Reproduction under Marie-Louise Vincent van Gogh - Self-portrait, 1889

This reproduction was published for the exhibition " Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise The Final Months" from October 3rd, 2023 to February 4th, 2024 at the musée d'Orsay.

Self-portrait (details), 1889
Oil on canvas H. 65,0 ; W. 54,2 cm.
Gift of Paul and Marguerite Gachet, 1949
© Musée d'Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Like Rembrandt and Goya, Vincent van Gogh often used himself as a model; he produced over forty-three self-portraits, paintings or drawings in ten years. Like the old masters, he observed himself critically in a mirror. Painting oneself is not an innocuous act: it is a questioning which often leads to an identity crisis.
In this head-and-shoulders view, the artist is wearing a suit and not the pea jacket he usually worked in. Attention is focused on the face. His features are hard and emaciated, his green-rimmed eyes seem intransigent and anxious. The dominant colour, a mix of absinth green and pale turquoise finds a counterpoint in its complementary colour, the fiery orange of the beard and hair. The model's immobility contrasts with the undulating hair and beard, echoed and amplified in the hallucinatory arabesques of the background.
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