IN 1987 the Cleveland Museum of Art acquired a portrait by Maerten van Heemskerck (Fig.1), which had come to light at a Paris auction in March that year. Previously unrecorded, it was listed in the sale catalogue as 'attributed to Heemskerck', but stylistic differences from the master's other portraits, apparently led some scholars to reserve judgement or even reject it. From Rainer Grosshans's positive reaction to the painting in a letter of 22nd Sep- tember 1987 - based only on the colour reproduction in the catalogue - it seems certain that, had he seen it, he would have included it among Heemskerck's authentic works in his monograph of 1980. Since its acquisition by the Museum, technical examination (see Appendix) and stylistic studies have confirmed that this is not only a work by the master, but one of his masterpieces.

IN Part I of this article I analysed Vincent van Gogh's portraits of Augustine Roulin.* Here I shall discuss the six portraits of her husband, the postman Joseph Roulin, and the seven of their mutual friend Marie Ginoux.

PROVIDING a thoroughly Surrealist account of his identity in an article entitled 'History of a Natural History' in 1937, Max Ernst slips at one point from DonJuanism into something altogether more revealing. Having bragged about the fascination he apparently exercised over women, he writes: