Van Gogh's Chairs

Vincent Van Gogh was highly ambivalent toward Paul Gauguin. Gauguin, five years older, and a more experienced artist, aggravated this ambivalence with a supercilious and condescending manner. Van Gogh called him “Master” and considered him the greater artist and intellect. However, Van Gogh argued with him intensely and would not accept Gauguin's art criticism; when they exchanged self-portraits, Van Gogh claimed his own as artistically equal. (1, 2) He was keenly aware that Gauguin was more successful at the local brothel (3, 4) and felt that his own impassioned painting drained his sex desire. (5) He had been twice rejected as a serious suitor and though he had lived with a fertile mistress, he had never sired any children. He knew that Gauguin had attained marriage and paternity. (6, 7) He was admiring, yet envious of Gauguin's superior virility and sexual success.

Psychoanalytic considerations of their relationship also indicate that Van Gogh was homoerotically attracted to Gauguin and transferred to him the desire to be reunited with the powerful father. (8, 9, 10) Having first met Gauquin in Paris, he had insistently urged Gauquin to join him in Aries, France, and invited him to live in his house. (11) He prepared the guest room like a boudoir for Gauquin's arrival in October, 1888. (12)

Two days before Christmas, 1888, Van Gogh spontaneously flung a glass in Gauquin's face in a cafe. The next evening, Christmas Eve, Van Gogh threatened Gauquin with a razor but then turned from physical combat. Instead, he