| We are proud to introduce the English version of the article of Jacques van Son which will be published in the next issue of Partita Doppia. We will send out within three days our comments and follow-up investigation into the Paris group photo
No images? Click here FIVE FACES ONE MAN?
We are proud to introduce the English version of an article which will be published in the next issue of Partita Doppia. Some subjects have become so celebrated that discussion around them has all but ceased. Vincent van Gogh’s photographic portraits are one of them. In his article, Jacques van Son presents a comparative discussion of five nineteenth‑century photographs that may each depict the same man and that show strong similarities to Van Gogh’s known facial features, posture and clothing. The analysis combines several lines of inquiry: geometric facial characteristics (such as proportions, the structure of eyes, nose and ears, asymmetry, and hair and beard growth), body posture and clothing. In addition, the historical context is researched in detail: the locations from which the photographs originate – Tilburg, Dordrecht, The Hague, Paris and Arles – are compared to Van Gogh’s known places of residence on the basis of correspondence and archival sources. He discusses similarities in face, posture, clothing and image style – that support the hypothesis that those photographs may show one and the same person. Although absolute certainty is methodologically difficult to obtain, the findings provide new and weighty indications that Van Gogh’s photographic portrait archive may be larger than has so far been assumed. We publish here an English translation of the original Dutch text, revised and agreed by the author. Our notes are set in grey italics and flagged [Editor’s note]. Next Monday, we will publish an opinion on some of the arguments, always with the author’s agreement. The article presents itself as a hypothesis open to discussion, not as a definitive attribution. We join him in the wish to start a general and fruitful discussion on the updated iconography of the great artist.
Although Vincent van Gogh is one of the most thoroughly studied artists of the nineteenth century, visual documentation of his appearance is exceptionally limited. The long‑standing view that only a single photograph – a portrait taken in January 1873 (figure 1) by photographer Jacobus Marinus de Louw – can, according to Teio Meedendorp of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, be attributed to him with certainty has remained dominant since the early 20th century. At the same time, various archives and private collections hold photographs that may show Van Gogh but have never been systematically compared with one another. This article brings five such images together and subjects them to an extensive comparison based on facial features, clothing, location and timeline. Modern researchers generally employ three criteria: verifiable provenance, biographical and geographical plausibility, and morphological consistency. These three are rarely applied together. The present study therefore focuses explicitly on this combination. Method The aforementioned portrait photograph from The Hague, January 1873, is the only one accepted as authentic and therefore serves as the anchor portrait for morphological comparison in the present study (figure 1).
The pale (still youthful) face, the wavy reddish‑blond hair, the high forehead, the somewhat deep-set, penetrating eyes (similar to those of his mother Anna Cornelia Carbentus, figure 2) with an intensely fiery and self‑confident gaze, the pouting lower lip, the protruding ears and the subtle bump on the bridge of the nose serve here as basic reference points.
There is a second photograph (figure 3) that has been classified as authentic by experts at the Van Gogh Museum; it was shown in the exhibition “Van Gogh and the Roulins” at the Van Gogh Museum (3 October 2025 to 11 January 2026). In this image, however, Van Gogh’s face is not visible, so it cannot serve as a facial reference. The photograph shows a dark‑clad man wearing a hat and sturdy shoes, bending forward, seen from behind, engaged in conversation with the painter Émile Bernard, a close friend of Van Gogh. The picture was taken on the bank of the Seine at Asnières. In the background, a restaurant and the local bridge across the Seine can be seen. Van Gogh painted this bridge in the summer of 1887. Nevertheless, Émile Bernard himself never said the man was Van Gogh: he captioned the photograph “My portrait in 1886”, and it was only after his death that his son changed the caption. [Editor’s note]
A class photograph, obtained from the Tilburg City Archive, is the earliest possible image of Vincent van Gogh (figure 4). The boy who could be identified as Van Gogh (third from the right in the front row) has reddish hair, a pale complexion, a high forehead, deep‑set eyes with a self‑assured gaze, protruding ears and a pouting lower lip. These features correspond both to descriptions by contemporaries and to later photographic and pictorial self‑representations, including the Hague portrait. In an edited version of the photo showing only Vincent, these characteristics stand out even more clearly (figure 5).
