Disease of the great man

Vincent Van Gogh's paintings, especially in the last two years of his life, were particularly noticed by his high breakthrough in painting. But for scientists, these paintings are also fascinated by the main yellow color, the frequency of colored halo or uneven pupil in the self-portrait.

Unusual paintings

Van Gogh (Photo: studioesseci / VNE)

Van Gogh's use of a dark yellow color when painting, led to some inferences about seeing all things yellow (his xanthopsie). Nearly all of the paintings have a golden background as if yellow was a dominant space when Van Gogh filtered the sun rays to scatter the works. Was he too comfortable to use yellow or did he use this color to describe light intensity?

He wrote to his sister: 'You should understand that the nature of this southern country cannot get the correct answer, for example, the color palette is purple and purple if it comes from the North, it is mainstream and finally kept in gray. The color palette is now very rich, sky blue, orange red, vermilion, bright yellow, light green, wine red and violet. It is used passionately in works and towards true passion. Instead of looking for something that is exactly right in front of me, I use a very liberal color to express it strongly. '

The concept of color obsession is built from Van Gogh's passion for using yellow: 'We now have a strong heat of unbearable glory, which has made my own works. . The sun, the light makes it much beautiful, I can only remember yellow, light yellow, lemon yellow, metallic gold . How beautiful they are and I see them more clearly in the South . The color here is the midday atmosphere in the harvest, in the inherent heat . '.

The technique of using color obsession helped him express some feelings such as ' the heat is something made of light, real in a dark background ' even he describes ' with color green and red, they are human passion ' .

The records show the existence of colored halo around the light source, the most starlight is in the Café in the night painted in September 1888. The Garden Coffee , The Night Star of Remy - painted in the month 6 in 1889, the Cypress Road in May 1889. The halo was concentric, they were not the sun's rays. The night star was painted before Vincent's first crisis. It was a cafe near where he lived, where he drank and smoked a lot. In the letter to Théo, he told about the place where he lived with the words ' it seemed that the night was always more vivid and colorful than the day . The room was red and yellow, a billiard table. blue in the middle, four lights with lemon yellow with rays of orange and blue ' . Each of the gas burning lamps is a star, around which is a halo, whose structure is very important to authenticate.

In a few self-portraits, it was found that he had two pupils of different sizes. We can see in the first self-portrait in 1887, he wore a straw hat, in his self-portrait with a fedora, it was not very clear. In contrast, this is not seen in other self-portraits during his time in Arles. It also does not show up in people standing around in paintings. Is this phenomenon a consequence of special lighting?

Glaucoma can be the cause

According to FW Maire, Van Gogh may suffer from subacute or chronic glaucoma. Pathology causes long-term glaucoma edema, which can cause a halo feeling around light sources. Dyslexic blue - yellow can also be encountered with the loss of yellow when used. Irregular pupil expression suggests a more natural subacute-grade glaucoma than chronic glaucoma. However, his works did not show the loss of the market and neither his family members had glaucoma. On the other hand, if the sense of color halo is real, they may also be encountered in other diseases other than glaucoma.

In addition to glaucoma, several other pathological hypotheses may be set out to explain the special paintings of Van Gogh: corneal dystrophy, cataract, digital poisoning, neuropathy with evidence illusion or alcoholism.

Corneal dystrophy only explains the feeling of the halo but does not lead to yellow daltonism and irregular pupil expression.

Cataract can lead to all of the above symptoms. Disturbance is the classic symptom of cataract. The feeling of color halo is also common in this disease. Uneven pupil is an erratic symptom of cataract, their presence merely evokes a problem, which is an imbalance. Eyes with cataract when encountering strong light sources often show strong pupil, to increase visual acuity. Faint stars in paintings can be explained by cataract. The age of Van Gogh was only 35 when he painted, so it was difficult to accept the hypothesis of cataract, but alcoholism could make the disease earlier than others.

Digital poisoning is set with Van Gogh by 3 arguments. One is that in Dr. Gauchet's drawing of the royal flower (the one used for digital extraction), two he could have received digital therapy for epilepsy by Dr. Rey, Urpar, Peyron when he was hospitalized. in Arles then in Saint-Remy. On the other hand, digital poisoning seems to be very compatible with his special paintings if he does not say he has a behavioral disorder. However, his notes do not show that he was treated with digital except the implications of Dr. Gauchet's picture as stated. Other doctors are also not sure if he has epilepsy and do not mention using digital. They tried to advise him to eat and drink and to give up alcohol and cigarettes. In Dr. Urpar's certification it was noted: 'Gogh Vincent's certificate, 36 years old, suffers from obsession with paranoid expressions for 6 months .' . Uneven pupil expression can be seen in observing the night star in 1887, using strong yellow color beginning in 1888, the halo in the night star around the end of 1888. However, Van Gogh only went to a mental hospital in January. 12 in 1888 after the painting The ear was cut. All these records support the hypothesis that digital poisoning occurred to him?

The mental illness is due to him because he has abnormal vision, looks upside down. These events suggest the diagnosis of early dementia, obsessive depression, brain tumors .

It is also worth mentioning that Van Gogh's alcoholism and smoking can play a role in his abnormal vision. He drank too much alcohol when he came to Arles. Later when they became friends with Paul Gauguin, the two shared a common interest in alcohol. When analyzing the ear-cut Man, he thought he was delirious. Behavioral disorders, agitation make people think of chronic botulism. The apxanh wine that he used to have the main active ingredient is thuyone, if acute poisoning can cause halo sensations in many colors, blurred vision, confusion, decreased sensation and paranoia.

(Translation according to Eye Disease of French historical figures) Vincent Van Gogh.

Doctor Hoang Cuong , Central Eye Hospital