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Primary sourcePaintingDecember 1888

Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers

Paul Gauguin · December 1888

A portrait of Vincent van Gogh painted by Paul Gauguin in Arles in 1888, during their tense shared stay there.

Depicts Van Gogh painting, made by Gauguin during their tense shared time in Arles shortly before Van Gogh's ear injury.

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Painting of a man with reddish-brown hair and beard, seated at right in a brown-yellow jacket, extending his arm with a brush toward a canvas. At left, a large vase holds sunflowers, with a yellow field and green hills behind. Signed P. Gauguin 88 at lower right.
Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers, December 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

About this source

What it is

This portrait was painted by Paul Gauguin in December 1888 in Arles, showing Vincent van Gogh seated at an easel, apparently painting his sunflower series. It is held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Why it matters

Gauguin lived with Van Gogh in Arles as part of an attempted artists' colony, but the two argued often over art and temperament. The painting was finished around the time of a serious falling-out, shortly before Van Gogh injured his own ear. Van Gogh's reaction, that it was him but 'gone mad,' shows how Gauguin's distorted, memory-based image captured tension between the two artists rather than a simple likeness.

Look closer

  • What in the painted figure's pose or face might have made Van Gogh feel it showed him as 'mad'?
  • Why might Gauguin have painted this from memory rather than from life?
  • What does the painting suggest about the relationship between the two artists?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Vincent van Gogh on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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