Vincent van Gogh had painted some People Paintings. He painted several portraits of Zouaves, including his friend Paul-Eugene Milliet (not the sitter for this portrait). A zouave was a regiment of the French army dressed in an arabesque influenced manner because of its Algerian background.
Building Paintings Van Gogh wrote about the Zouave painting in a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh, saying "I have a model at last. a Zouave.. a boy with a small face, a bull neck, and the eye of a tiger, and I began with one portrait, and began again with another; Oil Paintings for sale the half-length I did of him was horribly harsh, in a blue uniform, the blue of enamel saucepans, with braids of a faded reddish-orange, and two yellow stars on his breast, an ordinary blue, and very hard to do. Famous Paintings That bronzed, feline head of his with a red cap, I placed it against a green door and the orange bricks of a wall. So it's a savage combination of incongruous tones, not easy to manage. Children Paintings The study I made of it seems to me very harsh, but all the same I'd like always to be working on vulgar, even loud portraits like this.