How you suffered for your sanity

I've been meaning to visit the Courtauld Gallery ever since it reopened after refurbishment and a rehang of the collection. With time on my hands today, I walked the short distance from the Royal Courts of Justice to Somerset House where the Gallery is located. It is a very impressive collection of impressionist, post-impressionist and renaissance art. I've posted a couple of very well known paintings in the collection for today's blip. First we have Van Gogh's Self Portrait painted in January 1889, a week after he had left hospital having cut off most of his left ear following a heated argument with his friend and fellow painter, Paul Gauguin. He painted himself in a mirror which is why it is his right ear that appears bandaged. The title of today's entry is a line from the Don McLean song   'Vincent'. Van Gogh died the following year - 135 years ago a week from today - from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest. 

The extra is Manet's painting of a Bar at the Paris music hall, the Folies-Bergere, dating from 1882. Interestingly one of the drinks for sale at the bar is a British beer from the Bass brewery as denoted by the red triangle label. The legs and green boots of a trapeze artist can be seen in the top left quarter of the painting.