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Van Gogh's Ear


*EVENT HAS REACHED CAPACITY* Please contact Monica Alarcon at m.alarcon@berkeley.edu to be added to the waitlist. Thank you! You think you know the story—in December 1888, Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. But what really happened on that winter night? For the first time, author Bernadette Murphy will discuss her investigation and show us how—even today, more than 130 years after the event— it is still possible to rewrite history.


Tuesday, November 19, 2019
5:00PM – 7:00PM PST

The Morrison Library in Doe Library
UC Berkeley

The Discovery


Bernadette Murphy spent seven years looking into the night Vincent van Gogh harmed himself. Using modern technology, her investigation ignored everything that had been written about the subject. She started afresh, like a detective, and made an important discovery that would rewrite the story of one of the world's most famous artists.

Although the clue to this discovery was under the nose of researchers at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the answer to this mystery was found in the archives of The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

Murphy's discovery has been reported all over the world, and in 2016 became the basis of the Van Gogh Museum's major exhibition on the artist's mental state. Her book,Van Gogh's Ear, has been translated into more than ten languages. The BBC-PBS-Arte co-production, The Mystery of Van Gogh's Ear, is based on her research.


The Archives


Murphy will be joined by now-retired Bancroft staff member David Kessler, whose quiet reference work in Berkeley's principal special collections library supported Murphy's historic discovery, and Bancroft curator of Rare Books and Literary Manuscripts, David Faulds.


The Author


Bernadette Murphy was born and brought up in the UK. She has lived in the south of France for most of her adult life, and has worked in many different fields.

A series of chance events led her to start investigating Vincent van Gogh's life in Arles, but little did she know at the time what an exciting adventure it would turn out to be.

Van Gogh’s Ear is her first book.


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*EVENT HAS REACHED CAPACITY*
Please contact Monica Alarcon at m.alarcon@berkeley.edu
to be added to the waitlist.
Thank you!



Hosted by
the UC Berkeley Institute of European Studies
and The Bancroft Library
with support from
the Departments of French and History of Art,
the Division of Arts & Humanities,
and the Townsend Center for the Humanities


*


The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations or have questions about this event, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Bancroft Library Administration
(510) 642-3782
bancroft@library.berkeley.edu



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