Van Gogh's Ear

I saw the documentary before purchasing the book so I knew the bones of the research and what she turned up. But I knew that I liked the documentary very much and that I wanted to know more of the story than what can be revealed in a hour long film. I am so glad I got the book. I had it on my wish list for a while and when I went to the KC Art Museum, I saw this on among many for sale and I put it in my Amazon cart when I got back. I am not done with the book yet, but it is such a light, easy read. I enjoy the mystery about the ear and also feel like I have been there already just from the photos, maps and descriptions of the wind/weather.. When Vincent arrived , he found it cold, then snowing and raining.I love the snippets of his letters that accompany the same time period in Arles. I feel her research is well done . I have never read any of the numerous biographies out there. I just have always admired his work and watched the movie Lust for Life. I know there are biographies/acticles out there that state that Gauguin cut off Vincent's ear with a sword and that some boys possibly playing cowboys and indians shot him since one boy borrowed a gun from the cafe owener. Will we ever really know? I am anxious to finish this book, but enjoy the long strolls through Arles as the story unfolds. I am getting picky in my reading choices and I would love to read more from her if she writes again. Bravo , Bernadette!

An extraordinary examination of the facts surrounding that December 23rd night in 1888. This wonderful work reads like a novel revealing thegreat effort made by this talented author to determine the truth. One can only imagine the elation Ms. Murphy felt in locating the Dr. Rey sketchof Van Gogh's ear. Her efforts to identify "Rachel" and her "CSI" style investigation will satisfy any and all skeptics about the recipient of theartist's mutilation. A must read for art lovers and historians alike!

I read countless book on Van Gogh, especially regarding his final 2 years, so I was interested to see what this author's take was on his time in Arles. Having been to Arles, and having walked from the location of the Yellow House to all the locations mentioned, including to St. Remy, I could envision these accurate and well researched accounts of key events. It does not read like a textbook, as some books researching Van Gogh have, but as if I am having a conversation with the author. I recommend reading it if you have any interest on learning the truth about Van Gogh and his infamous breakdown.

I was expecting a detailed scholarly work that focused on Vincent Van Gogh's mental breakdown in Arles. What I got was a beautifully researched but amateurish and boarding on narcissistic narrative about how Bernadette Murphy researched her book, interspersed with some information on Vincent. While the author should be congratulated and lauded for how she was able to uncover new information about Van Gogh, she should not have been doing so for herself in her own book. The way the author would pull out of the narrative about Van Gogh's time in Arles and would then describe this bit of research, or this extremely and unnecessary person perspective was jarring. As the book wore on I got more and more tired of having to read about how hard she worked for this book, as if she was the first author to ever do so. The narrative also feels disjointed, as at the beginning of the book is an extremely laughable fictionalized recounting of the Arles' Police Inspector's view point of the the day of Van Gogh's breakdown, and then it's never really referenced again. She also writes about the woman to whom the ear was given to, drops off that idea only to pick up again at the end of the book - where she is then discussing Vincent's stay in the hospital. I feel the time line was dictated by what she was uncovering, rather than what actually happened in Vincent's life. To me that makes this book less about a troubled time in a brilliant artist's life and more about how the author researched this book.

If you're a van Gogh fan.Discovery of Dr. Rey's drawing on sliced ear of van Gogh is indeed a heck of detective job!Now we know that it was almost whole ear not just a piece of it or earlobe.This finding alone worth a reading this book.The author, Bernadette Murphy, even uncovered the woman who received the ear from van Gogh.She was not a prostitute but a cleaning lady at the brothel.Thank you, Bernadette Murphy, for your wonderful research and book!And

Before I read this book, I hadn't really realized just how detailed historical research can be. Oh my gosh, the author dove into van Gogh's time in Arles with a passion and found many pieces of information that hadn't yet come to light about the great artist's time there. And yes, about how much of his ear he actually did cut off. It was a fascinating read.

Prepare to be enthralled as the author's incredible year's long research turns the myths about what happened into a truth picture of the man, his time in Arles, his brother Theo, his neighbors, his housemate, the so-called prostitute, the ear, and the era in which he lived. Every page reveals a search for the details you never dreamed could be found. Don't miss out - buy it today!

The most incredible investigative writing I've ever seen. Her ability to keep searching for the tiniest detail is gratifying and extremely satisfying to read. So many incorrect stories have been written about Van Gogh through the years and it's so good to have the facts at last.

There is so much in to celebrate in this book - the artist's genius, his deep humanity, but above all, his fateful love affair with Arles and the South. Had he not moved to this sleepy Provençal town, it is difficult to imagine the global stature and the reverence which now surrounds his very name. Bernadette Murphy, resident for most of her life in the area, is uniquely qualified to uncover the hidden facts that underpin this book. A combination of superb linguistic skills, extraordinary investigative capabilities and incredible tenacity meant that apparently insignificant archival details, painstakingly amassed and sifted over long, long years, was pieced together to create a unique portrait of the artist as well as his environment 'in toto'. The scholarly lengths to which she has gone are awe-inspiring. This is art history of singular virtuosity, 99% perspiration, and 1% dazzling inspiration. Van Gogh is arguably the greatest and most popular artist of modern times - is anyone not enamoured? - and in this brilliant biographer he has at last found someone to do him justice. Murphy's irresistible tale illuminates how great art is created, and what drives the rare souls who live - and die - in its name.

