It is all too easy to forget that Van Gogh was a struggling artist who never managed to sell any of his works and was dependent largely on the generosity of his brother Theo. Under these circumstances, finding models was an unnecessary expense and he largely perfected his portrait painting by using himself as the model. He mentioned to his brother in a letter that he had especially bought a mirror of good quality for this purpose.
In the last three years of his life alone, Van Gogh painted over 30 self-portraits. I have tried to gather as many as I could find and will keep adding to the collection as I find more.
The Hague Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Holland, 1886
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, 1887
The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, USA, 1887
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, 1887
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, 1887-88
Zurich Foundation E.G.Buhrle, Zurich, Switzerland, 1887-88
Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1887-88
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 1888
Private Collection, Unknown, 1888
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, 1888
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, 1888
Unknown, 1889
Musee D'Orsay, Paris, France, 1889
London Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, UK, 1889
Collection Niarchos, 1889
No comments:
Post a Comment