So He Cut Off The Ear Just For Fun, Then?

“A recently discovered letter by Vincent van Gogh on display for the first time speaks of a tiny grave and his father’s grief over the loss of his first child — a boy also named Vincent who was stillborn. The letter, the first authenticated one by van Gogh to surface since 1990, is the only known reference by the artist to the family tragedy, said Leo Jansen, a researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, which added the letter to its exhibition yesterday. He and other experts say its passionless tone contradicts theories by some biographers that van Gogh may have suffered from alienation as a ‘replacement child.'”