1. Emile Bernard, Self-portrait with portrait of Gauguin, 1888 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 2261

; and Paul Gauguin, Self-portrait with portrait of Bernard, ‘Les misérables’, 1888 (W309/W239) (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 2262

. Van Gogh received the portraits soon afterwards; see letter 696.

2. Lead white has a tendency to darken to black, particularly when it is left unvarnished in a film of oil. See Ashok Roy, Artists’ pigments: a handbook of their history and characteristics. Washington 1993, vol. 2, p. 72, and for nineteenth-century sources, Carlyle 2001, p. 260.

3. Gauguin titled his painting ‘les misérables’ and dedicated it ‘to my friend Vincent’ (à l’ami Vincent). He also described it in a letter to Schuffenecker of 8 October 1888. See Correspondance Gauguin 1984, pp. 248-249.

At the beginning of Victor Hugo’s Les misérables the central character, Jean Valjean, has just been released after serving a term of hard labour. Because of his shabby appearance he is viewed with suspicion and regarded as dangerous. This rejection and exclusion reminds him of the injustice of his prison term and brings his hate to the surface. He turns against the church. Through contact with the bishop, who stands by him in his moral reform, his goodness gradually returns. The desire for vengeance gives way to compassion. Valjean has now become a father to everyone and assumes the care of Cosette, the little daughter of a prostitute. Cf. also letter 333, n. 12.

Merlhès believes that Gauguin derived the inspiration for his self-portrait from Hugo’s descriptions of Jean Valjean’s appearance. The contrast of warm and cool colours in the painting reflects the ‘dualism of light and shade, of good and evil’ (dualisme de l’ombre et de la lumière, du bien et du mal) which defines Jean Valjean’s character and plays an important part in Hugo’s oeuvre. See Merlhès 1989, p. 103.

4. On 29 April 1888 the painters Félix Dupuis and Eugène Habert fought a duel with pistols in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, and Dupuis was killed. The incident, which sparked off a national debate about the legality of duelling, received wide coverage in the press. Habert was acquitted by the court in June. See Gauguin lettres 1983, p. 247 (n. 3), and Correspondance Gauguin 1984, pp. 501-502.

5. It is quite conceivable that Gauguin is referring here to the discussions about Christ between Van Gogh and Bernard. In letter 632, which Bernard had shown to Gauguin (see n. 24 to that letter), Van Gogh calls Christ ‘an artist greater than all artists’ (un artiste plus grand que tous les artistes).

6. Changes to the verse were made in a different hand; the final version reads:

‘Burning sun who passest by

halt thy scurvy steed

without sleight-of-hand I’d

paint thy face O chrome two!’

(Soleil ardent qui passe

arrête ton coursier scabreux

je veux sans passe passe

peindre ta face Ô chrome deux!)

According to Cooper, Gauguin wrote the little rhyme himself, and he probably made the changes too. See Gauguin lettres 1983, p. 249 (n. 4). Merlhès does not comment on this question in Correspondance Gauguin 1984 and Merlhès 1989.