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What was Vincent van Gogh’s Studio of the South project?
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Vincent van Gogh
Self-Portrait, oil on artist's board on cradled panel by Vincent van Gogh, 1887; in the Art Institute of Chicago.
The "Studio of the South" was a project initiated by Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France, where he moved in early 1888. His goal was to establish a working community for like-minded artists to gather and create a new, personally expressive form of art.12
Van Gogh rented and decorated a house in Arles, hoping to persuade fellow painters—including Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—to join him in this endeavor. Gauguin eventually arrived in October 1888, and the two artists worked together for two months. However, the project ultimately failed because the two men were temperamentally incompatible and held opposing ideas regarding the purpose of art, leading to a rapid deterioration of their relationship.21