Astonishing and gripping: Van Gogh’s Self Portraits at the Courtauld reviewed

These paintings begin to provide some answers to question: why did Van Gogh paint himself so much?

From magazine issue: 12 February 2022

‘Thin, pale as a devil’ but back again at his easel: Self-Portrait, late August 1889, by Van Gogh. Credit: The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo

issue 12 February 2022

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Martin Gayford

Astonishing and gripping: Van Gogh’s Self Portraits at the Courtauld reviewed
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In September 1889, Vincent van Gogh sent his brother Theo a new self-portrait from the mental hospital at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. ‘You must look at it for some time,’ he instructed, then ‘you’ll see, I hope, that my physiognomy has grown much calmer, although the gaze may be vaguer than before, so it appears to me.