Many of you know that I like doing self-portraits. Drawing or painting yourself is a great way to practice  – faces are tricky and so drawing your own enhances your observation skills; it’s always available (even if it doesn’t feel like it is!); it’s cheap; it offers the opportunity for self-reflection; and all you need is a mirror, pencil and paper at most.

Speaking of self-portraits, I came across a fascinating book the other day, Vincent: The Complete Self-Portraits by Bernard Denvir (Running Press, 1994). In it, I discovered self-portraits by Van Gogh that I’d never seen before. And so I want to share a few of these unknowns (at least to me) with you.

 

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) painted more than 40 self-portraits. They are all dated between late 1885, the time he studied for a short time at the Antwerp Art Academy, and 1889, the year before he died – four years in total!

It was difficult to choose which ones to include but here goes! In chronological order as set out in the book, you’ll see that they run the gamut from a more traditional style to the post-impressionistic look we usually associate with the artist.

 

This was a time when Van Gogh was being treated for syphilis and had had ten teeth extracted (ouch!). No wonder he’s not a happy man. By this time he had travelled from Holland to Paris and joined the studio of Ferdnand Cormon. That’s quite the red background!

 

Apparently begun in early 1886, this portrait shows a lot more of the body than most of Van Gogh’s portraits; others show head and shoulders only. Perhaps this was an influence of studying with Corman. Is that a glass at the lower right? It’s difficult to make out through the cracking visible in the lower half of the painting. This pipe-smoking Van Gogh looks self assured.

 

 

Here we have what looks like a more ‘traditional’ portrait, one that reveals a gentler side of the artist who also looks rather sad. He wrote, “….however hard living may be here, and even if it becomes worse and harder – the French air clears up the brain and does good….” I love the small detail of the pin holding the cravat.

 

 

And then this appears! Obviously it shows the influence of pointillism as seen in the work of Paul Signac and George Seurat.

 

A very small portrait, this one is unusual in that it faces directly out. It has moved away from the darker and warmer earlier pieces and revels in blue thick paint. He looks worldly and confident, hardly the man of uneasy mental state. And yet, can we read something of the tortured soul to be in those intense eyes?

 

Is this the man below the surface revealed? Done on the same size card with similar blues as the piece above, this self-portrait is more roughly painted with more of the brush stroke that we know. This is no longer a man of the world but a man of depth and worry.

 

I love this unusual painting, so unlike his other self-portraits. In it, Van Gogh looks away from the viewer and I believe this is the only instance of this pose. It is a portrait of a thoughtful man but one with worry creasing his forehead. At this time he was drinking heavily, “nearly an alcoholic” he admits in a letter to Gauguin. This painting was the first in a series of four.

 

The last in the series of four, Van Gogh looks almost like a monk. The vigorously painted blue robe shows up against the pale white skin the thick paint of which accentuates the worried brow. The canvas behind the head is covered with only a thin brushing of paint.

 

 

There is a question as to whether this is a finished work as the definition of the head belies the unfinished look of the background. But as it was done on cardboard, it seems quite possible that it is a finished piece. Van Gogh appears in his ubiquitous straw hat, the only version I’ll be including here as many of the others are well known works.

 

I am taken with this self-portrait. Here is a man content in his life, without the worry and introspection of previous portraits we’ve seen. There’s almost a smile about to crack across his face….maybe? I love the scattering of dashes that move diagonally across the painting in the background. They seem to have evolved from the dashes in the painting above. The face is finely worked – nose, eyes, mouth, beard.

 

 

Whoa!!! Then along comes this curious self-portrait. What strange eyes, and look at the pursed mouth, and all the brushstrokes expressively forming the head. In the background is the hint of a Japanese print, the rage in Paris at that time.

 

 

This self-portrait was done a year later. It looks partly influenced by the work of Gauguin (who had arrived in Arles at the end of October 1888) and partly by realism (his skin, much cleared of facial hair, looks almost real!). Van Gogh was taken by the idea of artists exchanging self-portraits (he incorrectly thought this was a custom in Japan). He had already painted one for Gauguin (a more famous self-portrait) and this was for Charles Laval who gave him one in return. Soon after this portrait was done, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear.

 

Painted during one of his stays in the asylum at Saint Remy, Van Gogh looks out at us as if to ask a question – what is to be done? There is a feeling of resignation in the look he gives us, or is it suspicion? He certainly  doesn’t look ‘crazy.’…..or does he??

 

And this, his last self-portrait, shows a clean-shaven (but possibly nicked?), gentle man who undoubtedly did not look much like this when we consider all his other self-portraits. Van Gogh sent this to his mother who had celebrated her 70th birthday earlier that year, apparently to reassure her of his health. Before the next year passes, he is dead from self-inflicted gun shots.

 

So there are a few of the self-portraits that I really can’t remember having seen before. Are you familiar with any of them? I’d love to  know.

 

Van Gogh wrote, “I would very much like to paint portraits which in a hundred years’ time will be revelations.” There is no doubt he achieved this goal! Yes?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

~ Gail

 

PS. The book from which all these images and some of my facts come from is:

 

 

PPS. Here’s a wonderful early photograph of Van Gogh. You can see the facial features that will show up in his many self-portraits – the brow, the eyes, the nose, the mouth.