On 15 September 1866, the thirteen‑year‑old Vincent registered in the Tilburg population register. He boarded with Jan Hannik at Korvel 57 (today: Sint Annaplein 18–19). He became a pupil at the Rijks‑HBS Koning Willem II (located in what is now the town hall). His drawing teacher there was Constant Huijsmans (the bearded man with top hat, depicted in profile to the right behind the table). Although he achieved good results in his first year, he left the school prematurely. On 19 March 1868, he had himself removed from the population register and returned to his parental home in Zundert. It is certain that the boy cannot be Vincent’s brother Theo: the latter never attended the Rijks‑HBS in Tilburg. From 1867 to 1869 he was taught in Zundert by a governess, and from 1871 onwards, after the Van Gogh family moved to Helvoirt, he attended an independent local day school. Moreover, Theo, born on 1 May 1857, was only nine or ten years old in 1866 or 1867.
A photograph from the Dordrecht City Archive shows a young man, on the left side of the image, standing in front of the mill De Oranjeboom (demolished around 1880) on the corner of what are now Spuiweg and Burgemeester de Raadtsingel (figure 6). The Dordrecht City Archive has confirmed on inquiry that the photograph is dated 1877. It was made by Leonard de Koningh, a painter, lithographer and drawing teacher, who from 1865 onwards also devoted himself to photography. He lived on the Bagijnhof, near Van Gogh’s boarding house on Tolbrugstraat. The location shown is close to the place where Vincent van Gogh worked for three months, at the bookshop Blussé & Van Braam on Scheffersplein. The person we discuss wears a tall English top hat, a garment specifically mentioned in the biography by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith: according to Dirk Braat, son of the bookshop owner, “after his return from England in 1876, Van Gogh wore a shabby English top hat almost continuously”. In addition one notices a pale complexion, piercing eyes, a small reddish beard, protruding ears and a narrow jawline. Van Gogh looks straight into the camera and seems, with a disapproving expression and crooked mouth, to call out to the photographer. The man standing next to him could be – this remains speculative – Nicolaas Mager, an employee of the bookshop and Van Gogh’s only confidant and friend during his Dordrecht period. On 2 May 1877, Van Gogh left Dordrecht to study theology in Amsterdam. Remarkable similarities with the photographs from Tilburg and The Hague are the pale face, reddish hair, piercing eyes with a critical gaze, protruding ears and narrow jawline. We also note the apparent affinity between the painter‑photographer Leonard de Koningh and the emerging artist Van Gogh.
In April 2015, journalist Jérôme Dupuis described in the French magazine L’Express a group photograph (figure 7) that had been discovered by historical photography specialist Serge Plantureux. The photograph came from Ronald Davis, official bookseller to Myriam de Rothschild. The image (dimensions 88 x 119 mm, collodion process, with the stamp “Gautier Martin” on the front) is said to show Vincent van Gogh in the company of several fellow painters. It was taken in the courtyard of 96 Rue Blanche, where André Antoine, founder of the Théâtre Libre, had invited young innovative artists to exhibit in his new rehearsal space. Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac accepted the invitation. The photograph possibly shows, from left to right: Arnold Koning, Émile Bernard, Vincent van Gogh, André Antoine, Félix Jobbé-Duval and Paul Gauguin. On the table at which the men are seated lies, prominently visible in the foreground, a rabbit‑fur hat. It is known that Van Gogh wore such a hat in cold weather. Gauguin strikingly described his appearance at the end of 1887 as that of a “drover wearing a fur toque”. Van Gogh and Gauguin met for the first time in November 1887, when Gauguin visited the group exhibition of the Peintres du Petit Boulevard organised by Van Gogh at the Grand Bouillon‑Restaurant du Chalet on the Avenue de Clichy. Besides paintings by Van Gogh, works by Toulouse‑Lautrec, Anquetin, Bernard and Arnold Koning, among others, were shown there. In the group photograph, the pipe‑smoking men seated at the front of the table wear typical Breton trousers and boots. The face of the person at the front left of the table shows unambiguous similarity to that of Émile Bernard (1868–1941) in the previously mentioned photograph from Asnières from the winter of 1886/1887 and in a photograph from 1892: a somewhat aristocratic appearance, a substantial mass of hair on the right side of the head, a prominent moustache, a firm jawline and a lively gaze. The facial features and overall habitus of the person at the front right of the table bear a striking resemblance to those of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), as can be seen in several later photographs, including those taken in Tahiti in 1896 (see below). Gauguin’s head is covered with an astrakhan hat. The appearance of the person identified as painter Félix Jobbé‑Duval (1821–1889) corresponds to that in known photographs of him at a younger age. The shape of the nose and jawline and the intense deep‑set eyes are particularly distinctive. The standing man with hat and pipe, a round face and a cheerful expression is unmistakably André Antoine (1858–1943), a renowned actor, author, theatre director and critic, who had founded the Théâtre Libre in March 1887.
