phase as an artist, was Anton Mauve, himself an eminent artist. Mauvehad married into the Van Gogh family so he was not only known to vanGogh as someone who knew much more about art than he, but as some-one who might also be more readily available as a teacher because of thefamily connection. So from Mauve he learned basic skills and technique,especially in drawing and water-coloring. He wrote to Theo about:a drawing . . . made at Mauve’s studio, and really the best watercolorI had, especially because Mauve had put some touches in it, and hadwatched me make it and drawn my attention to some points. (Stone,p. 135)ThereweremanyotherartistswhomvanGoghlookedupto:Leonardoda Vinci, from whom he learned how to sequence his early learning–drawing, perspective, understanding the proportions of an object, copy-ing from a master, and so on; what he learned from da Vinci, becamepart of van Gogh’s organization of knowledge (Gruber, 1989). He learnedfrom Rembrandt (especially chiaroscuro); and from Gauguin whose im-pasto technique (the thick application of paint), he admired and used.In Daumier, he found confirmation of his love of depicting the commonperson. From Millet he found inspiration, and copied and later paintedcopies of Millet’s work. From the Japanese artist Hokusai, he learned touse line in dynamic ways. Van Gogh’s admiration of Rembrandt and Milletwent beyond composition and technique; the emotions expressed by thesepainters’ works also provided a model for what van Gogh wanted to ex-press emotionally in his own works. He knew the work of all these artistsand knew he needed their knowledge by gauging what they had that hewanted to emulate in his own work in his own way.Sometimes, the variety and many-layered impact of such figuressurely included a process of “trying-on” the actual work of the admiredartist by copying, or drawing or paintingin the manner ofthat person. Thisis both an attempt at mastery as well as a testing out of what it feels like to“be” that artist. It may provide a special experience in artistic developmentthat enables the person to learn from and assimilate these new knowledgeexperiences selectively.Apart from copying them, van Gogh routinely looked at and ana-lyzed the works of great artists. In Paris he often visited the Louvre andconstantly went to exhibitions showing the work of contemporary artists.While Gauguin was in Arles, van Gogh and he regularly visited nearbymuseums to see and discuss the art of others. This, of course, is a commonactivity among nearly all creative people—the need to re-view existingproducts in their field to learn or re-learn; and the need to compare theirown work with that of their contemporaries