Vincent van Gogh · Paris · Arles · Saint-Rémy
Self-portraits of Van Gogh: history, faces and evolution
In three years, Van Gogh transformed his own face into a laboratory of color, a painter's identity card and an almost uncomfortable field of frankness.
From the Parisian felt hat to the bandaged ear cap, then to the swirling lines of Saint-Rémy, his self-portraits do not tell a single mood. They show an artist learning, introducing himself, putting himself to the test and starting again.
A model always available
Why does Van Gogh paint himself so much?
The first answer is very concrete: Van Gogh lacks the money to hire models. In Paris, where he lived with his brother Theo from 1886 to 1888, his own face was free, patient and accessible at any time. The mirror allows him to practice portraiture, a genre he considers essential, without depending on an appointment or imposing long poses on someone.
But necessity becomes method. Each canvas serves him to test a chromatic scale, a brush direction, a background or a way of constructing volumes. The first dark faces still inherit his Dutch period. The following ones absorb impressionism, neo-impressionism, Japanese prints and conversations with the Parisian avant-gardes. Looking at the series in order, we see accelerated training.
The self-portrait is also a public presentation. Van Gogh shows himself with a jacket, a straw hat, a hat, a palette or an easel. He does not simply deliver "what he feels": he constructs a painter's identity. The serious look, the modest clothing and the absence of pageantry speak of the work, the endurance and the place he claims among modern artists.
Four moments, four functions
From Parisian apprenticeship to the reconstruction of Saint-Rémy
The chronology prevents us from reading all the self-portraits like the pages of the same diary. The face remains recognizable, but the project changes: color study, exchange card between artists, return to work after a crisis or final affirmation.
Arrival in Paris
Palette still brown, tight framing, careful testing. Van Gogh discovered impressionism and met Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Bernard and Gauguin.
The laboratory
Short touches, straw or felt hats, oppositions of complements. Color stops imitating the skin and organizes the whole image.
Arles
Van Gogh introduced himself to Gauguin as a "bonze" then painted himself, after the hospital, with his bandage, his easel and a Japanese print.
Saint-Rémy
In the last self-portraits, the background lines almost cross the figure. The painting seeks less polite resemblance than a reconstructed presence.
1886 -1888 · Paris
A face to learn modern color
Van Gogh produced the majority of his self-portraits during the two Parisian years. Their diversity is striking: red or shaved beard, jacket or blouse, gray straw or felt hat, light background, blue, green or punctuated with dashes. Rather than a series of confessions, it is an inventory of pictorial solutions.
The Straw Hat: Painting Summer with Few Means
The model is not disguised as a picturesque peasant. The hat is a common and economical object, suitable for the sun. Van Gogh uses it in several studies to contrast its yellows with the blues and greens of the background. The skin itself becomes a blend of roses, ocher, green and small bluish notes.
Brushstrokes don't all follow the same direction. They follow the roundness of the skull, go down into the beard, cross on the jacket and scatter behind the head. This "grammar" of keys builds volume without very strong academic drawing.
The modest supports recall the material reality of the artist. He paints on cardboard, on prepared canvas or on the reverse of previous works. This economy does not prevent ambition: each small area becomes a field where discoveries seen in Parisian workshops and exhibitions can be tested.
Gray felt: one of the peaks of the Parisian period
In this self-portrait, "gray" does not mean neutrality. The hat receives blues, greens and warm accents; the face juxtaposes orange, pink and turquoise; the jacket responds to the background with oblique dashes. The complements mutually reinforce their intensity.
The gaze is not at the geometric center, but it immediately stops the viewer. Van Gogh observes his reflection with concentration. As the mirror reverses the image, what we see is not exactly the face an interlocutor would have encountered. The series repeats this slight strangeness: the painter is at the same time subject, model and first spectator.
Some reds from these years have deteriorated over time. The Van Gogh Museum notably showed that backgrounds that are now bluish or gray could contain more purple. Reading the palette therefore requires distinguishing the current surface from the initial balance desired by the artist.
A profession in pictures
The Self-Portrait as a Painter affirms an identity
The palette replaces social decorations
At the end of his stay in Paris, Van Gogh represented himself with the instruments of his work. He poses neither as a prosperous bourgeois nor as a theatrical bohemian. His blue blouse, his loaded palette and his handful of brushes are enough to say who he is. The portrait almost becomes a professional statement.
The blue-green background and orange beard form an energetic opposition, while the touches of the blouse descend wider. The hand holding the material appears deliberately firm. This device reminds us that the self-portrait is not the spontaneous capture of an emotion: it is composed, coded and intended to be watched.
