Focus on this artwork and explain the Description.
Van Gogh set out to complete a series of portraits of his family.  This portrait was based upon a black-and-white photograph of his mother. In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote, "I am doing a portrait of Mother for myself. I cannot stand the colorless photograph, and I am trying to do one in a harmony of color, as I see her in my memory."  Van Gogh's mother appears to be a respectable middle-class woman, attentive and proud, against a green background.
Theo