I do not mind being eccentric. I rather enjoy it. Yes, I face other challenges than a lot of other people, and I wouldn’t choose this life again – well, I might like the life without the depression because in other respects my life is quite good.
When you think of the lives of great artists, you are likely to picture Michaelangelo on his back painting the Sistine Chapel. Or Jackson Pollock voraciously splattering paint all over a huge canvas. However, when you think of Vincent Van Gogh, you probably imagine the great artist notoriously cutting off his ear lobe in the grips of mania.
Over time, Van Gogh was hospitalized at least five times for manic-depressive breakdowns. Friends and various artists described him as eccentric, disturbed, terrifying, on the verge of a breakdown, extremely difficult, obstinate and as a heavy drinker.
The artist’s mania often led him to paint at a frenetic pace, frequently working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. In one stretch, he churned out 70 canvasses in 65 days. So many that it was impossible to store them in his little room.
Stories of his behavior reached the bizarre when he approached his friend and French painter Paul Gauguin on the street with a razor intending harm. Interrupted by police, he then lopped off his ear lobe and presented it to an acquaintance, a prostitute he frequented. He reportedly said to her, “Keep this as a treasure.”
The circumstances of Van Gogh’s death are unclear. He suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, but it is unknown whether or not it was self-inflicted.
Van Gogh’s 2011 biographers believe it was not self-inflicted and therefore suicide. It was from a boy he knew who had “a malfunctioning gun.”
Just 37 years old when he died, Van Gogh wrote nearly a thousand letters, often several a day.
I put my heart and soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process.
Wonderful blog. Keep up the good work.