Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat (section)

Vincent van Gogh made this self-portrait in 1887, during a stretch of about two years he spent in Paris living near his brother Theo. The city was buzzing with fresh ideas at the time, and you can trace them across the canvas. Short, energetic dabs of blue, orange, and green ripple outward from his face like a halo, a sign that he had been paying close attention to the Impressionists and the Pointillists and their bold new ways of applying paint.

Over his lifetime van Gogh painted himself again and again, more than thirty times in all. Part of the reason was simple economics: hiring models cost money he did not have, and his own reflection was always available and free. His grey felt hat and red beard show up clearly here, along with a gaze that feels steady but weary. He gives us no elegant setting or polished pose, only a working painter studying his own features with plain, unflinching curiosity.