NATIONAL GALLERY, Self Portrait By Van Gogh

Of the many works by Vincent van Gogh that you can see at the National Gallery, this self-portrait is undoubtedly the most famous.

Van Gogh painted around 36 self-portraits, so much so that he became one of the most easily recognizable faces of all the artists from the nineteenth century, with his red hair and beard.

This was his last and was painted by the artist in a French psychiatric hospital, which he had checked himself into. In fact, just a few months before he had severed his own earlobe following an argument with the famous painter, Paul Gauguin, while suffering a psychotic breakdown, and subsequently gave it to a prostitute that both painters frequented.

The Dutch painter suffered from severe mental problems, likely due to a bipolar disorder, which was aggravated by his excessive use of alcohol and his hard life. Just a year later, in 1890, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest, at just 37 years old.

In the mere ten years spanning his career–he started painting full time only from 1881 onwards–he painted over 2,000 canvases, the majority of which were completed in the last two years alone, as he believed that painting was the only cure for his illness....