Portrait of an Old Man

By December 1885 Vincent van Gogh had moved to Antwerp, short of the two things he needed most: models, and the money to pay them. Working people would sit for a fee, and he chased them constantly. 'I have an appointment for tomorrow with a splendid old man,' he wrote to his brother Theo, then added, unsure the man would turn up, 'will he come?' This is the sitter he found, painted over two days in the dark, earthy browns of his Dutch years, only weeks before he left for Paris and his palette lightened for good. Van Gogh thought the man's full grey beard gave him the look of the writer Victor Hugo. Look closely at the face. It is built up from rough strokes, each one dragged into place, none of them smoothed away.