Portrait of Vincent van Gogh

Paris, 1886, in the teaching studio of the painter Fernand Cormon. Two of the students there stood out for being foreigners and older than the rest, a Dutchman of 33 and an Australian of 28, and they became friends. This is what the Australian, John Russell, made of Vincent van Gogh that year: a sober, almost photographic likeness, with looser Impressionist touches in the face and the hand. The paint has darkened since. A British painter, Archibald Hartrick, who met Van Gogh in Russell's studio, remembered the portrait of him in a striped blue suit, and along the bottom edge you can still pick out a few of those blue stripes. Examination has also found the words Vincent, in friendship painted in red above his head, under the surface. Van Gogh kept the picture, and years later wrote to his brother Theo to take good care of my portrait by Russell, which means a lot to me. It stayed in the family until 1962, when Vincent's nephew transferred it to the foundation that now owns it.