• Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd · Jan 2009

    Biography Historical Article

    [The cause of death of Theo van Gogh (1857-1891)].

    • Piet H A Voskuil.
    • p.voskuil@wxs.nl
    • Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2009 Jan 1; 153: B362.

    AbstractIn 1992 Theo van Gogh's medical files from the Willem Arntsz Huis, a psychiatric centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands, were made available. A study based on two copies of these files was published in this journal earlier. While reviewing the archives, the author noticed a third copy which included an extra (last) page that was missing in the other two copies. This page provided medical information regarding Theo van Gogh's final days. Based on this new information the present article corrects some misconceptions about his death. For example, it is commonly thought that Theo had uraemia or, like his brother Vincent the painter (1853-1890), committed suicide. This new information demonstrates that this is not the case. The extra page, dated 26 January 1891, shows that on the two days before he died Theo suffered two epileptic fits, most probably symptomatic to his dementia paralytica. After the second fit he did not regain consciousness. Heartbeat and respiration gradually weakened and he passed away on January 25th at eleven thirty P.M. Other symptoms mentioned were vomiting, fever and early signs of decubitus. The family did not give permission for a post-mortem.

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