Self portraits

How artists interpret themselves

Self Portrait with Felt hat 1887

V

an Gogh didn’t mix colours

o

n his palette but put different

c

oloured brushstrokes next to each

o

ther on the canvas.

Self Portrait 1886

The chosen colours tell

us how he is feeling.

What do you think he is

telling us about himself in

this portrait?

Self Portrait 1889

Now let’s take a look at this painting up close.

He used thick brushstrokes: dots, short stripes, parallel marks, lined up straight, radiating from a point, angled lined, curved brushstrokes and lots of cross hatching.

Self Portrait 1896

Paul Gaugin, a French artist attempted to paint the many different sides of his character.

What do you think he is trying to tell us here?

Might not a painter’s choice of lines and colors give

an indication of his character, whether it is noble or

common . . . —January 1885 to friend Emile

Schuffenecker

What does he tell us here

Can you see any symbols in the painting which tell us something of his character?

Why do you think he uses these colours?

Is this the same Gauguin?

What do you think about him now?

Take a look at Andy Warhol

This is what he thought

I

am a deeply superficial person. —Andy Warhol

I

f you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look

at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and

there I am. There’s nothing behind it. —Andy Warhol

Self Portrait 1986

How does this make you feel?

Self Portrait 1964