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Article ID: CBB001212425

Van Gogh and His Doctors: Projections and Counter-Projections (2011)

Heyda, Milly (Author)

European Legacy
Volume: 16, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 355-362
Publication date: 2011
Language: English

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Medicine and art Patients Medicine and culture Historiography Physicians; doctors 19th century Gogh, Vincent Willem van

This article analyzes the relationship between Van Gogh and two of his doctors, Dr. Rey and Dr. Gachet, whose portraits he painted, by comparing their rapport with the sick painter and vice versa. Van Gogh the patient/artist---presented here as a case study---enables us to examine not only his projections but the counter-projections of his doctors, whether in writing (Dr. Rey) or in painting (Dr. Gachet), and to explore the psychological and ethical tensions these projections give rise to. Van Gogh's portraits of the two doctors offer two contrastive models: estrangement vis-à-vis doubling and symbiosis. Whereas Dr. Rey catered for Van Gogh's maternal needs and misunderstood his artistic needs, Dr. Gachet identified with his patient's talent and drew his face (death mask) after his suicide. The central ethical question that arises from the analysis of Van Gogh's relationship with his two doctors is whether we can extend our moral judgments beyond the cultural bounds of a specific historical context.

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