The Yellow Fog of Van Gogh

Dr. Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh"s unfortunate life and tragic suicide are well known. What remains shrouded in mystery are the reasons behind his maniacal personality that led ultimately to his death. There has been much speculation over the years as to Van Gogh's medical history but no conclusive information uncovered. Of course, we will probably never definitively know what troubled the artist but Dr. Thomas Courtney Lee, a surgeon at Georgetown University College of Medicine, offers a scientific theory that merits consideration. Using elements of pathography, a scientific blending of fact and conjecture, he concluded that Van Gogh suffered in his later years from the effects of digitalis intoxication.

Digitalis, a drug these days used to treat heart failure, was originally derived from the foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea. In the 19th century it was considered something of a panacea, given not only for the heart but for dropsy as well as a treatment for epilepsy. Van Gogh's medical history includes, according to most authorities, epileptic crises as well as depression, self-mutilation, and suicide. Large doses of digitalis can cause vomiting, giddiness, and visual disturbances. Van Gogh's later paintings show an obsession with the color yellow; even his house in Auyers was painted yellow. Abnormalities in color perception, in particular yellow halos, have been associated with the use of digitalis.

A further clue may be found in the artist's portraits of his last physician, Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet. In one of the paintings, the doctor is holding a flower in his hand, in another, the flower is in a glass. Van Gogh mentions these were the foxglove flower of purple color, the purple digitalis plant.

A Czech pharmacologist, Jan Evangelista Purkinje, experimented on himself using the digitalis plant and found that in his vision, "there was a rounded spot of dim lights which disappeared and again reappeared intermittently, and around were noticeable several such concentric light and dark waves in similar motion." .

It is entirely possible that Dr. Gachet treated Van Gogh with digitalis in his later life and as a consequence, the artist was under its influence and immersed in its yellow fog. Viewing his Starry Night one is reminded of Purkinje's description. How unfortunate that the artist's untimely end might have been the result of a drug overdose.

Just paint it!