Portrait of Gauguin

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Arles, December 1888

oil on jute on panel, 38.2 cm x 33.8 cm

Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Van Gogh painted his friend, the artist Paul Gauguin, in their studio in the Yellow House. He made this small portrait on jute – an unusual but inexpensive material. Gauguin had bought some in Arles for the two of them to use. The coarse structure of the cloth made painting difficult, so Van Gogh applied the paint thickly and opted for a strong red-green contrast.

He wrote to his brother Theo that Gauguin was working on 'a big still life of an orange pumpkin and some apples and white linen on a yellow background and foreground'. Gauguin was probably working on that still life while Van Gogh painted this portrait: you can see the yellow background and spherical form on the left.

F-number
F0546
Object number
s0257V1962
Dimensions
38.2 cm x 33.8 cm, 55.2 cm x 51 cm
Provenance
With his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, after December 1888; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
artist
Vincent van Gogh
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

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