Art of the Day: Van Gogh, Courtesan (after Eisen), October-November 1887. Oil on canvas, 100.7 x 60.7 cm. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
The image of a sumptuously dressed courtesan by Japanese artist Keisai Eisen caught Vincent van Gogh's attention when it appeared on the cover of "Paris Illustré" in May 1886. After enlarging and transferring the figure to canvas using a grid, Van Gogh added a richly-colored kimono, a vivid yellow background and an elaborate border.
Art of the Day: Van Gogh, The Wheat Field behind St. Paul's Hospital, St. Rémy, November-December 1889. Oil on canvas, 24.13 × 33.66 cm. VMFA Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
Art of the Day: Van Gogh, The Stone Bench in the Asylum at Saint-Remy, 1889. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 48.5 cm. MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo.
Art of the Day: Van Gogh, Self-Portrait, November-December 1888. Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm. Private collection.
Vincent van Gogh dedicated this portrait to Charles Laval, a fellow artist and mutual friend of Paul Gauguin. Laval, in exchange, sent Vincent a remarkable self-portrait set against an open window, which Vincent described in a letter to his brother Theo as "very self-assured, very distinguished."
Art of the Day: Van Gogh, Tarascon Stagecoach, 1888. Oil on canvas, 71.4 x 92.5 cm. The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Art of the Day: Van Gogh, Still Life with Bible, October 1885. Oil canvas, 65.7 x 78.5 cm. Van Gogh Musuem, Amsterdam.
The Bible in this painting belonged to Vincent van Gogh's father, Dorus, who had been a pastor in the Dutch Reformed church before his death in March 1885. Vincent had a strained relationship with his father, and this painting is widely seen as the artist's attempt to comes to terms with his father's legacy. Next to the massive Bible, Vincent placed a small copy of Emile Zola's "La joie de vivre," a novel representing his own more modern worldview.