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Self Portrait, 1889
Holding up his palette and brushes, Van Gogh reaffirms his identity as an artist. He painted the work ‘on the first day I got up’ following a long recovery from the mental breakdown he experienced in July/August 1889. Although noting that he was ‘thin’ and ‘pale as the devil’, he was pleased with the contrast of blue with his ‘whitish’ face and ‘yellow hair’. The image appeared in his imagined display of paintings in The Bedroom shortly after.
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.5