts suggested recently that the artist was suffering from) a poisoning with absinthe, alcoholism, bipolar disorder and heat stroke, among other factors. There is not yet a consensus.
perhaps the loss of the ear was a desperate cry for help of the artist.
A letter with a date of 1893 and discussing the medical records of Van Gogh, indicates that the impressionist Dutch suffered from "auditory hallucinations," according to Bailey. The fact of the cut on the ear could have been an attempt in vain to quiet those noises.
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