section_path: Life/Artistic breakthrough/Gauguin's visit (1888)
section_name: Gauguin's visit (1888)
paragraph_text: Gauguin's visit (1888)
  
  When Gauguin agreed to visit Arles in 1888, van Gogh hoped for friendship and to realize his idea of an artists' collective. Van Gogh prepared for Gauguin's arrival by painting four versions of Sunflowers in one week. "In the hope of living in a studio of our own with Gauguin," he wrote in a letter to Theo, "I'd like to do a decoration for the studio. Nothing but large Sunflowers."
  
  When Boch visited again, van Gogh painted a portrait of him, as well as the study The Poet Against a Starry Sky.
  
  In preparation for Gauguin's visit, van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin, whose portrait he painted. On 17 September, he spent his first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House. When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, van Gogh started to work on the Décoration for the Yellow House, probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook. He completed two chair paintings: Van Gogh's Chair and Gauguin's Chair.
  
  After much pleading from van Gogh, Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October and, in November, the two painted together. Gauguin depicted van Gogh in his The Painter of Sunflowers; van Gogh painted pictures from memory, following Gauguin's suggestion. Among these "imaginative" paintings is Memory of the Garden at Etten. Their first joint outdoor venture was at the Alyscamps, when they produced the pendants Les Alyscamps. The single painting Gauguin completed during his visit was his portrait of van Gogh.
  
  Van Gogh and Gauguin visited Montpellier in December 1888, where they saw works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Musée Fabre. Their relationship began to deteriorate; van Gogh admired Gauguin and wanted to be treated as his equal, but Gauguin was arrogant and domineering, which frustrated van Gogh. They often quarreled; van Gogh increasingly feared that Gauguin was going to desert him, and the situation, which van Gogh described as one of "excessive tension", rapidly headed towards crisis point.