Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat

During his Paris years, Vincent van Gogh created more than twenty self-portraits as part of an intense period of artistic self-examination. Lacking the means to hire models yet determined to master figure painting, he turned to his own reflection as a constant subject. This work reveals Van Gogh’s growing engagement with Neo-Impressionist technique and contemporary color theory, and is among several self-portraits painted on the reverse of an earlier study of a peasant figure, underscoring both his experimentation and material constraints.