Portrait of Vincent van Gogh

I was shocked when I discovered this pastel. In February 1886, Vincent van Gogh left Antwerp for Paris, where his brother Theo lived. There he enrolled in Cormon's Atelier and became a friend of Toulouse-Lautrec's. For two years they painted and exhibited together, influencing each other's work, but in February 1888, on Lautrec's advice, Van Gogh moved to the south of France. They spent one more day together in July 1890, during Van Gogh's last visit to Paris. It was through Emile Bernard that Van Gogh struck up a closer friendship with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Louis Anquetin, whom he had also first met at Cormon's. Van Gogh had paid regular visits to Toulouse-Lautrec's studio in Rue Caulaincourt, Paris, just around the corner from the brothers Vincent and Theo's apartment, to show his work. Theo van Gogh was the first art dealer who regularly exhibited Toulouse-Lautrec's work. He leaves Cormon's studio in the autumn and rents a studio at no. 7 rue Tourlaque, on the corner of Rue Caulaincourt, which he keeps until 1897. This is where he meets Suzanne Valadon, who models for him. She is his mistress until she attempts suicide in 1888.