Gogh, Vincent van: Self-Portraits

In the most limited definition of the term, Impressionism as the objective study of light did not encourage so essentially a subjective study as the self-portrait but in the later expansion of the movement this self-representation was given renewed force by Cézanne and van Gogh. The latter has often been compared with Rembrandt in the number and expressiveness of his self-portraits but while Rembrandt's were distributed through a lifetime, van Gogh produced some thirty in all in the short space of five years --- from the end of the Brabant period (1885) to the last year of his life at St Rémy and Auvers. In each there is the same extraordinary intensity of expression concentrated in the eyes but otherwise there is a considerable variety. From the Paris period onwards he used different adaptations of Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist brushwork, separate patches of colour being applied with varying thickness and direction in a way that makes each painting a fresh experience.

247.4K, 826 x 1012	Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear Painted: 1889 Oil on canvas 60 x 49 cm Courtauld Institute Galleries London	Self-portrait	20.9K, 303 x 349
36.5K, 336 x 472	Self-portrait	Self-Portrait in front of the Easel Painted: 1888 65 x 50.5 cm	196.6K, 688 x 914
136.6K, 829 x 1025	Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin) Painted: 1888 Oil on canvas 60.5 x 49.4 cm Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Cambridge	Self-Portrait Painted: 1889 Oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm Musee d'Orsay Paris	251.7K, 827 x 1026
252.9K, 807 x 1061	Self-Portrait Painted: 1889 Oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm Musee d'Orsay Paris