Vincent van Gogh
Arles, January 1889
Oil paint on canvas
This work is the only self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh with a recognisable setting. The artist represented himself in the small studio set up on the ground floor of his rented house in Arles. He is flanked by a canvas on an easel and a Japanese woodcut, an important source of inspiration. Van Gogh painted this work a week after leaving the hospital where he had received treatment following the mutilation of his left ear (shown here as his right as he always painted himself in a mirror). This desperate act may have been precipitated by a dispute with his friend and housemate, the artist Paul Gauguin.
The self-portrait can be seen as a powerful statement on Van Gogh’s part that he has started working again. Above all, it is the artist’s assured brushwork and bold colours that declare his renewed ambition as a painter.