Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh Information & Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh Links at HealthHaven.com

Vincent van Gogh created many self-portraits during his lifetime. Most probably, Van Gogh's self portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e. his right side in the image is in reality the left side of his face.

[edit] Paris

The first self-portrait by Van Gogh that survived, is dated 1886.

Winter 1886/87 (F 268) Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford	Winter 1886/87 (F 269 verso) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam	Winter 1886/87 (F 267) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam	Winter 1886/87 (F 380) Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Winter 1886/87 (F 295) Oil on pasteboard, 41 x 32 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam	March/April 1887 (F 296) Oil on pasteboard, 19 × 14 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam	Spring 1887 (F 345) Oil on pasteboard, 42 × 33.7 cm Art Institute of Chicago	Summer 1887 (F 524) Oil on pasteboard, 42 × 31 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Summer 1887 (F 526) Oil on pasteboard, 24.9 × 26.7 cm Detroit Institute of Arts	Summer 1887 (F 356) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam	Autumn 1887 (F 320) Oil on canvas, 47 × 35 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris	Winter 1887/88 (F 344) Oil on canvas, 44 × 37.5 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
January 1888 (F 522) Oil on canvas, 65 × 50.5 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

[edit] Arles

Painter on his way to work: Vincent van Gogh on the road to Montmajour
August 1888 (F 448)
Oil on canvas, 48 × 44 cm
formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Magdeburg, destroyed by fire in World War II

Self-portrait dedicated to Paul Gauguin, September 1888 (F 476)
Oil on canvas, 62 × 52 cm
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA

Self-portrait with bandaged ear, January 1889 (F 529)
Oil on canvas, 51 × 45 cm
Private collection

Self-portrait with bandaged ear, easel and Japanese print, January 1889 (F 527)
Oil on canvas, 60 × 49 cm
Courtauld Institute Galleries, London

[edit] Saint-Rémy

All Self-Portraits executed in Saint-Rémy show the artist's head from the left, i.e. the side with ear not mutilated.

August 1889 (F 626)
Oil on canvas, 57 × 43,5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

September 1889 (F 627)
Oil on canvas, 65 × 54 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Self-portrait without beard, end September 1889 (F 525)
Oil on canvas, 40 × 31 cm
Private collection

Van Gogh painted Self-Portrait without beard just after he had shaved himself. The self-portrait is one of the most expensive paintings of all time, selling for $71.5 million in 1998 in New York. At the time, it was the third (or an inflation-adjusted fourth) most expensive painting ever sold.

[edit] Auvers-sur-Oise

No self-portraits were executed by Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise, during the final weeks of his life.

[edit] Fakes

Self-Portrait, à l'oreille mutilé, 1889? (F 528)
Oil on canvas, 40 × 31 cm
National Gallery, Oslo

Almost at the same time as when his Catalogue raisonné was published, Jacob Baart de la Faille had to admit that he had included paintings emerging from dubious sources, and of dubious quality. Little later, in 1930, De la Faille rejected some thirty odd paintings, which he had originally included in his Catalogue raisonné - together with a hundred of others he had already excluded: Self-portraits - and Sunflowers - held a prominent place in the set he now rejected. In 1970, the editor's of De la Faille's posthumous manuscript brand marked most of these dubious Self-portraits as forgeries,^[1] but could not settle all disputes, at least on one:

The Selfportrait 'a l'éstampe japonais', then in the collection of William Goetz, Los Angeles, was included, though all editors refused its authenticity.^[2]

Meanwhile, the authenticity of a second "self-portrait" has been challenged:

The Selfportrait, 'à l'oreille mutilé', acquired in 1910 for the Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, has been unanimously rejected by recent scholars and technical researchers since decades, until provenance research by staff members now reported pro domo the contrary.^[3] The debate is on-going.

[edit] Resources

Due to the considerable number of self-portraits by Van Gogh's, for a valid identification reference is to the numbers of Jacob Baart de la Faille's Catalogue raisonné (1928 & 1970) (F) or to Jan Hulsker's updated compilation (1978, revised 1989) (JH).

[edit] Notes

^ De la Faille 1970, nos. CHK
^ De la Faille 1970, no. 476a: inscribed étude à la bougie
^ Marit Ingeborg Lange: The provenance of Vincent van Gogh's 'Self-portrait' in Oslo, Burlington Magazine CXLVIII/1235, February 2006, p.113-116

[edit] References

Hammacher, A. M.: Van Gogh: Selbstbildnisse, Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1960; 2nd edition 1970
Van Lindert, Juleke, & Van Uitert, Evert: Een eigentijdse expressie: Vincent van Gogh en zijn portretten, Meulenhoff/Landshoff, Amsterdam 1990 ISBN 90-290-8350-6
Dorn, Roland: Vincent, portraitiste: Bemerkungen zu ein paar heissen Eisen, in: Lukas Gloor, ed.: Van Gogh echt falsch: Zwei Selbstbildnisse der Sammlung Emil Bührle, Zürich 2005, pp. 7 - 21