Spiraled Aura Blue, Blue Nude Oil Painting by k Madison Moore

Spiraled Aura Blue

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

Emotions in Blue Series

Blue Nude Series 

Oil Painting on Canvas

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Kandinsky Wine Label Painting by k Madison Moore

Quite Harmony

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

Connoisseur Wine Masters Series

Kandinsky Wine Label

20 x 24 Oil Painting on Canvas

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On the way to Canada

Thank you Marie and John

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Wassliy's Music Room, Inspired by Kandinsky by k Madison Moore

Wassily's Music Room

Homage to Wassily Kandinsky

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

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11 x 14

Kandinsky Inspired Oil Painting

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

I love painting with Kandinsky. His use of all the symbols

and brilliant primary colors and of course my favorite color

red is always fun for me. 

I learned so much about Kandinsky with my research this time.

His favorite color was blue so I played on a lot of blue in this composition.

He also played the cello and the piano so I though it would be fun to turn

his ovals into music notes. The wall, floor and pillows are from 

many symbols that her used is his paintings. 

Kandinsky painted music! So wonderful. Read my research below 

to learn some amazing things about this wonderful talented artist.

Enjoy!

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“I applied streaks and blobs of color onto

 the canvas with a 

palette knife and I made them sing with all 

the intensity I could...”

-Wassily Kandinsky

Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky is widely credited with making the world's first truly abstract paintings, but his artistic ambition went even further. He wanted to evoke sound through sight and create the painterly equivalent of a symphony that would stimulate not just the eyes but the ears as well. A new exhibition at Tate Modern, Kandinsky: Path to Abstraction, shows not only how he removed all recognisable subjects and objects from Western art around 1911, but how he achieved a new pictorial form of music.

"Wagner's Lohengrin, which had stirred Kandinsky to devote his life to art, had convinced him of the emotional powers of music. The performance conjured for him visions of a certain time in Moscow that he associated with specific colors and emotions. It inspired in him a sense of a fairy-tale hour of Moscow, which always remained the beloved city of his childhood. His recollection of the Wagner performance attests to how it had retrieved a vivid and complex network of emotions and memories from his past: "The violins, the deep tones of the basses, and especially the wind instruments at that time embodied for me all the power of that pre-nocturnal hour. I saw all my colors in my mind; they stood before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me. I did not dare use the expression that Wagnet had painted 'my hour' musically. It was at this special moment that Kandinsky realized the tremendous power that art could exert over the spectator and that painting could develop powers equivalent to those of music.

Kandinsky is believed to have had synaesthesia, a harmless condition that allows a person to appreciate sounds, colours or words with two or more senses simultaneously. In his case, colours and painted marks triggered particular sounds or musical notes and vice versa. The involuntary ability to hear colour, see music or even taste words results from an accidental cross-wiring in the brain that is found in one in 2,000 people, and in many more women than men.

Synaesthesia is a blend of the Greek words for together (syn) and sensation (aesthesis). The earliest recorded case comes from the Oxford academic and philosopher John Locke in 1690, who was bemused by "a studious blind man" claiming to experience the colour scarlet when he heard the sound of a trumpet.

The idea that music is linked to visual art goes back to ancient Greece, when Plato first talked of tone and harmony in relation to art. The spectrum of colours, like the language of musical notation, has long been arranged in stepped scales, so it is still unclear whether or not Beethoven, who called B minor the black key and D major the orange key, or Schubert, who saw E minor as "a maiden robed in white with a rose-red bow on her chest", were real synaesthetes.

There is still debate whether Kandinsky was himself a natural synaesthete, or merely experimenting with this confusion of senses in combination with the colour theories of Goethe, Schopenhauer and Rudolf Steiner, in order to further his vision for a new abstract art.

Sceptics have dismissed synaesthesia as nothing more than subjective invention, like a bad case of metaphor affliction - after all, anyone can feel blue, see red, eat a sharp cheese or wear a loud tie. Recently, however, a group of neuroscientists has been able to prove that synaesthetes do indeed "see" sound. A series of brain scans showed that, despite being blindfolded, synaesthetes showed "visual activity" in the brain when listening to sounds. Now all that is left is to find the gene that may be responsible.