Van Gogh wants to renew modern portraiture. In his letters, he imagines faces that would express an era through color, in the way that the ancient masters had given a lasting presence to their models. To paint yourself with your palette is to test this ambitious program on yourself.
See Self-portrait as a painterSeptember 1888 · Arles
A self-portrait sent to Gauguin as a painted letter
In Arles, Van Gogh waited for Paul Gauguin in the hope of founding a collective workshop. Gauguin, Van Gogh and Émile Bernard then exchange self-portraits. Everyone must show their face, but also their conception of the artist. The image travels in place of its author.
The "bonze": an image designed for another artist
Van Gogh shaves his hair and accentuates the angle of his eyes. In a letter to Theo, he explains that he conceived his character as that of a monk, a simple worshiper of the eternal Buddha. This vocabulary belongs to the European imagination of Japan at the time, far removed from an exact knowledge of Japanese Buddhism.
The painting must therefore be read with two precautions. It is not an ethnographic document, and it does not prove that Van Gogh literally saw himself as a monk. He invented a figure of artistic dedication for Gauguin, by simplifying the skull, the background and the jacket in a language that he considered more synthetic.
The dedication and exchange change the status of the work. The self-portrait becomes a relationship: Van Gogh offers an image of himself, receives those of Gauguin and Bernard, then hangs them in the Yellow House. The face is part of a conversation about the future of painting.
January 1889 · After the hospital
Bandaged ear: a return to the easel, not a crisis scene
After the serious crisis of December 23, 1888, Van Gogh was hospitalized in Arles. He resumed painting at the beginning of January and produced two self-portraits with a bandage. The most famous, kept at Courtauld in London, measures 60.5 × 50 cm and was painted around mid-January.
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The bandage
He appears on the right in the image, while Van Gogh injured his left ear: the mirror reverses the sides.
The hat
The fur cap holds the bandage and recalls the cold of the Arlesian winter.
The look
The face does not demand pity. He is tense, tired, but built with great mastery.
The easel
In the background, the canvas claims that the model has regained her work and her identity as a painter.
The print
A Japanese image recalls the source of its framing, contours and flat colored areas.
The color
Green of the coat, orange-red of the background and white of the bandage structure the space without narrative dramatization.
The painting does not show the moment of injury. It shows an artist returning to his mirror, who represents himself again among the signs of his profession.
Reading based on the official notice of Courtauld and on the letters of January 1889.
What the table does not allow us to diagnose
It is tempting to transform touch, look or color into medical symptoms. This reading goes too far. A work is a constructed choice: pigments, framing, rhythm, accessories and working time. It does not constitute a clinical file, much less sufficient proof to retrospectively attribute a precise diagnosis.
Van Gogh's seizures are documented, as are his hospitalizations. On the other hand, doctors and historians have offered many incompatible explanations. Reducing self-portraits to "madness" erases their mastery and the visual culture that nourishes them.
During the most acute attacks, Van Gogh generally works little or not at all. He resumes when he regains enough stability. The Bandaged Ear Self-Portrait is powerful because it contains vulnerability and discipline, not because it would provide access to a mysterious automatic painting.
See Self-portrait with bandaged earAugust-September 1889 · Saint-Rémy
The last self-portraits seek continuity
Van Gogh voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in May 1889. After another summer crisis, he painted three of his last self-portraits in August and September. In letter 800, he writes that it is difficult to know oneself and that it is not easy to paint oneself. For lack of another model, he nevertheless worked on two portraits.
The bottom is no longer behind the face: it passes through it
In the portrait of Washington, the blue-green arabesques in the background visually extend into the jacket. The orange beard and pink tones of the face resist this current. The figure appears simultaneously stable and worked by its environment.
Van Gogh does not seek the smooth finish of a worldly portrait. The keys retain their direction and speed. Around the eyes, they attract attention; on the forehead and cheeks, they shape the flesh; basically, they build a continuous movement.
The National Gallery of Art interprets this work in the context of recovery and reconstruction. This reading is more precise than the vague idea of a "hallucinated" face. The painter's instruments present in certain latest self-portraits and the very decision to return to work affirm continuity.
| Element | Paris, 1887 | Arles, 1888 -1889 | Saint-Rémy, 1889 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Function | Portrait learning and color testing | Exchange with Gauguin then return to work | Reconstruction and affirmation of practice |
| Palette | Bright complements, punctuated backgrounds | More synthetic flats, powerful greens and reds | Blue-greens crossed with orange and pink |
| Key | Short, juxtaposed, sometimes dotted | Broader and more descriptive around accessories | Rhythmic, curved, continuous between figure and background |
| Attributes | Hats, jacket or blouse | Dedication, bandage, print, easel | Palette and brushes in one version, appears alone in another |
Read without overinterpreting
Six clues to look at a Van Gogh self-portrait
The look is important, but it is never alone. To understand these works, we must follow the way in which each visual element participates in the image.
