Did too much sex kill van Gogh the genius?

A groundbreaking new film exploring the life of 19th-century post-impressionist Vincent Van Gogh, Loving Vincent, is set to be released later this year. But was it sex that contributed to the Dutch painter’s untimely demise? His lengthy correspondence with his brother, Theo, and friends reveal insights about his sex life, relationships and illness.

“In order to do good work you have to eat well, be well housed, have a screw from time to time, smoke your pipe and drink your coffee in peace,” he wrote to Emile Bernard in September 1888. But in the years before his suicide in 1890, van Gogh told friends he believed sex detracted from his work.

He wrote to Paul Gaugin in May 1888 claiming he lived “like a monk” who would visit a brothel “once a fortnight”, but was otherwise not inclined to “waste his time”.Vincent’s love of sex workers was not secret – it is widely claimed he presented the morsel of his ear he cut off to a prostitute. But he was also hospitalised for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) at several points in his life.

In 1882 he spent 25 days in hospital in the Hague with a bout of gonorrhea, and it is widely believed both he and Theo had syphilis. Researchers believe this could have developed into neurosyphilis even though there is little evidence he showed symptoms of this disease. It’s therefore unlikely this could have led him down the dark road that ended in his suicide.

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