Van Gogh's Ear

It was widely believed that Van Gogh only cut off a small part of his lobe and not his whole ear, until a letter was discovered from his doctor to his brother which has a diagram demonstrating that he did indeed sever most of his ear.

Van Gogh took his ear and gave it to a friend. The friend had fallen on hard times and was working in a brothel, possibly as a maid since she was underage. Due to these circumstances her descendants had asked that she not be named which is why her name has been redacted here. (Newspapers have rudely reported her name). More interesting than any brothel associations, is that her financial hardship was due to medical debt, accrued in hospital when, after being bitten by a dog, she survived rabies with the help of a brand new anti-rabies vaccine. It was recovering in hospital where she met Van Gogh. Understandably, she wanted to forget both the dog and the whole ear incident, and kept it a secret while marrying and living well into old age.