Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887)

Toulouse-Lautrec had encountered Vincent van Gogh, eleven years his senior, when they were both taking lessons at the open studio (atelier libre) of Fernand Cormon in Paris from 1886 to 1887.

It portrays Van Gogh in early 1887, during the time he was living with his brother, Theo, in the Montmartre district of Paris.

He is depicted in profile from the right, leaning forward at a table in a bar, with a glass of absinthe, as if in conversation, at Café du Tambourin on the Boulevard de Clichy.

She had worked as an artists' model, and he painted her at least twice, including Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin.

Van Gogh had an arrangement to give artworks to Segatori when he was unable to pay his bills, and he put on an exhibition of his Japanese prints at the café.