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# This Van Gogh Museum Cafe Ad Is Hilarious
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/this-van-gogh-museum-cafe-ad-is-hilarious/
- Published: 2013-01-17T16:54:15.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:18:35.000Z
- Description: From the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam comes this fantastic advertisement for their cafe. Do you get the joke? The quietly brilliant ad pictures a single coffee cup on a saucer, perfectly pristine except for the fact that its handle has been broken off.
- Author: Kyle Chayka
- Tags: Opinion, Advertising, Van Gogh Museum, Vincent van Gogh, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

![Ad for the Van Gogh Museum's cafe (Image via Van Gogh Museum)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/01/vangogh_fullad.jpg)

Ad for the Van Gogh Museum’s cafe (Image via Van Gogh Museum)

From the [Van Gogh Museum](http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=194&lang=en&ref=hyperallergic.com) in Amsterdam comes this fantastic advertisement for their cafe. Do you get the joke? The quietly brilliant ad pictures a single coffee cup on a saucer, perfectly pristine except for the fact that its handle has been broken off. A mistake? To understand, it might help to take a look at one of van Gogh’s self portraits, namely, the 1889 “Self Portrait With Bandaged Ear.”

![Vincent van Gogh, "Self Portrait With Bandaged Ear" (1889) (Image via wikipedia.org)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/01/vangoghselfportrait.jpg)

Vincent van Gogh, “Self Portrait With Bandaged Ear” (1889) (Image via wikipedia.org)

In late 1888, van Gogh had sunk into a [period of depression](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent%5Fvan%5FGogh?ref=hyperallergic.com). He fought with his fellow painter Gauguin and threatened the then more popular artist with a razor blade, fleeing the scene in a panic and ending up at the brothel that formed his most consistent human contact. Later, he sliced off his left ear and presented it wrapped in newspaper to a prostitute named Rachel. Gauguin found him and delivered him to the hospital, where he started the downward slide in mental health that ended his career. Though this is certainly [not the only theory about what happened to Van Gogh’s ear](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/5274073/Van-Goghs-ear-was-cut-off-by-friend-Gauguin-with-a-sword.html?ref=hyperallergic.com).

Hence the bandage over van Gogh’s ear in the self portrait, and the visual pun of the museum’s cafe advertisement. Hopefully their coffee doesn’t have the same impact that [absinthe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe?ref=hyperallergic.com) did on the Impressionists.

*h/t* [*@darraghdoyle*](https://twitter.com/darraghdoyle/status/291680982715756544/photo/1?ref=hyperallergic.com)