the painting fully worked out before touching the canvas, emphasizingmemory and its imaginative translation to the canvas. Van Gogh, the real-ist, liked to work “from nature”—the scene in front of him. He also believedthat colors should have psychological significance, and not merely play adecorative role in a painting. Gauguin believed in working slowly and de-liberately; van Gogh believed in going to the main theme of the paintingand working with an exalted rapidity.3Gauguin painted a portrait of Vin-cent to which the latter had a violently negative response “It’s certainlyme but me gone mad” (de Leeuw, 1997, p. 423). A week later, after a loudargument in a caf ́e, van Gogh allegedly threw a glass of absinthe at Gau-guin, an incident that was apparently smoothed over but not forgotten. Ina letter written to Theo in the latter half of December, which included avivid description of a gallery he and Gauguin had visited in Montpelier,van Gogh wrote:Gauguin and I discuss Delacroix, Rembrandt, etc., a great deal. Thedebate isexceedingly electricand sometimes when we finish our mindsare as drained as an electric battery after discharge. (NYGS, 1978, Letter564.)On December 23, van Gogh writes again to Theo, this time a muchbriefer letter:I think that Gauguin was a little disenchanted with the good town ofArles . . . and above all with me...Indeed, there are serious problems toovercome here still, for him as well as for me...Butthese problems liemore in ourselves than anywhere else. In short I think that he’ll eithersimply leave or he’ll simply stay. I’ve told him to think it over andweigh up the pros and cons before doing anything. Gauguin is verystrong, very creative...Iawait his decision with absolute equanimity(NYGS, 1978, Letter 565, 23 December, 1888).This very calm and rational letter was followed the same evening byan emotionally quite different event. Gauguin was taking a walk whenvan Gogh suddenly appeared and threatened him with a razor. Gauguincalmed him down, but decided to stay the night in a local hotel. Later thatnight, van Gogh appeared at the brothel he frequented and asked for aprostitute called Rachel. He gave her a piece of his earlobe which he hadsliced from his ear and asked her to look after it. Police found him the nextmorning unconscious in his bed. This account comes mainly from Gauguinand also, “bit by bit” from van Gogh. (de Leeuw, 1997, pp. 425–426).3Indeed, while he was in Arles, van Gogh painted as many as three paintings a day, some inas little as 45 minutes, according to his accounts; in Paris his swift execution had amazedhis teachers and fellow students