This UK art gallery recently removed Vincent van Gogh souvenirs, here's why

A London art gallery recently removed some souvenirs relating to famous painter Vincent van Gogh from its gift shop. The Dutch master is considered to be one of the most influential and famous figures in Western Art history. Most of his famous works were made in the last two years of his life. They include The Starry Night (1889), The Sower (1888), Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889), The Siesta (1890), and Wheatfield with Crows (1890). Let’s take a look at  the gift items in question and what happened: The Courtauld Gallery in London had put on sale two items and then later removed them from its gift shop and online retail platform relating to the Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. The art gallery came under fire by some art commentators who claimed the products belittled mental health issues. As per a report by CNN, the art gallery, located in London’s Somerset House, had put on sale an eraser in the shape of an ear priced £6 in an apparent reference to the fact that the Dutch artist had cut off his left ear. The Courtauld Gallery also received severe criticism on social media for another item, a soap described as “ideal for the tortured artist who enjoys fluffy bubbles”, playing on the trope of a tortured artist. It is to be noted, the controversial souvenirs were being sold parallel to the “Van Gogh. Self-portraits” exhibition at the gallery which will run until May. The gallery was also selling a greeting card in the form of Van Gogh’s famous self-portrait showing his bandaged ear. Deeply offended by the items on sale, Charles Thomson, a co-founder of the Stuckist group of artists, told the Daily Mail: “Suicide is not a joke and mental illness is not a joke.” “This is shallow, nasty and insensitive… What next? Van Gogh’s suicide pistol?” he said in the same report. A rather commercially unsuccessful painter in his lifetime, Van Gogh was known to be a heavy drinker and suffered mental health issues throughout his life. It is believed he suffered either bipolar disorder or temporal lobe epilepsy, a nervous system disorder. After a row with a fellow artist, Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh severed his left ear in 1888. In the year 1889, he drew Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Later,  he spent more than a year at the Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Remy, and in 1890, aged only 37, shot himself in the chest. He died two days later.