Despite the lack of medical proof for Kandinsky's synaesthesia, the correlation between sound and colour was a lifelong preoccupation for the artist. He recalled hearing a strange hissing noise when mixing colours in his paintbox as a child, and later became an accomplished cello player, which he said represented one of the deepest blues of all instruments.

If Kandinsky had a favourite colour, it must have been blue: "The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural… The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white."

After 1910, he split his work into three categories: Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions, often adding musical titles to individual pictures such as Fugue, Opposing Chords or Funeral March. He also conceived three synaesthetic plays combining the arts of painting, music, theatre and dance into Wagnerian total works of art or Gesamtkunstwerks, which were designed to unify all the senses.

Black Treacle, Still Life Painting by k Madison Moore

Black Treacle

Still Life Painting

©kMadisonMooreMkM20

16 x 20 Still Life Oil Painting

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An Asian Evening with Klimt, by k Madison Moore

An Asian Evening with Klimt

Inspired by Gustav Klimt

©kMadisonMoorMkm2012

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

14 x 18 Oil Painting on Canvas

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I can't seem to ever get enough of Klimt. He is very hard to

paint with because the details and symbols are endless.

I think I really  like to challenge myself with his work.

With "An Asian Evening with Klimt", I used his painting 

"Expectations" for the wall. I always loved this piece.

He did the full body painting and just the portrait so I thouht

this would be a nice piece to design this painting around.

The lovely lady is from another of Klimts works

but I change her face to be Asian and added the gown.

Of course I wanted ti use as many tones of red that 

I could for this piece.

I love Asian art and all of the beautiful details they use.

I researched asian furniture and accessories for this composition 

and it seemed that every single element was full of detail.

Needless to say, this painting took a "Very" long time to paint!

Enjoy!

Sweet Dreams, Inspired by Guayasamin, by k Madison Moore

Sweet Dreams

Inspired by Oswaldo Guayasamin

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

14 x 16 Oil Painting on Canvas

I love the passion of Guayasamin!! 

 With all that he saw and was exposed
 to he still found sweet moments.

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Oswaldo Guayasamín (6 July 1919, Quinto, Equador – 10 March 1999, Baltimore, United States was a Quechua  native and Ecuadorian  master painter and sculptor.

Oswaldo Guayasamín was born in Quito, to a native father and a Mestiza  mother, both of Quechua descent. His family was poor and his father worked as a carpenter for most of his life. He later worked as a taxi and truck driver. He was the first child of ten children in his family. When he was young, he enjoyed drawing caricatures of his teachers and the children that he played with. He showed an early love for art. He created a Pan-American art of human and social inequalities which achieved international recognition.

He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Quito as a painter and  sculptor. He also studied architecture there. He held his first exhibition when he was 23, in 1942. While he was attending college, his best friend died during a demonstration in Quito. This incident would later inspire one of his paintings, "Los Niños Muertos." This event also helped him to form his vision about the people and the society that he lived in.

Guayasamín met Orozco while traveling in the United States of America and Mexico from 1942 to 1943. They traveled together to many of the diverse countries in South America. They visited Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and other countries. Through these travels he observed the indigenous lifestyle and poverty that appeared in his paintings.

Guayasamín's images capture the political oppression, racism, poverty, and class division found in much of South America..

Oswaldo Guayasamín dedicated his life to painting, sculpting, collecting. however,  His death on March 10, 1999 was marked by a day of national strikes by the indigenous people (whom he spent his life supporting) and other sectors of society, and was considered a great loss to Ecuador. He is still lauded as a national treasure.