The face of the person at the far left of the photograph is characterised by a noble appearance: dark hair, a narrow finely shaped nose, a slender jawline, relatively small ears and a sharp gaze. It closely resembles the face of Arnold Koning (1860–1945) in a photograph showing him with his brothers Edzard and Jaap at his house in Voorthuizen around 1910 (figure 8). Arnold Koning was 27 when he arrived in Paris in September 1887, intending to acquaint himself with the latest developments in painting and to refine his own artistic skills. In this context he visited several art galleries, notably that of Boussod, Valadon & Cie on Boulevard Montmartre, where he met Theo van Gogh. Through Theo he came to know Vincent van Gogh. They became friends and were often in each other’s company, painting side by side during the final months of Vincent’s stay in Paris. After Vincent’s departure to Arles in February 1888, Koning stayed, from mid‑March until his own departure from Paris on 28 May 1888, at Theo’s flat on Rue Lepic. Koning’s work was also included in the exhibition of the Peintres du Petit Boulevard organised by Van Gogh in November and December 1887. It is virtually unthinkable that Koning, who had been in Paris only since September 1887, could have moved in the artistic upper circles of the city after merely a few months without Van Gogh’s presence. It is highly likely that Van Gogh introduced him to the circle of his artist friends. The person identified as Van Gogh gazes pensively straight into the camera, smokes a pipe with his left hand and hides his right hand in his coat. His face is characterised by reddish hair with receding temples, a reddish beard, deep‑set penetrating eyes and protruding ears, partially covered by hair. The jawline is somewhat broader than one might expect from the Dutch portraits. This may perhaps be explained by Van Gogh’s relatively active social life in Paris, in which extensive visits to restaurants and the use of alcohol were by no means rare. In contrast to Gauguin and Bernard, he wears high work boots, which he painted several times in the spring of 1887. The hypothesis that this man may be Van Gogh is supported by the fact that he is surrounded by his painter friends Bernard, Gauguin and Koning, and by André Antoine, for whom he was to exhibit. Although the identification of Van Gogh in this photograph is methodologically sensitive, the supporting context – the location at 96 rue Blanche, the presence of Gauguin, Bernard, Jobbé‑Duval and Koning, the artistic milieu around André Antoine and the fur hat lying on the table – makes the hypothesis plausible. When the morphometric facial features of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Bernard, Koning and Jobbé-Duval are examined in conjunction with the historical context, it becomes likely that the group photograph shows Van Gogh, the painters mentioned and André Antoine. A complementary discussion of the group photo will follow in Monday’s newsletter. [Editor’s note]
The above photograph was discovered by the author (Jacques van Son) in an antiquarian bookshop in Arles (figure 9). It was auctioned on the French market in 2005. On the copy of the photograph provided to me (given the size, approximately 7 x 7 cm, it may derive from an early roll‑film camera), the name “Van Gogh” is written on the back. The image shows a walker in an introverted pose, looking directly into the camera. The clothing and accessories can be described as follows: a broad‑brimmed straw hat, a painter’s coat with tapered sleeves, trousers with a wide hem at the bottom, sturdy shoes, a painter’s satchel on the back and a distinctive walking stick with a wide flat knob and a slight bend just below it. The man is photographed in the bright Provençal sun at a location in front of Montmajour, a hill to the northeast of Arles. The author has visited the exact site where the photo was taken. The pale complexion, deep-set, penetrating eyes, reddish beard and hair and protruding ears are consistent with Van Gogh’s facial characteristics in the Dutch photographs and with several self‑portraits (figure 10).
