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| Vincent van Gogh Portrait of Armand Roulin 1888 oil on canvas Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Vincent van Gogh Portrait of Joseph Roulin 1889 oil on canvas Museum of Modern Art, New York |
"Des hasards les jetèrent dans la ville d'Arles, en 1888. Ces deux hommes si dissemblables se plurent; en tout cas l'apparence de l'un, l'aîné, plut assez à l'autre pour qu'il la pienît quatre ou cinq fois: on croit donc connaître les traits qu'il avait cette année-la, à quarante-sept ans, comme on connaît ceux de Louis XIV dans tous ses âges ou d'Innocent X en 1650; et sur ses portraits en effet il reste couvert comme un roi, il est assis come un pape, cela suffit. On connaît aussi de sa vie quelques bricoles, qu'il serait bien étonné de voir paraître là, sous sa propre figure, dans let notes prolixes de livres très savants. On sait par exemple que l'administration des Postes le muta à la fin de 1888 d'Arles à Marseille, avancement dû à son zèle ou rétrogradation due à ses cuites, cela on ne sait; on est sûr qu'il vit pour la dernière fois Vincent à l'hôpital d'Arles en février de l'année suivante . . ."
– from Vie de Joseph Roulin, a novel by Pierre Michon (Paris: Verdier, 1988)
[Chance placed them both in the city of Arles in 1888. These two men, lacking any resemblance, appealed to each other, or at least one of them, the elder, appealed enough for the younger to paint him four or five times: we are familiar with his features in this specific year at the age of forty-seven as we are familiar with the features of Louis XIV at every stage of his life, or with those of Innocent X in 1650; thus in Van Gogh's portraits Roulin retains his hat, like a king; sits in state, like a pope. We have a few other bits and pieces of information – things he'd be astonished to see printed beneath his own image among the copious notes in scholarly books. We know for example that the Postal Administration transferred him at the end of 1888 from Arles to Marseilles, though whether this was a promotion due to zeal or a punishment for slackness we don't know; and we know that he saw Vincent for the last time in the hospital at Arles in February of the following year . . .]
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| Auguste Renoir Portrait of Claude Monet 1875 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Auguste Renoir Portrait of a woman, called Madame Georges Hartmann 1874 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Edward Poynter Portrait of Eliza Eastlake 1864 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| John Singer Sargent Portrait of Mrs Joshua Montgomery Sears (Sarah Choate Sears) 1899 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| John Singer Sargent Portrait of Mrs Raphael Pumpelly 1887 oil on canvas Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts |
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| Joaquín Sorolla Portrait of Agustín Otermín 1892 oil on canvas Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid |
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| Joaquín Sorolla Portrait of a man 1899 oil on canvas Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid |
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| Edgar Degas Portrait of Mary Cassatt ca. 1880-81 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC |
"We asked Degas his opinion about the picture; he considers it the finest work that Mary Cassatt ever did; he says it contains all her qualities and is particularly characteristic of her talents."
Durand-Ruel did not know, however, what Degas had told the artist. Mary Cassatt herself relayed to Louisine his exact words, and Louisine recorded them in her Memoirs:
"When he saw my Boy before the Mirror he said to Durand-Ruel: 'Where is she? I must see her at once. It is the greatest picture of the century.' When I saw him he went over all the details of the picture with me and expressed great admiration for it, and then, as if regretting what he had said, he relentlessly added: 'It has all your qualities and all your faults – c'est l'Enfant Jésus et sa bonne anglaise [it's the Baby Jesus and his English nurse].'"
– from The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America by Frances Weitzenhoffer (New York: Abrams, 1986)
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| Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Portrait of Frederick Wenz ca. 1886-90 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| William Holman Hunt Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at 22 years of age 1882-83 oil on panel Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
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| Dante Gabriel Rossetti Portrait of young man 1853 drawing Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
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| Gustave Caillebotte Portrait of Henri Cordier 1883 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |