Van Gogh painting is a portrait of his brother?
Experts at the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands have claimed that one of the Dutch artist’s paintings, previously thou-ght to be a self-portrait, actually depicts his brother Theo.
“People have often thought it was funny that there’re no portraits of Theo, given that they were so close,” museum spokeswoman Linda Snoek was quoted by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph as saying.
She said the portrait was made in 1887 while the pair lived together in Paris — a lesser-known period of Vincent Van Gogh’s life, since the bulk of information about Vincent is derived from letters he sent to Theo.
The painting has long been in storage, but went on display at the museum in Amsterdam on Tuesday as part of an exhibition on new findings about the painter’s time spent in Antwerp and Paris in 1885-1888.
Though the brothers resembled each other physically, experts at the museum determined the painting represents Theo by a number of factors. Head researcher Louis van Tilborgh compared two 1887 paintings with similar-looking men in suits set against a blue background. “They are two small, detailed portraits that when you see them you think: they belong together,” he said. The portrait of Theo shows he had rounder ears than Vincent did. The other portrait shows Vincent with long, angular ears, consistent with other artists’ paintings of Vincent. That’s before he famously self-mutilated one of his ears in December 1888.
In addition, Theo’s goatee is more yellow-brown than Vincent’s dark red beard, and Theo has shaven cheeks, consistent with photographs of him from the same period, while Vincent painted himself sporting mutton-chop sideburns.
Post new comment