Kandinsky's Den, Inspired by Wassley Kandinsky, Interiors Painting by k Madison Moore

Kandinsky's Den

11 x 14 Kandinsky Oil Painting on Canvas

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In The Shadows of Blue, Nude Oil Painting by k Madison Moore

In The Shadows of Blue

11 x 14 Oil Painting on Canvas

Emotions in Blue Series

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Jesus Christ Oil Painting by k Madison Moore

Jesus Christ

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

8 x 10 Oil Painting on Canvas

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Happy Easter 

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Miro's Dream, Interiors Painting, Inspired by Joan Miro, by k Madison Moore

Miro's Dream - Dreaming in Color

Inspired by Joan Miro

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

12 x 16 Oil Painting on Canvas

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

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Do you dream in color? I had a big conversation  with my friend last week about  Dreaming in Color. She thought I was crazy when I told her I "always dream in color." She said her dreams were in black and white. What a shame. I cannot image black and white dreams. Where would all of my vivid colorful compositions come from. Yes, I do dream many of my compositions and even get up in the middle of the night and go into the studio to quickly write my ideas down so I don't forget them by morning.

You know how you have a dream and then when you wake up you can't remember it or parts of it but you know you had one? I seem to wake up, so now I keep a sketchbook next to my bed! Is that crazy?

There is no experimental proof I have seen of this, but researchers agree that most dreams are in color. However, because the dream fades so quickly after we awake, our memories of the dream are often recalled in gray tones.

Studies show that those who are in tune with color in waking life tend to remember more color in dreams as well. I have also noticed that those of us who grew up with black & white TV have more black and white dreams. I haven't properly researched this yet, it's just an observation.

Needless to say this painting was created  from a dream I had after speaking to my friend. I would love to have a round bed like this. Of course my mac would have to be in the dream since it is attached to my right arm most of the time. So much fun painting this one. It looks great in this size too.

Enjoy!

Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983) was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

Basking in Blue, Blue Nude Painting by k Madison Moore

Basking in Blue

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

12 x 16 Oil painting on canvas

Emotions in Blue Series

Blue Nude Paintings

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Ancient Egypt the Mythology

Egyptian Blue (irtiu, sbedj) was made combining iron and copper oxides with silica and calcium. This produced a rich color however it was unstable and sometimes darkened or changed color over the years.

Blue was symbolic of the sky and of water. In a cosmic sense, this extended its symbolism to the heavens and of the primeval floods. In both of these cases, blue took on a meaning of life and re-birth.

Blue was naturally also a symbol of the Nile and its associated crops, offerings and fertility. The phoenix, , which was a symbol of the primeval flood, was patterned on the heron. Herons naturally have a gray-blue plumage. However, they were usually portrayed with bright blue feathers to emphasize their association with the waters of the creation. Amon  was often shown with a blue face to symbolize his role in the creation of the world. By extension, the pharoahs were sometimes shown with blue faces as well when they became identified with Amon. Baboons, which are not naturally blue, were portrayed as blue. It is not certain why. However, the ibis, a blue bird was a symbol of Thoth, just like the baboon was. It may be that the baboons were colored blue to emphasize their connection to Thoth.

The gods were said to have hair made of lapis lazuli, a blue stone.

In The Blue Mood, Abstract Blue Nude Oil Painting by k Madison Moore

In The Blue Mood

©kMadisonMooreMkM 2012

Emotions in Blue Series

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11 x 14 Oil Painting on Canvas

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I have to say I am happy that I decided to get back

to this series. It is a lot of fun to do and I love creating

the emotions. I have a new Painting with The Maasters

Art within Art painting coming up for tomorrow that I 

am really excited about  too. Stay tuned.

Enjoy!

Passion in Blue

24 x 36 Oil on Canvas

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Emotions in Blue Series
Blue Nudes

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Madam X's Tiffany Room, Painting Inspired by John Singer Sargent by k Madison Moore

Madam X's Tiffany Room

Inspired by John Singer Sargent

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

11 X 14 Oil Painting on Canvas

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Madame X or Portrait of Madame X , 1874, is the informal title of a portrait painting by 

John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named  Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, wife 

of Pierre Gautreau. The model was an American expatriate who married a French banker 

and became notorious in Parisian high society for her beauty and rumored infidelities. She

wore lavender powder and prided herself on her appearance. I thought the Tiffany Room

would portray a lot of her personality.

Madame X was painted not as a commission, but at the request of Sargent. It is a study in 

opposition. Sargent shows a woman posing in a black satin dress with jeweled straps, a dress that reveals and hides at the same time. The portrait is characterized by the pale flesh tone ofthe subject contrasted against a dark colored dress and background.My model looks noting like Sargent's and I decided to make her a redhead opposed to dark hair.I could not get good reference to to the dress so I basically designed this one from what I could see in the photos. He basic pose it that of Sargent's Madam X painting.

