Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, Paris 1887

' What fascinates me the most, more than anything else in my profession, is the portrait '
wrote Vincent to his sister Wil in 1890.

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Van Gogh was his own most important sitter. Because he hoped to become a portrait painter in Paris, he made an especially high number of self-portraits there, thus finding an inexpensive model in his own mirror-image.

It allowed him to experiment with various styles, techniques and effects of light and color.

Most of the Parisian self-portraits are rather small. They were clearly meant as studies and as experiments. This can be seen in the loose, very free manner in which many are executed.

The photo on the left is taken in the Van Gogh Museum.

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat
Size : 40,5 x 32,5 cm ( 16 x 13 inch )
Paris, summer 1887
F 469

Van Gogh patterned the background of 'fond brun violet' with strokes of blue and green color. The reticulated structure of some strokes suggest that they did not properly take to the under layer. Fading of the purple now makes the blue and green strokes appear to float directly on the light ground. So the violet of the underground and the reds in the painting are gone. It is important to realize that this almost abstract or unfinished look to the picture was not intended by the artist.

We reconstruct these famous painting Vincent made in 1887

Vincent used ready-primed-cardboard support known in France as 'cartons'. These cartons were lower in price. Only 2 mm thick, and built up in two layers of hard-pressed unrefined, low quality wood pulp. With a surface so called 'fond brun violet', with white, carmine and traces of yellow and gives a typical pink tint. The structure was a bit smooth, like it was sanded.

We cannot use the same carton, because of the low quality, so we use so called MDF, thickness 8 mm special prepared for artists.
And off-course with a surface of 'fond brun violet'.

Vincent worked precise and the drawing was just always done with the aid of a perspective frame. On the left you will find that window. Inside that frame were metal-lines. He looked through that open-window in the direction of his subject. In this case it was a mirror. On his ground (linen or what ever) he drew these lines also. So he was able to copy his view, mirror-image precise.

Looking through the perspective frame Vincent has chosen for a center (C), just always around the middle of the painting. And he marked it. Here he it was his right-eye.

Then he searched, to get depth in his painting, for strong vertical lines from top to bottom near that center. See the photo on the left. The head, his nose and vertical line in his jacket.

To get harmony he looked for horizontal lines. His head and jacket.

To get more intention to the center he drew in the foreground lines in the direction of that center.

For this self-portrait Vincent drew with a common pencil.

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