Self-Portrait

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, July-August 1887

oil on canvas, 44.5 cm x 33.6 cm

Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

During his time in Paris (1886-1888), Van Gogh painted more than 20 self-portraits. He probably had very little money for models. That led him to take himself as an object of study. Here he portrays himself as an artist in his blue smock-frock. This was what he wore when painting.

Van Gogh painted this on the back of a Study for ‘The Potato Eaters’, which he had made earlier in Nuenen (NL). By doing that, he avoided the costs not only of a model but also of expensive canvas.

F-number
F0077v
JH-number
JH1304
Object number
s0135V1962v
Dimensions
44.5 cm x 33.6 cm, 40 cm x 51.1
Provenance
Left by the artist at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, sometime between mid-July and August 1887; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; given on loan by Jo van Gogh-Bonger to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 1917 to 1919; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
artist
Vincent van Gogh
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

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