Portrait of Doctor Felix Rey

Dr Félix Rey was twenty-three years old when he sutured the wound Van Gogh inflicted on himself on December 23rd, 1888, and Van Gogh's subsequent gratitude was expressed in part through this portrait painted in January 1889. Rey was an intern at the Arles hospital — young, watchful, intelligent — and Van Gogh captured him with particular psychological penetration, finding in the doctor's dark eyes something of the attentive care that he had experienced from him during the worst crisis of his life. The portrait's subsequent fate has become art-historical legend: Rey, apparently embarrassed by the picture's vivid colour and unconventional style, used it to repair a hole in his chicken coop, where it was discovered years later and eventually restored and donated to the Pushkin Museum. The story encapsulates the gulf between Van Gogh's vision and the comprehension of those around him in Arles, even those who cared for him with genuine kindness.

The uniform of dark blue and the warm flesh tones of the face are set against a green and coral-pink wallpaper background of Van Gogh's characteristic decorative patterning. Brushwork is assured and fluid in the face, with more mechanical parallel hatching in the background. The complementary colour scheme of orange-red beard against green is deliberate.