Painted in late August 1889, Self-Portrait, on loan from The National Museum of Art in Oslo, reveals the way in which Van Gogh did not shy away from confronting his mental state. Confined indoors without any models other than himself, but still wanting to practice painting figures, Van Gogh turned to self-portraiture. Fearing that doctors would not allow him to paint, Van Gogh asked his brother Theo to write to the asylum on his behalf, stating: “working on my paintings is quite necessary to my recovery”. He stayed there for a year, during which his mental health fluctuated significantly.
#Vgallery of van goghs work series
Following a series of relapses, on May 8, 1889, Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, located in a former monastery close to Saint-Rémy, France.
Van Gogh’s first major mental health crisis occurred on December 23, 1888, when he cut off a large part of his left ear, following a dispute with his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin. Shown together for the first time in over a century at The Courtauld Gallery, the self-portraits provide a unique insight into Van Gogh’s changing psychological condition and the way he viewed himself. Indeed, Van Gogh made clear that being able to paint was key to his healing process. Two self-portraits were painted only one week apart at the asylum, in late August and early September 1889, but show Van Gogh in very different lights – the first was painted as he was still in the midst of the severe mental health crisis that had struck him in mid-July, while the second was created as he was slowly recovering. This unprecedented exhibition takes as its springboard Van Gogh’s iconic Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, one of the most celebrated works in The Courtauld collection, and will bring together around half of the self-portraits Van Gogh created during his career.Īn outstanding selection of more than 15 works will be brought together to trace the evolution of Van Gogh’s self-representation, from his early Self-Portrait with a Dark Felt Hat, created in 1886 during his formative period in Paris, to Self-Portrait with a Palette, painted at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in September 1889, one of his last self-portraits before his death in 1890. Self- Portraits opens February 3 – May 8, 2022, at The Courtauld Gallery in London. His younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept a long correspondence by letter.Van Gogh. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881, having moved back home with his parents. He turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often traveling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. Not commercially successful, he struggled with severe depression and poverty, eventually leading to his suicide at age thirty-seven.īorn into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet, and thoughtful. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history.
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