According to Lust for Life, Irving Stone’s fictionalized biography of Vincent van Gogh, the artist “left only a tiny portion of the lobe” when he famously sliced off his ear.

Other versions differ. Stone got that detail, it turns out, from Dr. Félix Rey, acknowledged in an author’s note at the end of the bestselling 1934 novel. And it turns out that the doctor revealed this small but significant detail in a letter to Stone — including a sketch of exactly where the cut was made — that’s been housed in the archives of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.

For the full story, visit: http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/07/12/sharp-eyes-at-bancroft-and-a-new-focus-on-van-goghs-ear/

Video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Stephen McNally

Music credit: "The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan" by Chris Zabriskie

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