I enjoyed this book immensely, and it was richly full of facts about Van Gogh and his life that I was previously unaware of, including something which should end for all time any speculation about exactly how much of his ear the poor man cut off. I won't spoil the book by saying exactly how that is revealed, but it is absolutely final and should end any further theories. However, there are a couple of areas which at the best are a little grey, and they are what have prevented me from giving the book five stars. The first area concerns the recipient of the ear - just who it was, and why Vincent gave her the rather sad remains of his ear. In my opinion the authors take on this is far too speculative and actually holds very little water. I am inclined to believe that it was the person whom the author suggests it was, but her theory as to just why he gave her the ear, I am sorry to say I found quite frankly a bit ridiculous. And the second slightly grey area concerns the fairly recent proposition that Van Gogh was shot by someone else - I won't say murdered because I don't think that he was, not exactly, but I think the author could have given the idea a little more credence than to dismiss it utterly in little more than a couple of sentences. But, and it is a huge, positive but, apart from those two things the book is excellent and brings Van Gogh and his life in Arles vividly to life, and the people and places in his paintings take on a whole new perspective after reading it. I thoroughly recommend the book not only to anyone who is interested in Vincent Van Gogh, but to anyone who is interested in art generally, as well as to those people who would like a very convincing insight into Vincents 'madness', and who perhaps have more than a passing interest in mental issues, and just how terrible and debilitating a place 'madness' can be. Altogether a wonderful, and actually quite inspiring and life-affirming little book.

I have just finished reading this book..It took me longer than I expected to read; this was mainly due to the fact that the level of detail in the book was so intense and so powerful that I often had to pause to fully appreciate it.Until I bought this book I had never heard of Bernadette Murphy, but now have an overwhelming respect for her and her journey, frought with so many challenges, to deliver this book to us.The biggest challenge for any biographer is the ability to be objective; most biographies, from my experoence, are subjective; if one likes the subject matter, the subject will always be a hero or a victim. as in the case of Syd Barrett: A Very Peculiar Head, and if not, the villian, as with Lion Heart and Lackland: King Richard I and King John (with a hero AND a villain).Ms Murphy has developed and delivered a most intimate and humbling account of one of the finest and most widely recognised artists ever to have lived. Her book unravels myth and replaces them with truths that may otherwise have been lost to time. Not every fact can be guaranteed and there is still some conjecture; but what is a mystery story without a mystery.What Ms Murphy doesn't do is absolve Van Gogh of his faults; she does , however, provide some desperately needed context and turns the legend back into a fragile and desperately unwell man, a man who, in many respects couldn't cope with the world around him. He stole moments of time and captured them in oil and canvas for us all to enjoy; surely the very least we can do is try to understand him a little better.This is the most intimate and personal biography I have read and am grateful for the opportunity to have done so.

Irrespective of the reason for a visit to the National Gallery, I always find myself in silent awe before two painters, two painters diametrically opposed and very different in style, life and painting - Canaletto and Van Gogh. Indeed, the parquet before the “Sunflowers” is the most worn section of the entire floor and any visit confirms why and how. Canaletto’s area has fewer visits but that only surprises me. Before vast Canaletto canvases taking in grand scenes of Venice, I find myself edging closer to look, yet again, at the minute and fine details create by a “lick” of paint. Van Gogh’s are usually more intimate and “limited in scale” but his energetic, emphatic and passionate “slashes” of paint capture life in quite another way but just as effectively.Murphy’s life near Arles seems to have inspired her interest in Van Gogh and driven her to become a highly determine, investigative “biographer”, so good, in fact, that other journalist, Jeremy Paxman, made a television programme with her but took the back seat in her travels to discover the truth ; although entitled “Van Gogh’s Ear”, it is the rest of him, his driven and riven life, his passions and his misunderstood, short, sad life she captures so effectively and in such well-researched and fine detail.She never quite answers the bigger question, “Why?” - no-one can - but she certainly creates the life in such a way as to be almost within touching distance of the answer. Of the six children born to Rev Van Gogh, two committed suicide, two died in asylum but there are aspects of Van Gogh’s death still in doubt.Murphy explores forensically all the elements which made up Van Gogh’s life from papers and letters from the time, to aerial photographs taken before and after WWII when large sections of Arles were destroyed, including the area in which he lived. Eventually she unearths a doctor’s note and drawing which illustrate unequivocally the true extent of the injury he inflicted on himself.The minute, pain-staking, clinical and detailed detection is in stark contrast to the passions about which she writes and which drove him but it goes a long way to explaining who he was, how he lived, who his friends were, his way of painting and why the parquet flooring in the National Gallery is so worn by his many modern admirers.

I heard this first on the radio which prompted the book purchase. It is an engrossing read, easy to lose time as the investigation and tangential tales rattle on - however I wish it contained all of the paintings and sketches by Van Gogh and Gaugin, etc. that are referred to in the text - I will have to buy art books or visit a gallery to see these, which is no problem, but a wasted opportunity in my opinion. An interesting point is made about a picture which is not there. The illustrations that are included, many in b&w in the text and in a colour section in the middle, are excellent. The sections on Arles' partial destruction in WW II (the Allies bombed the rail station ) and how the author has pieced together how it looked pre war via sketches and recon photographs are very interesting. Ditto the conclusions about the ear debate and how these were reached through letters and sketches.