Vincent and Gauguin

Artists Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin spent time together and painted.

Would you have liked to be a fly on the wall in the studio?


Portrait of Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers
Paul Gauguin
December 1888

The portrait honors the bond of friendship between the two artists, although they never saw each other again after Gauguin's departure that winter. It is noted that their discussions about art would become debates, and then hostile arguments. By the end of the winter their friendship had become frayed.

Vincent portrayed his life with Gauguin in Arles in these paintings of chairs:


Vincent's Chair with his Pipe
Vincent Van Gogh
December 1888


Gauguin's Chair
Vincent Van Gogh
November 1888

The two paintings of Vincent's and Paul Gauguin's chairs are among the most often analyzed of Van Gogh's works. These companion paintings have attracted much attention because of the symbolic interpretations underlying the subject matter. Van Gogh himself discussed these works in a number of his letters, but didn't include any detailed interpretations of the underlying meaning of the paintings.