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Self-portrait in front of the easel by Vincent Van Gogh

Self portrait in front of the easel by Vincent Van Gogh

Among the creative works of Vincent van Gogh, there are a number of self-portraits, each of which differs in its originality and special experience.

An example is the “Self-portrait in front of the easel”, created by the artist in 1888. Currently, the self-portrait is kept in Amsterdam at the Van Gogh Museum.

Despite the artist’s rather bright and, you can say, whitewashed background, the self-portrait has a certain weighting character. A light background tightly envelops the figure of Van Gogh, slipping on the contours of clothing and almost merging with a translucent shade of skin.

The whole figure and the whole image of the artist are turned away from the light and are in shadow, which gives the picture a complex light-shadow relationship. The artist’s face is depicted with a blackout, which gives a state of tension, extreme concentration and some hidden inner observer from the inattentive observer, who is seriously burdened with sensual impulses of inner life.

First of all, the eyes and the look of the artist are amazing. Dark, deep eyes, as it were, oppose the too-lighted background of the picture. They serve as a reflection of something disturbing and unspoken.

The bright background is presented as a single whole color spot, a kind in contrast to the image of the artist, burning under the dynamics of the stroke. Dynamic lines-strokes, with the help of which the image and essence of the artist is transmitted, serve to all and some hint that the image presented before us is impulsive and ambiguous.

The central symbols of this canvas are the easel, brushes and palette depicted. They seem to come from that invisible creative energy, which radiant dynamic flows infects all around with the warmth of colorful particles.

Self-portrait is complex in its perception. One-dimensional understanding of it is wrong and primitive, and any attempt at interpretation is inaccessible. The canvas makes the perception more complicated and look for subtexts, like fairy-tale formulas. The artist’s clothing is exactly the starry sky or the space of the night, which gradually filled with fiery colored flashes, sharp and uncontrollable, like the very nature and artistic soul of Vincent Van Gogh.

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