On a cold winter night in 1888, Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear with a razor blade. He wrapped it in a cloth and brought it to a brothel. He gave the bloody ear as a token of love to a prostitute named Rachel, who fainted when she saw it. Van Gogh returned home and almost bled to death. This is the most common story of Van Gogh’s famous fit of madness, but there are competing theories.