All tagged Post-Impressionism

Episode #7: Was Walter Sickert Actually Jack the Ripper? PART TWO

Back in 2002, I was browsing a new releases table at my local bookstore when a particular book caught my eye. It seemed like yet another crime novel, one among hundreds. And so, I moved on, until I saw the subtitle of the book: Jack the Ripper: Case Closed. In it, the author released a bombshell statement: she had purportedly solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity, which had evaded researchers, historians, and police for over one hundred years.

Jack the Ripper, she said, was the English painter Walter Sickert.

If you are just tuning in to the ArtCurious Podcast for the first time, please stop and listen to Episode #6 to get the backstory on Jack the Ripper's crimes.

Episode #2: Was Van Gogh Accidentally Murdered?

Vincent Van Gogh's suicide is a huge part of the mythology surrounding him: as much as the famous tale of the cut-off ear is. This so-called "tortured genius," it is said, was so broken down by life and failure that he had no choice but to end his life. Right? But in 2011, two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors published a book titled Van Gogh: The Life that stunned the art world. Therein, Gregory White Smith and Stephen Naifeh state that the artist didn't actually commit suicide.

No, they say: he was actually murdered.