Clothes make the woman in these portraits. They are fashion plates on a grand scale, reflecting

the Salon crowd as it wanted to see itself - in fashion. Compare Madame X and it's obvious how 

Sargent transgressed.

For Sargent, the scandal resulting from the painting's controversial reception at the Paris Salon of 

1884 amounted to the failure of a strategy to build a long-term career as a portrait painter in France.

Displayed in the huge jury-selected exhibition, the Salon, in 1884, it horrified Parisians so much that 

the ignominy drove Sargent across the Channel to take refuge in Britain. Of course, it was the making 

of him. He always kept Madame X in his studio. Its whiff of naughtiness generated demand for his portraits 

with a fashionable British and American public.

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Blue Nude Painting, Solitude in Blue by k Madison Moore

Solitude in Blue

©kMadisonMooreMkMw2012

Emotions in Blue Series
Blue Nudes

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11 x 14 Nude Oil Painting on Canvas

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This is another addition to the Blue Nudes Series

I really enjoy painting with light and only a few colors.

It may look easy but you would be surprised how

may layers of glazes I use to get this effect.

These nudes are so minimalistic but sometimes

simplicity can be so beautiful.

More to come.

Enjoy!

Lonely Nights without Modi, Inspired by Modigliani by k Madison Moore

Lonely Nights without Modi

Inspired by Modigliani

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

11 x 14 Oil Painting on Canvas

I never get tired of designing compositions 

after Modigliani and Jeanne. I have to say I think

this is still my favorite movie, although a very

sad love story.

If you haven't seen the movie, you should

(starring Andy Garcia)

Enjoy,  "Lonely Nights without Modi"

Jeanne Hébuterne, the shy student who would become painter and sculptor Amedeo 

Modigliani’s final muse, was born in Paris in April 1898. Jeanne’s brother, Andre, was also an aspiring painter and through him Jeanne was introduced to the Montparnasse community of Bohemians, which included Diego Rivera and Pablo Picasso, among many others.

Jeanne’s swan-necked, delicate beauty complemented Modigliani’s elongated style of painting and she posed for several works, including Portrait of a Woman In Large Hat and Jeanne Hébuterne, Sitting. In late 1918, the couple moved to Nice to escape Paris during wartime, and Modigliani also had hopes of making sales to patrons who frequented the Riviera. Their daughter Jeanne was born that winter before their ultimate return to the city following the Armistice.

Unfortunately, the fear of consumptive death that had shadowed Modigliani soon came to pass, and in January 1920 he became ill with tubercular meningitis. While watching the love of her life waste away, Jeanne, then eight months pregnant, sketched visions of her own suicide. Modigliani was said to have bound a gold cord from a package around their wrists shortly before he died, symbolizing the union they had never formalized. Upon his death on January 24 at the age of 35, Jeanne was of course devastated. Her parents and brother took her back to the family home, and it was there that she jumped out of a fifth floor window. She was killed instantly, along with her unborn child.

Modi and Jeanne

Moonlit, Blue Nude Oil Painting by k Madison Moore

"Moonlit"

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

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10 x 12 Oil painting on canvas

Emotions in Blue Series

Blue Nudes

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Commission projects welcome

A couple of years ago I did a short series of Blue Nudes.

It was very successful but was cut short with ideas for other series.

I have decided that in between my Art within Art Series I want

to start my Blue Nude Series up again and add to it. This

 is the first to add.

Have a great weekend.

M :)

Mother and Child - Inspired by Piacaso, by k Madison Moore

Mother and Child

Inspired by Pablo Picasso - Marie and Maya

©kMadisonMooreMkM2011

16 x 16 Oil Painting on Canvas

Art within Art Series

This painting took soooo long to complete!

I just kept adding more and more details, such fun!

It is so hard to keep all of Picasso's wives and lovers

straight. Here is my impression of Picasso's

Marie- Therese Walter  from one painting and their

daughter Maya from another. With all of my paintings

of his women I try to include a portrait of him.

