Vincent van Gogh Self-Portraits

Vincent van Gogh painted over 30 self-portraits between the years 1886 and 1889. Vincent van Gogh's collection of self-portraits places him among the most prolific self-portraitists of all time. Vincent van Gogh used portrait painting as a method of introspection, a method to make money and a method of developing his skills as an artist.

When Van Gogh first began painting he used peasants as models. After this stage, he worked more on experimenting with his use of color in painting landscapes and flowers, primarily because he could not afford to pay models.

Vincent van Gogh explains this in a letter to his sister Wilhelmina van Gogh in 1887,

“Of my own work I think that the picture of peasants eating potatoes

I did in Nuenen is après tout the best I've done. But since then I've had no chance of getting models, though on the other hand I did have the chance to study the colour question. And if I should find models again for my figures later, then I would hope to be able to show that I am after something other than little green landscapes or flowers.”

As Vincent van Gogh struggled to make a living as an artist he became reliant on his brother Theo and the charity of others such as Julien "Père" Tanguy, who ran the paint store that Vincent van Gogh frequented in Paris. With their generosity of money and supplies, Vincent van Gogh continued working as an artist and thought of portrait painting as a practical application of his talent. In a letter to his brother Theo in July of 1888 Vincent van Gogh wrote,

“Besides, I think I have spoken the truth, but if I should succeed in replacing in goods the money spent, I should only be doing my duty. And then, something practical I can do is portrait painting.”

Vincent van Gogh did not have money to pay models to pose for portraits nor did he have many people commissioning him to do portraits, so Vincent van Gogh painted his own portrait. Vincent van Gogh did not see portrait painting as merely a means to an end; Vincent van Gogh also believed that portrait painting would help him develop his skills as an artist. In a letter to his brother Theo dated September 16, 1888, Vincent van Gogh writes about a self-portrait he painted and dedicated to his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin,

“The third picture this week is a portrait of myself, almost colourless, in ashen tones against a background of pale veronese green.

Vincent Van Gogh Letters

Vincent Van Gogh is most famous for the nearly 900 exceptional paintings he produced during his short career, however, Vincent Van Gogh also wrote over 800 letters to his friends and family. Most of these letters were affectionate correspondence to Vincent Van Gogh's younger brother and confidant Theo, detailing events in Vincent Van Gogh’s life.

Vincent Van Gogh also exchanged letters with a young artist who had impressed him, Emile Bernard. In the candid and informal letters to Bernard, there was clearly a continuing conversation taking place as they traded ideas about technique and color as well as art itself.

Vincent Van Gogh to Bernard, 1888:

"My dear old Bernard, I'm quite curious to know what you've been doing lately. I'm still doing landscapes - sketch enclosed. I'd very much like to see Africa as well. But I'm hardly making any firm plans for the future. It'll depend on circumstances. What I should like to know is the effect of a more intense blue in the sky…"

"You can't have blue without yellow or orange, and if you do blue, then do yellow and orange as well, surely. Ah well, you'll tell me that I write you nothing but banalities. Handshake in thought, Ever yours, Vincent"

Many people consider Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to be an art form of their own, just as impressive as his famous paintings. Within the pages of the lengthy letters are remarkable sketches of works that Vincent Van Gogh was in the process of creating or had recently finished. The sketches allow us to see the progression of Vincent Van Gogh’s work as well as his growth as an artist. There is great attention to detail in these sketches.

Vincent Van Gogh’s letters show a side of him many don’t know about and give a good perspective of the artist’s life and his connection to his artwork as well as his state of mind. The sketches are invaluable, as they give us glimpses into the process by which Vincent Van Gogh arrived at his masterpieces.

In a letter to Theo from 1882 Vincent Van Gogh wrote,

“Where in this little sketch the black is darkest, there in the watercolour are the strongest effects, dark green, brown and grey. Well, adieu, and believe me that sometimes I laugh heartily, because people suspect me of all kinds of malignity and absurdities, of which I do not nourish an inkling. (I who am really nothing but a friend of nature. of study. of work, and of people in particular.)”

Vincent van Gogh - Life

Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent van Gogh was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when Vincent van Gogh finally decided to become an artist, Vincent van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where Vincent van Gogh was dismissed for overzealousness. Vincent van Gogh remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of Vincent van Gogh's early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year Vincent van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.

In 1886 Vincent van Gogh went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, Vincent van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. Vincent van Gogh's nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. Vincent van Gogh decided to go south to Arles where Vincent van Gogh hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, Vincent van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Vincent van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and Vincent van Gogh was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.

In May of 1890, Vincent van Gogh seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later Vincent van Gogh was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Vincent van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Vincent van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.

Vincent Van Gogh Paintings video