Portrait of Gauguin

In late October 1888 Paul Gauguin moved into the Yellow House in Arles, and for about two months the two men shared a studio there. Gauguin bought a length of jute in town for both of them to paint on, coarse and cheap. That cloth is why this portrait looks the way it does. The rough weave made brushwork difficult, so Van Gogh loaded the paint on thickly and set a red cap against green. He wrote to Theo that Gauguin was busy with a big still life of an orange pumpkin, apples and white linen on a yellow ground, and that is most likely the yellow shape and round form at the left edge here. Gauguin was gone before the year ended, and the jute stayed behind in the studio.