Portrait of a One-Eyed Man
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, autumn 1889
oil on canvas,
56.5 cm x 36.6 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This man's one eye has a remarkably intense blue-green colour. Van Gogh used that same colour in the background of the painting. The other eyelid is shut. The man may have been blind in one eye or had an eye disease. He was one of the patients in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy (FR) where Van Gogh stayed for a year. Although Van Gogh was sometimes frightened of the other patients, he did make portraits of two of them. The end of the cigarette is burning brightly, as if the man has just taken a puff.