Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, 1887
Vincent van Gogh
Oil on canvas · 16 x 12 1/2 in. (40.6 x 31.8 cm)
A quick, sunlit self-study painted over an earlier, abandoned canvas.
Unable to afford models, van Gogh painted himself constantly. In this bright summer self-portrait the straw hat and dabbed blue background crackle with the short, energetic strokes that would define his style — a candid, searching look at the artist himself.
What you're looking at
There is another painting on the back of it. The Met's canvas is double-sided: van Gogh turned an earlier study of a peasant woman over and painted himself on the reverse, because canvas cost money. The background is not a background so much as a field of separate strokes radiating out from his head, each one a different blue or green.
On a Frame TV
About 4:5, so use the matted file. Bright and high in contrast, which makes it easy to place — it holds up in a lit room and reads clearly from across one.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Visit it in New York →
- 4K master file (3840px+)
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- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with Vincent van Gogh.
