Vincent van Gogh – Le Fou Roux print

Vincent van Gogh – Le Fou Roux print.

Here is my homage to Vincent van Gogh in the style of a Vanity Fair magazine Spy print. The original Vanity Fair Spy prints are highly collectible among professionals. The portraits produced were paintings which were made into chromolithographs for publication in the magazine. These were then usually reproduced on higher quality paper and sold as prints.

I wanted to portray Vincent van Gogh as he may have looked to the locals during the short period that he resided at the ‘Yellow House’ in Arles. The date along the top, February 1888, represents the month and year he moved there.

Vanity Fair Spy caricatures traditionally have a caption along the bottom of the image. While researching Vincent for a suitable caption, I stumbled upon the nickname which some of the residents of Arles and neighbours of The Yellow House gave to Vincent, not so much out of affection, but rather out of fear and disdain for his general anti-social behaviour.

‘Le Fou Roux’, loosely translates as the Red-headed Madman. As unkind as it was (Vincent was plagued with mental illness), it was probably an accurate summation of the striking, passionate, frenzied, manic Dutch man who made an everlasting impression on the residents.