Portrait of a Prostitute

Van Gogh reached Antwerp at the end of November 1885 with a plan to make money. He had heard that portraits of women sold well, and a busy port city was full of people who might sit for one. Settled sitters would not pose for an unknown painter working out of a rented room, so his models came from the cafés near the docks, women who were often obliged to earn extra as prostitutes. He painted this head in a single sitting, in blues set against her brown hair and eyes, and for the shine on the earring he loaded on a thick blob of white and pink paint. That blob later broke off the canvas. Three months after arriving he gave up on the portrait trade and left for Paris.