ABSTRACT
Paul Gauguin’s references, for example, to the “fiery lava that inflames the soul” and the “furnace” that is the “seat of the painter’s mental struggles” recall Jean Valjean’s great inner turmoil as he conducts titanic battles with his conscience at climactic points in the novel. The Vision after the Sermon stands out as a profound break in Gauguin’s oeuvre. Gauguin occasionally employed religious metaphors in his letters to Vincent van Gogh, as we see in a missive from September: It is a long Calvary to be traversed, the life of an artist, and perhaps that’s what makes us live. Gauguin’s devotional language in this letter sounds, if not mocking, at least playful. On the eve of Gauguin’s arrival, Vincent had everything on the line and everything at stake. The prospects for the Studio of the South, the Yellow House and its decorations, the worthiness of his art, and his very character would be subject to Gauguin’s judgment.
