Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh is mostly known for his landscapes, still-lifes, and self-portraits, but he also created many portraits during his life. Today we present one of them—Portrait of Père Tanguy, which is one of his three paintings of Julien Tanguy. Tanguy was a paint grinder who sold art supplies and was also an art dealer, one of the first to offer Van Gogh's paintings for sale. His jovial demeanor and enthusiasm for artistry and artists made his shop one of the most favored art supply shops in Paris, and he was nicknamed Père ("Father"). Tanguy was a smart man; he took paintings as payment for paints, which Émile Bernard said made entering his shop in Montmartre, full of Impressionist paintings, like "visiting a museum."
In 1886 Van Gogh left the Netherlands for Paris. Although Van Gogh had been influenced by great masters in the Netherlands, coming to Paris meant that he was exposed to Impressionists, Symbolists, Pointillists, and Japanese art. In today's work, we see how the brightly colored painting and confident subject represent a shift in Vincent's attitude. Van Gogh called his use of bright colors "gymnastics" that through experimentation created great depth, harmony, and balance in his work. The painting contains a background of Van Gogh's Japanese prints that were sold at Tanguy's shop. On top of Tanguy's hat is Mount Fuji; Kabuki actors share the wall with cherry trees in bloom.
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P.S. Van Gogh was known for copying not only other Japanese printing masters, but his fellow European painters. Check out Van Gogh's copies!