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All bandaged up: Painter Vincent Van Gogh never spoke about the cause of his missing ear, but it is claimed rival Paul Gauguin chopped it off outside a brothel

Self-portrait: Vincent Van Gogh never spoke about the cause of his missing ear, but it is claimed rival Paul Gauguin chopped it off outside a brothel

History has always painted Vincent Van Gogh as the artist who cut off his ear. But according to researchers, history might have got the wrong man.

They believe that, in fact, it was Paul Gauguin, an artist of almost equal renown, who cut off his friend's ear.

And the injury wasn't inflicted for the sake of art - rather it was part of a feud over a prostitute.

This theory is the masterpiece of German historians who have pored over the evidence for ten years.

They believe the story about the self-inflicted wound was invented by the sword-wielding Gauguin just to protect himself.

What is not disputed is that Van Gogh lost his ear when the two artists were living in the South of France in December 1888.

The Dutch painter, who travelled to France after teaching himself to draw, was attempting to set up an artists' retreat.

The two were known to fight about art. Van Gogh believed an artist should paint what he saw, while Gauguin painted according to his memory.

But on this occasion, they were fighting over a prostitute named Rachel, outside the brothel where she worked, the book says.

Paul Gauguin cut off Van Gogh's ear, says Hans Kaufmann of Hamburg University

Paul Gauguin, pictured, cut off Van Gogh's ear, says Hans Kaufmann of Hamburg University

Hans Kaufmann, of Hamburg University, said: 'To get rid of Van Gogh, who was begging him to stay [in the south of France] Gauguin waved his weapon in the direction of the victim while they were in front of the house of ill repute.

'The left ear fell. We cannot say if it was deliberate or an accident. In this situation, the protagonists vowed to keep silent. Then Gauguin disappeared, abandoning his friend.

'The next day, the police questioned Gauguin. That's when he made up the theory about self-mutilation.'

Van Gogh, in bed, did not give the police any information. But he was so upset by the abandonment, the book says, that he shot himself in the chest seven months later, and died, at 37. He may have been suffering from lead poisoning from the paints he used.

The academics say the accepted theory that Van Gogh cut off his own ear is based entirely on Gauguin's story. Van Gogh never talked about it.

'Subsequent behaviour and numerous allusions by the protagonists suggest they were hiding the truth,' Mr Kaufmann told French newspaper Le Figaro.

One of Van Gogh's most famous pieces, Starry Night, which inspired a song by Don McLean

If the truth had come out, Gauguin could have faced prison, whereas Van Gogh's retreat would never have been closed, the academics added.

Gauguin is said to have thrown his sword into the River Rhone out of remorse. Neither the sword nor the razor Van Gogh is said to have used to cut himself were found.

There have been many theories about how Van Gogh lost his ear. Some blame his descent into mental illness, others the breakdown of his friendship with Gauguin. But before now, they have never disputed that it was self-inflicted.

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Belfast - Young children who take music lessons show more advanced brain development and improved memory than those who do not, according to a study.

Researchers claim to have found the first evidence of musical training being linked to greater attention skills.

After a year, musically trained children performed better in memory tests correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, mathematics and IQ, reports the Canadian team.

The researchers said their results will be welcomed by teachers and parents who feel that music should be part of the pre-school and primary school curriculum.

The findings, which are backed by brain scans, are published in the journal Brain, by McMaster University's Institute for Music and the Mind in Hamilton, Ontario, and the Rotman Research Institute of the University of Toronto. - Belfast Telegraph

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''Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak. -- William Congreve --

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A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes -- ah, that is where the art resides.

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.

Somebody was describing to me the other day how a rather flat weekend evening round a campfire in the Magaliesberg became magical and memorable when an 18-year-old girl produced a guitar and began, with great skill, to play classical and popular music.

It is amazing how a talented musician can inspire and it reminded me of a school somewhere in South Africa - I wish I could remember where - where the principal insists every child learns to play a musical instrument. What a brilliant rule!

It is certainly one of my biggest regrets that I never learned to play anything.

There is that neat little story of the stranger in New York who asked somebody, "Can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" The reply was. "Practise man, practise!"

He hit on the truth - playing great music has more to do with time than talent.

Garner Thompson, who once ran The Star's London office, sent me, some time ago, a research paper from the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In it, Keele University psychologist Professor John Sloboda challenged the myth that some people are born musicians.

"It is a myth," he said, "that some people can sit down at the age of five and play beautifully. Musicians are made, not born. Even Mozart had to put in the hours."

There's almost a formula to it. Studies revealed that children who accumulated around 5 000 hours of practise before the age of 18 were usually good enough to get into music college. It would take at least 10 000 hours to reach world-class standard.

So let's say you began at four years of age - that's 60 hours a month. That's two hours a day to reach world class - or just one hour a day to become accomplished.

Sloboda said a study in Manchester showed that students who did well practised four times as much as those who were average. He said parents were often put off when their child did not do well early on.

"You don't have to be anything special to be a musician," he said. Just practice, man.

" People are like stained glass windows, they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within "

Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope said they see similarities between a newly released image of a distant expanding star and Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night.

Astronomers said the Hubble image released on Thursday "bears remarkable similarities to the van Gogh work, complete with never-before-seen spirals of dust swirling across trillions of kilometres of interstellar space".

Still, there are obvious differences. Van Gogh's 1889 painting of the sky over a sleeping village is predominantly blue, while the Hubble pictures of a supergiant star called V838 Monocerotis show a glowing red centre surrounded by wisps of grey interstellar dust.

The star gave off a flashbulb-like pulse of light two years ago and Hubble has been keeping track of it ever since, taking a series of images that show the expanding illumination of the dusty cloud around the star.

This latest image, made February 8 by the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, is the first to show swirls and eddies in the dust cloud, Hubble scientists said in a statement.

The red star is about 20 000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn) at the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the spaces between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.