Félix Rey, which confirmed that Van Gogh had sliced off nearly his entire ear, and not just a portion of his ear. Soon Stone would receive a document that would change the course of his own life and work, and would propel Lust for Lifeinto the public spotlight. For several months, Stone’s research into Van Gogh’s life in Paris included attempts to contact the artist’s doctor, Dr. Stone had just graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. Yet Stone’s experiences in France were certainly different from those of the famous novelists and poets living in the capital. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and other expatriates. In the 1920s, when Stone spent time in Paris, he’d have been in the same city as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Paris is a location that was central to Van Gogh’s life and work, and it is also a storied city for so many artists and writers. Stone’s research led to the critically acclaimed biography Lust for Life (1934). In the 1920s, a young Irving Stone (born Irving Tennenbaum) traveled with his then-wife Lona Mosk to Paris, where he began investigating Van Gogh’s life and works. Rumors circulated about his madness and his creative genius.

After his death, when Van Gogh’s paintings finally received the acclaim that they never did in his lifetime, public interest also grew surrounding the artist’s life story. For many painters, writers, and collectors, Van Gogh’s story is an interesting one, often shrouded in mystique due to the artist’s own struggles with mental health issues and psychic instability.

Vincent Van Gogh lived a short life and committed suicide when he was only 37 years old.

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