Template:POTD/2019-07-29

Picture of the day
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh is an oil-on-canvas portrait by Australian painter John Russell, dated 1886. It depicts Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, who became lifelong friends with Russell after meeting him at Fernand Cormon's atelier in Paris, which they both attended. Painted in a realist and academic manner, the portrait shows hints of the impressionist techniques with which they began experimenting in the latter half of the 1880s. It is the earliest of three portraits painted of Van Gogh by his contemporaries, the other two being Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887) and Paul Gauguin's The Painter of Sunflowers (1888). Van Gogh seems to have been particularly attached to Russell's portrait, which Russell gifted to him as a mark of their friendship. The painting passed from Van Gogh to his brother Theo and then to their family; it is now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.Painting credit: John Russell