Focus on this artwork and explain the Background.
Russell was born into a wealthy engineering family in 1858 in Sydney, New South Wales. The family business, P.N. Russell & Co, was responsible for much of the city's 19th-century ironwork. Although Russell had a strong interest in art from an early age, he met his parents' expectations and trained in the 1870s to become an engineer. His father’s death in December 1879 left him with a sizeable inheritance and gave him the freedom to travel and become an artist. He went to London in 1881 and enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, attending classes sporadically over several months, then returned to Sydney in 1882 before touring Europe the following year with fellow Australian artist Tom Roberts. In 1885, Russell moved to Paris to study under Fernand Cormon, whose small, all-French studio school was considered an unusual choice for international students in Paris, the majority of whom wanted to attend the elite Académie Julian. According to Russell expert Sarah Turnbull, his decision to study at Cormon's is "revealing – it shows guts and cultural openness."During his first year at Cormon's, Russell studied alongside the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Émile Bernard. In 1886, they were joined by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, who quickly developed a reputation at the school for his intense and eccentric nature. While some of the French students shunned Van Gogh, Russell "took him under his wing" and built a rapport with the Dutchman. Their shared status as non-French outsiders at the school helped strengthen their bond, and they were also older than the average student, Van Gogh being 33 years old in 1886 and Russell 28. As such, they shared an allegiance to an older generation of artists, especially the French painter of peasant farmers, Jean-François Millet, and had a common belief in "the individual and his powers of expression, and an instinctive detachment from the life of the metropolis". Van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo, wrote admirably of Russell as "a countryman at heart" with "much gravity and strength" and "a certain sweetness of far-off fields". Regarded by Parisians as an archetypal "wild Australian", Russell had an "independence of spirit" that, Joanna Mendelssohn speculates, helped shape his and Van Gogh's friendship. In November 1886, Van Gogh agreed to sit for a portrait by Russell.
Émile Bernard Fernand Cormon Theo Jean-François Millet Slade School of Fine Art Académie Julian Sydney Tom Roberts Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec London Paris Vincent van Gogh New South Wales