Which doctor treated Van Gogh after he severed his ear in Arles?

Félix Rey treated Van Gogh after he severed his ear in Arles. Rey was a young doctor working at Arles hospital when Van Gogh was brought there on 24 December 1888, bleeding heavily and unconscious after the incident.

Rey treated the wound during Van Gogh’s hospitalization, which lasted into early January 1889. The exact extent of the injury has been debated: some accounts describe the removal of the entire outer ear, while others argue that only part, possibly the earlobe and adjoining tissue, was cut away. Rey’s own later account supported the more extensive description.

Van Gogh later painted Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey in January 1889 and gave it to the doctor as a keepsake. The family disliked the work and reportedly used it for years to cover a hole in a chicken coop, an anecdote that illustrates how far Van Gogh’s reputation had yet to develop. The portrait eventually entered the art market and is now held by the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Paul Gachet is a common mix-up because he treated Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890, near the end of the artist’s life. Dr. Rey belongs specifically to the Arles ear-injury episode.