He sure was some lover!

 Read about their relationship below.

I think the play on shapes and colors makes this

an interesting composition.

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Marie-Thérèse Walter (July 13, 1909 – October 20, 1977) was the French mistress and model of  Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935, and the mother of his daughter, Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he was 45 and still living with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova . It ended when Picasso moved on to his next mistress, artist Dora Marrr.

In 1935, Marie became pregnant. When Picasso's wife, Olga, was informed by a friend that her husband had a longtime mistress who was expecting a child, she immediately left Picasso with their son Paulo and moved to the South of France. Picasso and Olga never divorced, because Picasso wanted to avoid the even division of property dictated by French law; instead, they lived separately until her death in 1955.

Picasso and Marie's daughter, María de la Concepción, called "Maya", was born on 5 September 1935.

In 1940, Marie and Maya moved to Paris, Boulevard Henri IV no 1, since the house at Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre was occupied during World War II.

Picasso supported Marie and Maya financially, but he never married Marie.

On 20 October 1977, four years after Picasso's death, Marie-Thérèse committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage at Juan-les-Pins, South of France.

In 2004, Maya's son and Marie-Thérèse's grandson, Olivier Widmaier Picasso, published a biography of his famous grandfather titled Picasso: The Real Family Story.

Read more Here

Inspired by Claude Monet, Autumn with Monet by k Madison Moore

Autumn with Monet

©kMadisonMooreMkM2012

11x 14 Oil Painting on Canvas

Painting with The Masters

Art within Art Series

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Well, it's been awhile since I have posted a new painting.

So much to get caught up on and have enjoyed the beautiful

winter this year in the Pocono Mountains. Just enough light snow

to lay a beautiful white blanket over the landscape....then gone!

The temperatures have been amazing and the birds are already back 

on the lake loudly chattering early in the morning.  It was so beautiful

on Sunday that we had our coffee on the deck and made our seasonal

plans for more restoration on our chalet. It has been quite and chore and

ongoing project for many years changing a vacation home into a primary 

home. That's what we get for doing it all ourselves.

Autumn is my very favorite time of the year, especially here in the

mountains so I chose to do my impression of one of Monet's

landscape paintings.  I also wanted to see how it would work out

doing such a large focal point in the back ground of his impressionist 

style against my very detailed  style in the foreground. 

The carpet was one that I designed many years ago and thought it

would be great with my  Autumn with Monet.

Enjoy!

Claude Monet  (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a founder of French impressionistpainting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to Plein_air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting impression. 

In June 1861, Monet joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in     Algeria for a seven-year commitment, but, two years later, after he had  contracted typhoid fever, his aunt intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete an art course at an art school. It is possible that the Dutch painter John Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter. Disillusioned with the traditional art taught at art schools, in 1862 Monet became a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Pierre- Auguste Renoir, Fredric Bazille and Alfred Sisley. Together they shared new approaches to art, painting the effects of light  en plein airwith broken color and rapid brushstrokes, in what later came to be known as Impressionsism.

Read More About Monet

The Complete Works of Monet

Gustav Klimt Inspired Painting, Melodies of Klimt by k Madison Moore

Melodies of Klimt

 ©2010 kMadisonMooreMkM 

11 x 14 inches 

Oil on Canvas

To view My Lightbox click The Photo

Art within Art

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Who doesn't love Klimt?  I always loved Klimt's work. I have done several works of my impression of Klimt. Each time I say, Oh, it will be easier this time as I have done so many. Not so. It always amazes me how many symbols he used in his works, symbols within symbols within.... I wonder what he was thinking? Every artist has a reason for what they paint and why? Many are never explained so we have only to guess what was on the artists mind when they painted that painting. Of course his works were a lot larger than mine so it actually makes it easier to paint all of those symbols.

In Melodies of Klimt, the paintings on the wall are "The Kiss" and 

Fulfillment - The Embrace. They are miniature paintings within this painting 2.5 x 3.5 inches and much more difficult to paint.

These are my two favorite Klimt paintings. What better way to express how you feel about that someone special.....

