Vincent van Gogh (Russell painting) Vincent van Gogh" (1887) and Paul Gauguin's "The Painter of Sunflowers" (1888). Van Gogh seems to have been particularly attached to Russell's portrait, which the Australian gifted to him as a mark of their friendship. The painting passed from Van Gogh to his brother Theo, then to their family, and is now in the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Russell was born into a wealthy engineering family in 1858 in Sydney, New South Wales. The family business, P.N. Russell & Co, was responsible for much of the city's 19th-century ironwork. Although Russell had a strong interest
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh meanness of Dutch peasant life. This struggle culminated with his painting "The Potato Eaters". His friend and mentor Van Rappard disliked the painting. Undeterred, van Gogh moved south, via Antwerp and Paris. His letters from Arles describe his utopian dream of establishing a community of artists who lived together, worked together, and helped each other. In this project he was joined by Paul Gauguin in late 1888. Letter 716 is a letter sent jointly by Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin to Émile Bernard around 1 November 1888 shortly after Gauguin had joined van Gogh in Arles. Late that summer,