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Paint by Numbers

Van Gogh Self Portrait

Van Gogh Self Portrait

Regular price R 545.00 ZAR
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This self portrait of Van Gogh is titled: Self portrait with Grey Felt Hat and was painted 1887.  It is one of 35 self-portraits he painted in his life.  Apart from the self portraits he painted, there is only 1 known photograph of him which survived.  He didn't paint this many self-portraits because he was vain, it was more out of necessity.  The majority of them – over 25 – were painted while he was in Paris (1886–88). He was short of money in that period and struggled to find models. So the artist chose the simplest solution and painted himself.

These paintings give us some insight into the man himself, together with the many letters he wrote to his brother describing his paintings, it has helped shape our image of Vincent van Gogh.  He often portrayed himself as restrained and serious in these portraits, giving us a glimpse of his personality in each painting.  Some things, like when he cut off his ear, he found to difficult to write about, but he 'reported' it in 2 of his paintings.  He painted because he genuinely believed painting helps him 'heal', helps him to deal with life.

‘People say – and I’m quite willing to believe it – that it’s difficult to know oneself – but it’s not easy to paint oneself either.’ - Vincent van Gogh

In this portrait he experimented with a different type of brushstroke.  The shorter brushstrokes are running in a variety of directions, resulting in a ahlo-like circle around his head.  It also shows us a smarter Vincent, a man of the City, living in Paris.  This painting is currently hanging in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Our version of his 1887 self portrait is fairly challenging with its 29colours.  Each box contains a stretched, printed and numbered canvas, paint, brushes and a page detailing the numbers for an extra reference.

 

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/; 

 

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Paint by Numbers

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