Nah, it was climate change.
OKSooner said:
“Yes, the poor dude was irretrievably nuts. I was once told that he had a technique of sharpening the point of his fine point brushes by putting the tip of the brush in his mouth and sucking it to a point - using lead-based paint.
“Might have been true, or not.”
- - - -
Mr K (not the one on this forum) is a pro-level painter who knows a lot about art history and he says that yes, it was partially lead poisoning that made VG go crazy; also, many of the paints of that day had cyanide (for blue) and arsenic, and so on, in them. Painters in that day didn’t have a local art store, they had to grind and mix all their paints themselves. So even if you don’t stick your brush in your mouth, you’re being exposed to toxic heavy metals and so on.
Also he probably started out a little crazy to begin with.
They said he was insane for saying that someday his paintings would sell for several millions of dollars.