Was Vincent van Gogh's art really influenced by digoxin toxicity altering his color perception?

Answer 1

It is possible that the colors in Vincent van Gogh's paintings were influenced by digoxin toxicity. Van Gogh was a symptomatic epileptic who suffered greatly from severe seizures. In the late nineteenth century, it was common for physicians to prescribe a plant called “foxglove”, or “digitalis,” as a treatment to reduce seizures in epileptic patients. Since Van Gogh was known to have epilepsy and episodes of mania, it has been suggested that he may have been prescribed “foxglove” as part of his treatment. However, this form of treatment may have caused unintended side effects. Taking large quantities of “foxglove”, even if prescribed by a licensed physician, can sometimes lead the sufferer to see the world with a yellow tint- a condition known as “xanthopsia”. This side-effect might have influenced Van Gogh’s view of the color yellow and the hues he created with his yellow paints, making his paintings and subjects appear brighter and more vivid, often with halo-like rings around them. 

Van Gogh’s masterpieces, “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers,” seem to be his own artistic evidence of this exact side effect. The yellows used in “The Sunflowers” are often described by art historians and observers as appearing more brilliant than the yellows usually created by the paints available to artists at the time. Similarly, the halos around the stars in “Starry Night” resemble the halo effect one can see around bright objects when experiencing the side effect known as “digitalis toxicity”. It is more than likely that these paintings are evidence of Van Gogh’s symptomatic brain under the influence of the "foxglove" plant.