Self-Portrait with Portrait of Émile Bernard (Les misérables)  1888

Van Gogh knew that Japanese printmakers often exchanged work with one another. The idea appealed to him, so he suggested that he, Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard should do the same: ‘It clearly proves that they liked one another and stuck together, and that there was a certain harmony among them [. . .] The more we resemble them in that respect, the better it will be for us...