sun-lit countryside, and felt his health deteriorating in Paris. In a letter tohissisterWil,hesaidthewinterinParswastoosevereand,later,thathewasworn out by Paris. Another reason to go to Arles was its pristine naturalenvironment, in contrast to Paris. The Paris scene had become somewhatstale. Arles represented a new field of artistic action.Van Gogh kept in touch with ́Emile Bernard through Theo. Bernardwas close to Paul Gauguin, who was also in bad health and short of money.Van Gogh then had the idea of establishing a colony where artists wouldlive and work together and exchange ideas and techniques. The colonywould be different from existing schools in that the artists would teach eachother and be free of the influence of academic strictures and art dealers.It would create a new method of working and a new life style for theartist. Van Gogh strongly believed in learning from but also breaking withtradition. He suggested that Theo and Tersteeg become the “experts” inthis enterprise, lending it credence and investing capital in it and, in return,would each year be given a certain number of paintings with a certain valueby the artist members of the cooperative. Paul Gauguin would become thehead of the colony and Theo would be a kind of administrative coordinator.VanGoghhadbeenimpressedartisticallyandpersonallybyGauguinwhenthey known each other in Paris. He saw his dream of establishing an artist’scolony as beginning with a cooperative working with Gauguin in Arles.Van Gogh exchanged letters, works of art and ideas with potentialcollaborators. He also concentrated on developing his skills as an artist.During the day, he worked on drawings and paintings—landscapes, stilllifes, and portraits—and in the evening he wrote letters to collaborators.He worked as few have worked—hard and fast. During the 15 monthshe was in Arles, just 444 days, he produced over 200 paintings and over100 drawings, demonstrating that, for him, being creative meant intense,protracted activity. Mastery was arduous and continuous. Van Gogh wascritical of his own work and did not often consider his paintings good byhis own standards. However, he came to believe that the paintings finishedquickly, in one long session, were his best. He declared that while he mighthave completed them very fast, he had given them a lot of thought beforeputting brush to paper (de Leeuw, 1997, p. 373).Van Gogh had met Gauguin in Paris and the two had remained incontact. Theo was Gauguin’s art dealer and in February, 1888, Vincentwrote to Theo “I have had a letter from Gauguin telling me that he hasbeen in bed for a fortnight; that he is on the rocks, as he has had to paysome crying debts and wants to know if you have sold anything for him;he is so pressed for a little money that he would be ready to reduce theprice of his pictures still further (Stone, 1937, p. 331.) Van Gogh empathizedand sympathized with Gauguin’s reports of his ill health; he too had been