'Portrait of Eugene Boch' by Vincent van Gogh

Eugène Boch (1855–1941) was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut, who was the younger brother of Anna Boch, a founding member of Les XX. Born into a wealthy dynasty of manufacturers of fine china and ceramics, still active today under the firm of Villeroy & Boch, Eugène Boch enrolled in the private atelier of Léon Bonnat in Paris, in 1879. Since 1882, when Bonnat closed his atelier, he studied at the atelier of Fernand Cormon. Paintings of him were admitted to the Salon in 1882, 1883 and 1885. In June 1888, he was introduced by Dodge MacKnight to Vincent van Gogh.