SELF PORTRAIT

Self portrait is an 1889 oil on canvas painting by the post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. Considered Van Gogh’s most handsome self-portrait, it was painted during his stay at the asylum of Saint Rémy, after two months of insanity. He would paint himself because he didn’t have the money to pay for models, Van Gogh said he was quite in this paint with the light blue swirling background, in fact he sent this picture to his younger brother and he wrote:"In this painting the attention is focused on the face, his features are hard, his green eyes seem intransigent and anxious. The dominant colour is a mix of green and light blue, but there is the fiery orange of the hair and the beard; the immobility of Van Gogh contrasts with the undulating hair and beard. Of this painting I like the look of Van Gogh because at the beginning transmits confidence and calm but if you look carefully you feel that Van Gogh hides a wounded soul, in fact the following year he would commit suicide. Laura Cordone 3H

Vincent Wilhem Van Gogh was born on 30th March 1853 in Holland and died on 29th July 1890 in France. He was a post impressionist painter that completed 2100 works. During 1887 he was with his brother Theo in Paris, where he painted one of his famous self portraits.                  

This painting is an oil on cardboard and is 41 cm high and 33 cm long. It's now at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In this painting we can see Van Gogh with red-golden hair, a bright orange beard and light green eyes. He used a light pink , almost white, paint to recreate the colour of his skin. We can also see that the painter used a darker shade of pink to create the shadows. The brushes of this colour are near his beard and hair and especially on his right ear. He also used another shade of pink under his eyebrows that puts in evidence the light colour of his eyes . Van Gogh painted himself with a violet jacket that was painted with brushes of different colours like red, black, green, blue and ,of course, purple. He also wears a white shirt with a light blue tie.

The painting has discoulored so we can't see the dark red paint that was on the background ,left crude with only brushes of dark blue. For Van Gogh self portraits were a way to know and represent himself so he painted a lot of them during his life . He used to realize self portraits even because he desired to leave an imagine of himself and his soul that would last beyond his life.   Vittoria Ribbeni 3H