Doctor Felix Rey, 1889, 64 x 53 cm, Pushkin Museum, Moscow

A young Doctor from the hospital in Arles. The portrait given to the doctor was thought so hideous by the doctor's mother she used it to block a hole in the chicken house.

GAUGUIN arrived in Arles on the 20th of October, 1888, exactly eight months after Vincent's arrival there. Gauguin was a most remarkable creature. Vincent had expected to find a suffering invalid, and instead he met the athletic giant he had seen in Paris, one mass of muscle and sinew. He was a mixture of a Parisian and an aborigine.. His exterior was cold, and yet he possessed a touchingly soft heart, and he was a unique artist. You could guess that even from his rapid grasp of the necessities of life. He would settle in an instant what presented a labyrinth of problems to Vincent. Gauguin was as practical as a mart could be and his decisions were arrived at instantaneously. You saved no end of time with such a man, a perfect treasure in the house, and it gave you a sense of security. He was a most remarkable artist and a most extraordinary friend. He was a trifle short with acquaintances, and laughed when Vincent stressed a point of Roulin's or spoke of the kindliness of all these folk. None the less everyone submitted to his will, and he seemed invariably to find the right word on the right occasion. His habits were the habits of a ruler. In fact his was a ruler's nature as every artist's should be; he was a Rubens. Undoubtedly he would have made a good statesman, he knew all about politics, and had his own opinion on Carnot, Clemenceau, Rochefort, Freycinet, Jules Ferry and on parliamentary republics. He was also a distinguished financier, a faculty he had presumably acquired in his earlier profession. His clear perception of every detail enabled him to triumph over circumstances with ease. Money, to him, was not a sinister power to be afraid of, for it obeyed his intelligence. You could make as much money as you wanted, only it was rather boring sometimes to bother about it. He had some justification for talking like that because Theo had just sold one

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