La Folie de Vincent van Gogh [The Madness of Vincent van Gogh]

Paris: Éditions Æsculape. Very Good+. 1928. First Edition. Softcover. [light overall wear, slight loss of paper spine covering at base, short closed tear in paper spine covering at top of spine (Collection "Sous le signe de Saturne") Series (B&W plates) An early and influential contribution to the "van Gogh was insane" school of debate. Although this idea was very much in the air in the decades following the artist's death in July 1890 -- floated most notably in 1906 by an early biographer, Julian Meier-Graefe, and subsequently by a German psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Jaspers (who in 1922 declared that van Gogh had suffered from schizophrenia) -- this volume, by two French doctors, was the first book to publish excerpts from the artist's medical records at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where he had been confined from May 1889 to May 1890 (during which time he had produced a notable series of paintings). The authors basically agreed with the asylum doctors' conclusions that van Gogh was suffering from a form of epilepsy -- specifically temporal lobe epilepsy, the symptoms of which included intermittent brain seizures, sometimes accompanied by visual and auditory hallucinations. The Preface is by Paul Gachet, to whose father, Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, the book is dedicated; it was Dr. Gachet who treated van Gogh during the last weeks of his life. (And the Preface gets right to the point, opening with: "-- Vincent Van Gogh? / -- On s'efforce de faire revivre un fou!" ("-- Vincent Van Gogh? / -- We strive to revive a madman!").) According to the limitation statement, 150 numbered copies were printed on vellum paper from "the paper mills of Arches," and an additional 1500 numbered copies (from 151 onward) on paper vellum manufactured by Vincent Montgolfier (a family firm dating to the 18th century); the present exemplaire is No. 335. ****NOTE that additional postage charges will be assessed for international shipping of this slightly heavier-than-average book; if this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order.**** .