It cannot be ruled out that this photograph was taken by the Danish painter Christian Mourier‑Petersen, a friend of Van Gogh, who is described, revolutionary for his time, as using a camera (Bernadette Murphy, Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story (London: Chatto & Windus, 2016)). In April and May 1888, the two undertook outings together from Arles in the direction of Montmajour and the plain of La Crau, which Van Gogh painted in June 1888 (figure 11).
They met at the Café de la Gare before setting off. They painted side by side: Vincent seated, the Dane standing behind an easel (Martin Gayford, The Yellow House, Fig Tree, London, 2006, and “Van Gogh Betrayed”, Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2005). On 22 May 1888, Mourier‑Petersen left for Paris.
The photograph depicted above (dimensions 17.2 x 12.5 cm, dry glass‑plate technique with gelatin emulsion, printed on paper coated with albumen and silver salts) was discovered by Leon Gulikers and comes from a Parisian estate (figure 12). The persons in the photograph are in a courtyard. In the background, two windows with shutters and a limestone wall are visible. Limestone is a relatively soft yet durable natural stone that has been used in and around Arles since Roman times. The use of this stone experienced a major boom in the 19th century. The stone was quarried in the Alpilles near Fontvieille, about 10 km from Arles. Although the author has a strong suspicion regarding the location at which the photograph was taken, no definitive statement can yet be made, as research is still ongoing. The man under discussion, whom we compare with Van Gogh, is seated at the front left, with crossed legs, looking straight into the camera, next to four men animatedly playing cards at a table. He has a Bichon dog on his lap and wears the same painter’s coat with tapered sleeves, the same trousers with wide hem, the same sturdy shoes and the same walking stick as in the solitary photograph. The stick has a broad flat knob and a subtle kink just below it; it also appears in the painting “The Painter on the Road to Tarascon” (figure 13), dating from July 1888, which was destroyed during the Second World War in a bombing of the Kaiser‑Friedrich Museum in Magdeburg.
It is known that Van Gogh used a stick to brace his easel against the sometimes furious mistral wind. The shoes were painted by Van Gogh in August 1888 (figure 14).
The facial features – a pale and emaciated face, reddish hair and beard, deep-set, penetrating eyes with an intense gaze, protruding ears and a subtle bump on the bridge of the nose – are compatible with those in the photographs discussed above (especially the solitary image) and with a drawing made at Van Gogh’s deathbed in the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers‑sur‑Oise on 29 July 1890 by Dr Paul Gachet (figure 15). Also striking is an asymmetry of the mouth, largely the result of the loss of multiple teeth in the preceding years (Murphy, op. cit.). Van Gogh’s emaciated face (compared to his appearance in the Dutch and Parisian periods) is consistent with his relatively poor nutritional state, a consequence of the fact that since his arrival in Arles in February 1888 he had spent many hours each day painting and writing like a man possessed, while eating little.
It is plausible that the group photograph also depicts Augustine Roulin, known as “La Berceuse” (standing at the back right), and the painter Paul Gauguin (standing at the back left in dark clothing). Moreover, the presence of Joseph Roulin, a very close friend of Van Gogh (seated at the front right), and his seventeen‑year‑old son Armand (the second card player from the right) cannot be excluded with certainty, although here, too, the identification remains speculative. As in the series of portraits of Augustine Roulin painted by Van Gogh from November 1888 to March 1889 (figure 16), the woman in the group photograph has a characteristically high forehead and short nose with a slightly upturned tip, wears her hair swept back in a bun and radiates serenity and calm.