With and Big Hug and a Big Kiss!

This Art within Art painting would make a great

gift for that special someone for the holidays.

The back wall, the flooring and the beautiful woman on

the sofa are all excerpt's from several of Klimt's paintings.

The Melodies from a beautiful Harp is what I hear when

I paint with Klimt so thought it was appropriate.

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Gustav Klimt

Many of his paintings from this period used gold leaf; the prominent use of gold can first be traced back to Pallas Athene (1898) and  Judith I(1901), although the works most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Andele Bloch-Baie(1907) and The Kiss (1907–1908). Klimt travelled little but trips to Venice and Ravenna, both famous for their beautiful mosaics, most likely inspired his gold technique and his Byzantine imagery

More About Klimt

The Life and Work of Gustav Klimt

The Klimt Collections

Painting Inspired by van Gogh and Gauguin, Three Artists by k Madison Moore

Three Artists

after van Gogh and Gauguin

©kMadisonMooreMkM2011

16 x 16 Oil Painting on Canvas

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Art within Art Series

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Who doesn't love van Gogh. There is always something more to learn about the masters.

Researching a concept for a new van Gogh Art within Art painting I came across a photo 

of a portrait that Gauguin painted of van Gogh.  The concept I was going for was to take van Gogh's painting of his bedroom and redecorate it. Then when I saw the portrait of van Gogh I thought it would be cool to have Gauguin's portrait of van Gogh painting,  inside of Vincent's bedroom...that makes two artists, then me painting them makes three - " Three Artists"

All of the paintings in the room are my take on van Goghs works as well as all of the vases of sunflowers in the room. He also did many paintings of his own shoes and boots so I thought his shoes on the floor were perfect. I've always liked working in this palette of colors, so warm!

This is the first 16 x 16 I have done and I am now working on a 16 x 20 and a

Peter Max commission of 30 x 24. A lot of work and a lot of fun!

If you have an idea for your own art within art painting Email Me with

your thoughts.

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Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were two of the greatest painters of the late 19th century. A brief but intense collaboration occurred between the two artists. They met in Paris in the autumn of 1887. Each man tried to learn from the other and admired the othe's work. Their collaboration was marked at first by mutual support and dialogue, but there was also competition and friction. The men differed sharply in their views on art: Gauguin favored working from memory and allowing abstract mental processes to shape his images, while Vincent held an unshakable reverence for the physical reality of the observable world of models and Nature. This is reflected in the very different techniques each artist used. But toward the end of 1888, a series of violent incidents around Christmas Eve brought a dramatic end to their collaboration. This is the story of their personal and professional relationship.

http://soundprint.org/radio/display_show/ID/199/name/Van+Gogh+and+Gauguin

This is a very interesting story that I found and wanted to share with you.

'Self-portrait with cut ear' by Vincent Van Gogh. Photograph: Roger-Viollet/Rex Features

Vincent van Gogh's fame may owe as much to a legendary act of self-harm, as it does to his self-portraits. But, 119 years after his death, the tortured post-Impressionist's bloody ear is at the centre of a new controversy, after two historians suggested that the painter did not hack off his own lobe but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.

According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.

But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.

In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, published in Germany, Hamburg-based academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans argue that the official version of events, based largely on Gauguin's accounts, contain inconsistencies and that both artists hinted that the truth was more complex.

Van Gogh and Gauguin's troubled friendship was legendary. In 1888, Van Gogh persuaded him to come to Arles in the south of France to live with him in the Yellow House he had set up as a "studio of the south". They spent the autumn painting together before things soured. Just before Christmas, they fell out. Van Gogh, seized by an attack of a metabolic disease became aggressive and was apparently crushed when Gauguin said he was leaving for good.

Kaufmann told the Guardian: "Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this 'madman'. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear." Kaufmann said it was not clear if it was an accident or an aimed hit.

While curators at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam stand by the theory of self-mutilation, Kaufmann argues that Van Gogh dropped hints in letters to his brother, Theo, once commenting : "Luckily Gauguin ... is not yet armed with machine guns and other dangerous war weapons."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/may/04/vincent-van-gogh-ear