# Did Van Gogh Have Absinthe -Induced hallucinations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396 "2008-01-13T19:39:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/1 "2008-01-13T19:39:24Z")
The Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh suffered from mental illness throughout his life. Some art historians have speculated that his later paintings 9which show strong bias towars oranges, reds, and yellow tints) is proof of his brain’s distortion of normal vision. To me, this makes no sense-his palette colors would have looked the same to him, so his pictures ouls appear (to us) to have normal coloration. As for absinthe being a contributing factor-has this been disproven? Or was he just really messed up? ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/2 "2008-01-13T19:58:46Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] The Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh suffered from mental illness throughout his life. Some art historians have speculated that his later paintings 9which show strong bias towars oranges, reds, and yellow tints) is proof of his brain’s distortion of normal vision. To me, this makes no sense-his palette colors would have looked the same to him, so his pictures ouls appear (to us) to have normal coloration. As for absinthe being a contributing factor-has this been disproven? Or was he just really messed up? [/QUOTE] I think he was kind of messed up. Van Gogh seemed to be a depressed person to me. But thats only an opinion. I’ve had absinthe and it didn’t seem “all that” to me. But I don’t think it has the same ingredients that it had in his day. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/3 "2008-01-13T20:01:01Z")
Artists see all kinds of things that other people don’t see. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/4 "2008-01-13T20:49:18Z")
I’ve heard its’ debatable whether anyone had absinthe induced hallucinations. Apparently people trying to reconstruct what used to be in absinthe have found that there aren’t high enough concentrations of any psychoactive chemicals (other then alcohol, obviously) to have had any effect on anyone. Wiki’s absinthe article says the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/5 "2008-01-14T01:34:54Z")
I’ve always heard that the reds and yellows are from digitalis (foxglove) which he took for a heart condition. I don’t know if this is an urban legend or not. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/6 "2008-01-14T01:46:58Z")
There is an American chemist making absinthe in France using old recipes and an vintage distillery (I don’t think I’m allowed to link to his website). Anyway, the absinthe he produces does not cause hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/7 "2008-01-14T13:39:18Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] I’ve always heard that the reds and yellows are from digitalis (foxglove) which he took for a heart condition. I don’t know if this is an urban legend or not. [/QUOTE] Me too, but never for what condition. A quick [Google](http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=gYj&q=Van+Gogh+digitalis+&btnG=Search) reveals this, > [@](#): > > Van Gogh’s visual disorder: xanthopsia? glaucoma? > > ``` > Given the multiplictiy of diagnoses, it is not clear if van Gogh suffered from a visual disorder and if so, its origins. Van Gogh was treated by the well-known doctor, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a physician for one of the France’s railroad companies. Gachet may well have treated van Gogh for mania and/or epilepsy with digitalis. In the 19th century digitalis, extracted from the purple foxglove plant, was one of the main treatments for these disorders. It was used as a sedative, an anticonvulsant, and an anti-manic agent. Interestingly, on the only two occasions that van Gogh painted Doctor Gachet he was holding a foxglove plant. ... > > ``` from [http://www.psych.ucalgary.ca/pace/va-lab/AVDE-Website/VanGogh.html](http://www.psych.ucalgary.ca/pace/va-lab/AVDE-Website/VanGogh.html) But the bulk of the sites come down firmly, that while possible the only evidence is the painting of Gachet, we just don’t know. This was interesting, > [@](#): > > … Van Gogh’s previous doctors had thought that he had epilepsy, but Gachet suggested that he was suffering from the effects of too much southern sun and of turpentine poisoning. … > … Did Van Gogh take the foxglove? Is that why he became obsessed with the colour yellow? Is that why he painted those startling paintings of starry nights, with their whorls of colour? Certainly the fact that he chose to portray Gachet with the foxglove suggests that the doctor may have given it to him. **But if intoxication with the foxglove caused him to paint the way he did, his paintings and letters suggest that his use of it would have had to have dated from before the time of his meeting with Gachet, and there is no evidence whatsoever of that.** …[RIGHT][CITE](http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg12617236.000-forum-coloured-vision--the-pharmacological-history-of-vangogh-.html)[/RIGHT] Maybe he just really loved yellow? CMC +fnord! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/8 "2008-01-14T16:56:09Z")
This artist showed people as tall and thin-some art historians say because “El Greco” suffered from severe astygmatism. But-wouldn’t his pictures look elogated (hence normal to us) to him? ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/9 "2008-01-14T17:20:57Z")
[The master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/011026.html) ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-van-gogh-have-absinthe-induced-hallucinations/433396/10 "2008-01-14T18:11:17Z")
I had somebody once tell me that Van Gogh soaked his pillow with terpentine before he slept. This information is highly suspect. The girl that told me this was an artist that had her own problems.