John Peter Russel – 5 studies of Vincent Van Gogh
“Sydney-born John Russell was the only Australian artist to have been closely associated with some of the most original and influential artists in France at the end of the nineteenth century, namely Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse. Russell painted van Gogh in 1886, shortly after meeting him at Fernand Cormon’s studio school in Paris, which they both attended. The portrait passed from van Gogh to his family and is now in the collection of the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This sheet of studies appears to be from a year or so later however, possibly 1888, since van Gogh appears with a shaved head, or very closely cropped hair, as he painted himself in 1888. The year 1888 was significant for both artists – van Gogh left Paris for Arles in February and Russell married one of Rodin’s young models, Marianna Mattiocco and moved into a newly built house to his own design, on Belle-Île off the coast of Brittany. Though they didn’t see each other again, they did write”
