Vincent painted this small study of his brother in Paris in 1887, on a piece of cardboard barely 19 × 14 cm. Theo wears a straw hat, a blue jacket and a bow tie, and looks out with a calm, slightly reserved expression; the face is built up in short, quick strokes against a loosely brushed blue-green background. For decades the picture was catalogued as one of Vincent’s own self-portraits. In 2011 the Van Gogh Museum concluded that the sitter is Theo instead: the rounder ear and the neater, more yellowish beard give him away. Theo van Gogh (1857–1891) was an art dealer in Paris, and the two brothers shared his apartment in Montmartre from 1886 to 1888.

Theo supported Vincent financially for most of his career, and their letters are the main source for what we know about the painter’s life and work. The painting belongs to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation, inv. s0157V1962).