Van Gogh left Paris for Arles in February 1888, with the idea of starting an artist’s colony in the south of France. By May that year he had rented the Yellow House, a building not far from the town centre, he set about furnishing and decorating the rooms with his paintings. In October Gauguin arrived in Arles, the only painter to respond to Van Gogh’s requests, albeit because Theo Van Gogh, Vincent’s brother, offered Gauguin a financial incentive. Van Gogh now felt that his dream of a “Studio of the South” would now come true. This however was not to be Gauguin had returned to Paris by the end of December.
Initially the two painters got on fine, they went on painting trips together, worked in the studio together and even went to visit the Art Museum in Montpellier. After a couple of weeks differences in character and their approaches to painting began to cause arguments and the atmosphere became tense and often ended in violent quarrels.
Their relationship came to an end just before Christmas when a violent argument on the night of December 23rd led to Van Gogh’s self mutilating breakdown. By Boxing Day Gauguin was back in Paris and Van Gogh was in the local hospital, the two painters never saw each other again.
Although their collaboration was short lived, the nine weeks they spent together produced a body of work that is now considered to be one of the most intense and astonishing creative outpourings in the history of art. Their paintings, which explored and included ideas such as reality, imagination, abstraction, sexuality, use of colour and form and personal expression influenced many practitioners of art throughout the 20th century. They are both now recognised as extremely important in the evolution of modern art.
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