Vincent's Portraits: Paintings and Drawings by Van Gogh by Ralph Skea

Despite his posthumous fame as a painter of flowers, still-lifes, gardens, landscapes and city scenes, during his lifetime Vincent van Gogh believed that his portraits constituted his most important works. Although as an artist he was ‘touched by so many different things’, he was nevertheless committed to the art of portraiture – a quality that distinguished him from his contemporaries. Van Gogh was passionate in his avoidance of bland, photographic resemblances, in the hope of capturing the essential character of his models by means of expressive colour and brushwork.