Where to see the originals?
A series scattered in major museums
Self-portraits do not form a whole gathered in a single room. They are kept in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Washington and in several American and European collections. Before traveling, always check the hanging: a work can be loaned, restored or temporarily removed.
Van Gogh Museum
The main collection allows you to compare numerous Parisian experiences, their supports and the evolution of pigments.
The Courtauld
L'Bandaged ear self-portrait y dialogues with impressionist and post-impressionist works.
National Gallery of Art
The great self-portrait of 1889 shows Saint-Rémy's latest research with exceptional force.
Musée d'Orsay
A self-portrait from 1889 confronts a luminous face with a blue background animated by tight movements.
Choose a work
Five self-portraits, five different presences
A self-portrait reproduction acts as a presence in the room. The choice can start from the history of the work, but also from its chromatic range and the intensity of the gaze. Vertical formats breathe best with a little space around the frame.
Self-portrait with felt hat
A very lively palette for a petrol blue, ocher, sage green or natural wood interior.
Bandaged ear self-portrait
A narrative and constructed portrait, balanced by the easel and Japanese print.
Dedicated to Paul Gauguin
Simplified forms and a story of exchange between artists.
Blue-green self-portrait
A concentrated presence crossed by the rhythms of the background.
Self-portrait from 1889
Bright blues, red beard and frontal gaze for an emblematic composition.
Self-portrait as a painter
Palette and brushes give the image the clarity of a professional manifesto.
Continue the visit
Collections that extend self-portraits
Compare Van Gogh's faces, place them in modern portraiture and explore the movements, influences and great masterpieces that surround them.
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Expressive color, structure and personal visions after impressionism.
An influenceJaponism
Prints, framing and flat areas that transform the European outlook.
IconsFamous paintings
Find the immediately recognizable works of the great masters.
Complete catalogAll works
Browse all available reproductions.
Frequently asked questions
Understand everything about Van Gogh's self-portraits
How many self-portraits did Van Gogh paint?
The catalogs generally contain around 35 to 36 self-portraits painted between 1886 and 1889. The number varies slightly depending on the scope adopted, and the Van Gogh Museum often speaks of nearly forty self-portraits. Drawings are added to this painted ensemble.
Why did Van Gogh make so many self-portraits?
In Paris, he cannot always pay for models. His reflection allows him to practice portraiture for free and to test colors, backgrounds and touches. The self-portrait is also used to build one's identity as an artist and, in certain cases, to exchange one's image with other painters.
What is Van Gogh's most famous self-portrait?
L'Bandaged ear self-portrait, painted in January 1889 and kept at Courtauld in London, is probably the best known. Self-portraits in gray felt hats and those of Saint-Rémy in 1889 are also among the painter's most famous images.
Why does the bandage seem to cover the right ear?
Van Gogh injured his left ear. He paints himself by looking at his reflection in a mirror, which reverses the sides: the bandage therefore appears on the right in the image. This inversion also concerns the other asymmetries of his face.
Do self-portraits show Van Gogh's mental state?
They can be studied in their biographical context, but they do not constitute medical diagnoses. Each work is a conscious construction made of pigments, gestures, framing and attributes. Reducing their style to illness erases the painter's learning and mastery.
When did Van Gogh paint his last self-portraits?
He painted his last three self-portraits in August and September 1889 in Saint-Rémy, after a summer crisis. One of them is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and another at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Where to see Van Gogh's original self-portraits?
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam preserves several. Other important works can be found at the Courtauld in London, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and various public or private collections. Check the hanging before your visit.
How to choose a self-portrait reproduction of Van Gogh?
First choose the presence that attracts you: the Parisian color of the felt hat, the story of the bandaged ear, the exchange with Gauguin or the blue-green rhythms of Saint-Rémy. Then take into account the wall, the light and the space needed around the vertical format.
Main sources: notice and resources of Van Gogh Museum ; official notice of theSelf-portrait with bandaged ears at Courtauld ; file and notice of the National Gallery of Art ; letter 800 to Theo and letter 695 on the portrait dedicated to Gauguin, in Vincent van Gogh - The Letters. Accessed July 2026.
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