Portrait de Madame Trabuc

Painted at Saint-Rémy in September 1889, this portrait depicts Jeanne Trabuc, wife of the head orderly at the asylum where Van Gogh was confined. He painted her alongside a portrait of her husband, Charles Trabuc, the pair forming a double portrait of the couple who watched over the patients. Van Gogh wrote of finding her face 'ravaged by smallpox' but possessing a real dignity. The fact that Van Gogh could form enough of a rapport with asylum staff to paint their portraits reveals his social warmth even during his most difficult period. This version is held at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

The portrait is painted with the Saint-Rémy period's characteristic strong contour lines and bold, simplified colour masses. The sitter's black dress is set against a pale green-blue background, the dark form creating a strong silhouette. Her face is rendered with careful, observational strokes — more conventionally portraitistic than Van Gogh's most expressionist works from this period.