How does Vincent van Gogh (Russell painting) elucidate its Reception and legacy?
Russell's portrait is unique among those of Van Gogh in that it is the only one by his contemporaries in which he makes direct eye contact with the viewer. Noting Van Gogh's sharp gaze, art critic Laura Cumming said Russell's portrait provides an "intimate and intense" encounter with the artist.In his 1939 autobiography, Hartrick called the portrait "an admirable likeness, more so than any of those by [Van Gogh] or Gauguin", and said it captured one of the Dutchman's quirks:
He had an extraordinary trick of pouring out sentences in a mixture of Dutch, English, and French, then glancing quickly at you over his shoulder and hissing through his teeth as he finished a series. In fact, when excited, he looked more than a little mad: and this look Russell had caught exactly.
Also in the 1930s, Hartrick created an ink and watercolour sketch of Van Gogh that he likely based on Russell's portrait. Today, specialists agree that Russell's portrait offers the most realistic likeness of Van Gogh.In 2012, Brigitte Banziger and David Hulme argued that, while paintings such as Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams (1890) or Frederick McCubbin's Down on His Luck (1889) are often called "Australia's most famous painting", Russell's Vincent van Gogh may be more deserving of the title due to its global reputation.
Shearing the Rams realist Laura Cumming Down on His Luck Frederick McCubbin Tom Roberts Vincent van Gogh Gauguin