After repeated requests from Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin finally arrived in Arles on 23 October 1888, intending to establish, together with Van Gogh, a painters’ colony in the “Maison Jaune” on Place Lamartine, modelled on his colony in Pont‑Aven in Brittany. Largely as a result of “incompatibilité des caractères”, this plan failed disastrously. Gauguin left Arles shortly after a dramatic incident on the evening of 23 December 1888, during which Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear.
The man identified as Gauguin closely resembles the figure seen in two photographs dated 19 July 1896 (figures 17 and 18): a firm jawline, slight bagging under the eyes and a strong and confident stance. Jules Agostini, an official and friend of Gauguin, took these photographs at a festival at Pointe Venus on the island of Tahiti. They show, in addition to Gauguin, his friend and ship’s doctor Joseph Gouzer and several Tahitian women, including Pahura, his mistress. The photographs were acquired at a French auction in July 2015 by Daniel Blau, an art dealer from Munich.
The man tentatively identified as Joseph Roulin wears a dark blue cape with a glossy finish, which was part of the standard uniform of the French postal service around 1888 (on display at the Musée de la Poste, Boulevard de Vaugirard in Paris). Roulin worked at a French postal depot near the Arles train station. Although he was not employed as a mail carrier in the literal sense, this by no means implies that he did not wear a uniform while on the job, as evidenced by the first portrait of Roulin, painted by Van Gogh in early August 1888 (figure 19).
The friendly gaze, the thick eyebrows, and the broad cheekbones of the person in the group photo bear a resemblance to those in a 1902 photograph of Joseph Roulin taken in Marseille, shortly before his death in September 1903 (figure 20).
On the other hand, the author emphasizes that he is well aware of the dilemma posed by the absence of the characteristic beard, as depicted in several of Van Gogh’s paintings. Van Gogh painted the 17-year-old Armand Roulin on several occasions in November and December 1888 (figure 21). The young man wearing a hat, who may be identified as Armand—the second card player from the right—bears some resemblance to the person immortalized by Van Gogh: prominent sideburns, a characteristic hairline with receding temples, a budding mustache, and a melancholic gaze. The fact that Augustine Roulin stands a short distance behind her (presumed) son and is looking in his direction supports this hypothesis. However, this remains speculative.
The familial and amicable atmosphere among the figures in the group photograph, together with the presence of Paul Gauguin and Augustine Roulin, with Van Gogh as principal figure looking directly into the camera, lends this image a biographical plausibility. The fact that the two Arles photographs originate from entirely different sources and that the man we discuss shows identical facial morphological features in both, wears the same painter’s coat, trousers and shoes and carries a similar stick is possibly relevant. This raises the likelihood that we are dealing with an authentic series. In forensic identification this phenomenon is known as convergent evidence from independent origins. This study acknowledges limitations, such as the absence of absolute dating and accompanying documents for the Arles photographs, as well as the varying quality of some images, which are inherent to the technical state of photography at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, the mutual consistencies regarding facial features, introverted demeanor, clothing, footwear, and walking stick, as well as the presence of known, identified individuals from Van Gogh’s life, form a remarkable pattern that is difficult to attribute solely to coincidence. These factors can be viewed as supporting evidence for the possible authenticity of the photographs. Furthermore, the photographs from the municipal archives of Tilburg and Dordrecht and from Paris have an undisputed provenance and (in the case of the Dordrecht and Paris photographs) can be attributed to a documented photographer, which strengthens the case for their authenticity. In conclusion, the results of my multifactorial research call for a reassessment of the photographic iconography surrounding Van Gogh. Jacques van Son, Eijsden, Netherlands, July 2026
Both pieces, Jacques van Son’s article and our reply, will be published in Italian in the paper edition of PARTITA DOPPIA, no. 4, Ferragosto 2026.
PARTITA DOPPIA is a small hand‑made seasonal journal of art, photography and architecture, edited and printed in Senigallia, Marche province, Italy. It contains a series of investigative photo stories, written almost like detective inquiries. La Fotografia è la più bella delle collezioni … Senigallia, città della fotografia, ospitera nuovi spazi dedicato alla ricerca e promozione della fotografia. Atelier 41 si trova 41 via fratelli Bandiera. Senigallia diventerà la Città delle collezioni.
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