Van Gogh's Self-Portraits

From his early, somber, and introspective self-portraits to his later, vibrant, and energetic ones, these works reveal the complexity of his personality and his relentless pursuit of artistic expression.

As we gaze upon Van Gogh's self-portraits, we are witness not only to the transformation of an artist but also to the struggle of a man seeking his own identity and meaning in life.

Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (1853-1890), is undoubtedly one of the artists who most self-portrayed.  The abundance of self-portraits in his work - 35 paintings cataloged between 1886 and 1889 - compared to his relationship with his own body, culminates in the tragic episode of the mutilation of part of his ear, later portrayed.

Everything, places Van Gogh as the artist who introduces his own body as the raw material of art.

For Vincent, painting himself was not just a style of art, but also a way to improve his artistic techniques and get to know himself better – all this thanks to the introspective process to which he subjected himself, as he spent hours in front of a mirror observing himself critically.

After leaving the hospital on January 6, 1889, Vincent created this self-portrait.

The presence of the Mount Fuji in this painting reminds us of the influence he received from Japanese art, especially in the prints of that country.

We notice the smooth skin without a beard, the excessive thinness indicates his fragile health, and the expression of the gaze is an indication of his depressed state.  

Self-Portrait of the Artist without a Beard

This self-portrait was created by Van Gogh at the Saint-Remy asylum where he was interned after terrible crises accompanied by several attempts at suicide and affected by strong hallucinations.

He did not leave his room for a long time; he only managed to paint a few self-portraits, this being one of them.

In this painting, he is represented with a serene color with a somewhat anguished gaze.

Van Gogh died poor and without having managed to sell his works, but today his paintings have reached one of the highest market prices.

Self-Portrait

This was the last of the self-portraits painted by him while he was interned at the Saint-Rémy asylum, to which he went voluntarily in May 1889.

Five months earlier, he had discussed with the painter and friend Paul Gauguin and injured his own ear.

His paintings in this phase show a concern with movement, expressed in continuous and wavy curves.

Once again, color has its own life and often independence from the forms painted by the artist.

This is what happens in this painting, which has a background covered in spirals in shades of blue and green with the artist's clothes merging with him.  Although blue and green appear frequently in his works, the colors were not chosen by chance: the sum of the tones of the background combined with the curves on the wall form a tense image, which transmits the mental confusion of the painter.

His face stands out with a red beard, tense features, and a fixed gaze that suggest introspection, as if he was so focused on his own thoughts that he ended up "forgetting" his gaze in any direction.

When sending the painting to his brother Theo, Vincent wrote:

"I hope you notice that the expression of my face has become calmer, although my gaze seems less firm than before, as it seems to me." 

Van Gogh's Self-Portraits - Gallery: