During his stay in the Arles region between February 1888 and May 1889, Vincent van Gogh produced about three hundred drawings and paintings. Fleeing Paris, which oppressed him with its fog and hectic life, Vincent headed south. It was under the clear Provençal sky where he found a perfect balance among his soul, reality, and art. The warm Provençal sun was somehow reflected in his canvases, where the light was no longer studied in the same way as the Impressionists did, but became an expressive medium. The goal was not to reproduce exactly what he had in front of him, but to use color to express himself with strength. Once he reached Arles in the middle of winter, Vincent van Gogh stayed at the Carrel hotel, and later moved to a building in Place Lamartine, on the outskirts of the city, where there was the famous “Yellow House”, which would be destroyed during the Second World War. He strongly hoped to host a community of artists in his house to create “the atelier of the south” for future generations. In October 1888, he was joined by Paul Gauguin who, being his guest in the Yellow House, was the ideal companion to achieve his goal. Nevertheless, after an initial period of fruitful cohabitation, their friendship deteriorated due to disagreements that originated from their different personalities. On December 23, 1888, Vincent took a razor and tried to injure his friend, who escaped in fright; in the meanwhile, Van Gogh, feeling depressed, cut off his left earlobe and gave it to a prostitute named Rachel. As a result, Gauguin left Arles to return to Paris, but Van Gogh told he did not remember anything of that event, but two self-portraits with the bandaged ear remain.