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This face is an epilepsy, its wordless tongue gives out the unearthly cry,
Its veins down the neck distend, its eyes roll till they show nothing but their whites,
Its teeth grit, the palms of the hands are cut by the turn'd-in nails,
The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground, while he speculates well.1
1
Epilepsy, as pathological experience and artistic realization, makes its appearance in both Walt Whitman's and Vincent van Gogh's night skies. The abnormal electrical brain activities of the epileptic body in the nineteenth century, of Van Gogh's temporal lobe epilepsy and of Whitman's brother Edward's "epileptic fits,"2 provide a previously unrecognized link between Whitman's and Van Gogh's works. I will argue here that the connection between these two artists goes beyond Van Gogh's often-recognized appreciation for the poet, then, and is also manifested in their experiences with epilepsy, as well as in their mutual regard for and identification with the work of the French painter Jean-François Millet. My purpose is to suggest ways we might expand on previous criticism that has probed the evocative influence of Whitman on Van Gogh.
Since 1984, scholars have shown interest in Whitman's impact on Van Gogh, who proclaimed his admiration for the American poet in an 1888 letter to his sister, Wilhelmien. Critics have often quoted this letter to corroborate the artistic tie between Whitman and the Dutch painter:
Have you read the American poems by Whitman? I am sure Theo has them, and I strongly advise you to read them, because to begin with they are really fine, and the English speak of them a good deal. He sees in the future, and even in the present, a world of healthy, carnal love, strong and frank- of friendship- of work- under the great starlit vault of heaven a something which after all one can only call God- and eternity in its place above this world. At first it makes you smile, it is all so candid and pure; but it sets you thinking for the same reason. The prayer of Christopher Columbus is particularly beautiful.3
Van Gogh, who was fluent in Dutch, English, and French, probably read the English version of Leaves of Grass. In "Echoes of Walt Whitman's 'Bare-Bosom'd Night' in...