Self-Portrait with Straw Hat

It’s lucky for us that Van Gogh was so often unable to afford a model. To practice figure painting, he had to resort to making self-portraits. So we get an impression of how he saw himself. Only one portrait photo of him has survived and neither shows him as an adult.

He painted this self-portrait when he was living in Paris. Unable to pay for new canvas, he used the back of an earlier still life.