DID YOU KNOW…
Van Gogh's Yellow World: Was It a Side Effect of His Medication?
Some art historians and medical experts hypothesize that Vincent van Gogh's distinct use of vibrant yellows might have been influenced by a medication called digitalis, which he took for his suspected epilepsy.
Van Gogh suffered from various health issues, including seizures and mental illness. His doctor, Dr. Gachet, is known to have prescribed digitalis, an extract from the foxglove plant, for his heart condition and what was then believed to be epilepsy. A well-known side effect of digitalis toxicity is xanthopsia, a condition where vision is dominated by yellow or yellow-green hues. While not definitively proven, this theory offers a fascinating medical perspective on the intense, almost hallucinatory yellows prevalent in his later works, such as 'Sunflowers' and 'The Yellow House.'
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