ABSTRACT
Vincent van Gogh’s ear cutting casts a long shadow over every aspect of his sojourn with Paul Gauguin. It endows casual remarks, subtle shifts in painterly technique, and even changes in the weather with teleological significance. Gauguin’s Les Alyscamps achieves a more fully Post-Impressionist effect. It possesses a mysterious character and a timelessness lacking in Vincent’s picture. Gauguin suppresses recognizable details. Gauguin’s drawing of Madame Ginoux served as a preliminary study for her appearance in his painting The Night Cafe. Memory of a Garden in Etten most closely resembles Gauguin’s own depiction of women strolling in a park, Women of Arles. Among Vincent’s four paintings from memory the most thoroughly worked out are Memory of a Garden at Etten and The Dance Hall. Having exhausted his desire to work from memory, Vincent eagerly turned to the project of making portraits of the entire Roulin family.
