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Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh

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Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait without beard, end September 1889, (F 525), Oil on canvas, 40 × 31 cm., Private collection. This was Van Gogh's last self portrait. Given as a birthday gift to his mother.[1]

The dozens of self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh were an important part of his oeuvre as a painter. 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.

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[edit] Paris 1886

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

[edit] Paris 1887

Portrait of Theo, March or April 1887, (once considered Self-Portrait with Straw Hat), re-attributed in 2011 by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F294)

[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, believed to have been destroyed by fire in World War II

  • Self-Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat, Summer 1888
    Oil on pasteboard, 42 × 31 cm
    Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F524)

  • Self-portrait dedicated to Paul Gauguin, September 1888
    Oil on canvas, 62 × 52 cm
    Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA (F476), Provenance: Vincent van Gogh, Arles, (1888,) gift; to Paul Gauguin, (1888-1897) sold. [Ambroise Vollard, Paris.] [Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin.] Dr. Hugo von Tschudi, Berlin, (1906-1911), by descent; to his widow, Angela von Tschudi, Munich (1911-1919), to Neue Staatsgalerie, (1919-1939) sold; [Entartete Kunst sale, 1939, Fischer Gallery, Lucerne,Switzerland, no. 45]; to Maurice Wertheim (1939-1951) bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1951. Notes: Gauguin sold the painting for Fr 300, Hugo von Tschudi bought the painting for the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, with funds from sponsors, but did not submit it to the Kaiser for pre-approval. He took the painting to Munich when he assumed post there.[2]

  • Self-portrait, Arles, November/December 1888
    Private collection (F501)

  • Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, January 1889
    Oil on canvas, 51 × 45 cm
    Private Collection (F529)

  • Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, Easel and Japanese Print, January 1889
    Oil on canvas, 60 × 49 cm
    Courtauld Institute Galleries, London (F527)

[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.

  • Self-Portrait, August 1889
    Oil on canvas, 57 × 43,5 cm
    National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (F626)

  • Self-Portrait, September 1889
    Oil on canvas, 65 × 54 cm
    Musée d'Orsay, Paris (F627)

  • Self-portrait without beard, end September 1889
    Oil on canvas, 40 × 31 cm
    Private collection (F525). This painting was van Gogh's last self portrait, which he gave to his mother as a birthday gift.[1] 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] Scandals

During the Third Reich regime in Germany, Vincent van Gogh paintings were stolen and/or destroyed by German authorities including the self-portrait [Self-portrait dedicated to Paul Gauguin, September 1888], depicted in the black and white photograph below.

A confiscated self-portrait [Self-portrait dedicated to Paul Gauguin, September 1888], by Vincent van Gogh is auctioned at Gallerie Fisher, Lucerne, in 1939. The winning bid was $US 40.000 by Dr. Frankfurter.[3]

[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,[4] 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.[5]

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 for decades, until provenance research by staff members now reported pro domo the contrary.[6] The debate is on-going.

[edit] Portraits of Vincent van Gogh by other artists

[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

  1. ^ a b Pickvance (1986), 131
  2. ^ Fogg Museum collection
  3. ^ Hammerstingl, Werner (1998). "Entartete Kunst", olinda.com. Retrieved December 31, 2007.
  4. ^ De la Faille 1970, nos. CHK
  5. ^ De la Faille 1970, no. 476a: inscribed étude à la bougie
  6. ^ Marit Ingeborg Lange: The provenance of Vincent van Gogh's 'Self-portrait' in Oslo, Burlington Magazine CXLVIII/1235, February 2006, p.113-116
  7. ^ USA Today

[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
  • Pickvance, Ronald. Van Gogh In Saint-Rémy and Auvers (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Abrams, 1986. ISBN 0-87099-477-8

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