Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe

Catalogue numbers: F 529, JH 1658.

On the night before Christmas Eve in 1888, van Gogh mutilated himself with a knife, he cut off his earlobe, wrapped in a handkerchief, and, in his injured state, went to the brothel to give the lobe to a prostitute. Once he returned home he lost consciousness through loss of blood. And thus he was found by the police, who had been alerted by the recipient of the bizarre gift.