Portrait of Vincent van Gogh
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 - 1901), 1887
pastel on paper, 54.2 cm x 46 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
According to the artist Paul Signac, Vincent van Gogh rounded off every day in the bar, where the ‘absinthes and brandies would follow each other in quick succession’. Van Gogh himself later [admitted(http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let694/letter.html) that he was ‘almost an alcoholic’ by the time he left for Arles. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had good reason, therefore, for sketching his friend at a table with a glass of absinthe.
The French painter met Van Gogh, who was eleven years older than him, at Fernand Cormon’s studio, where they were both taking lessons. They probably worked together intensively for a while, as the style and technique of their paintings in this period look very similar.
Toulouse-Lautrec sprang to his friend’s defence at the exhibition of ‘Les Vingt’ in Brussels in early 1890. Van Gogh had submitted six paintings, which caused a furore during the opening. Toulouse-Lautrec was so angry about some of the negative comments he heard about Vincent’s work that he almost got into a fight with another artist. The two painters might saw each other one last time a few months later, when Van Gogh visited his brother Theo in Paris from Auvers-sur-Oise. Little else is known about their friendship.
- Object number
- d0693V1962
- Dimensions
- 54.2 cm x 46 cm, 53 cm x 45.6 cm, 64 cm x 56 cm
- Provenance
- Acquired from the artist, Paris by Vincent or Theo van Gogh, Paris; Theo van Gogh, Paris; 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, to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; 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; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973, and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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