Description
Self-Portrait with Swirling Background is a self-portrait Vincent van Gogh painted in Saint-Rémy in September 1889: his face turned to our left, orange-red hair and beard, a pale blue-grey suit outlined in dark blue, and a background of pale blue swirls that seem to move around the still figure. The original, oil on canvas, measures 65 x 54.2 cm and belongs to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm or to your own measurements, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Self-Portrait with Swirling Background |
| Other titles: | Portrait de l’artiste · Self-portrait (1889, Musée d’Orsay) |
| Painter: | Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) |
| Year painted: | September 1889, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence |
| Original size: | 65 cm x 54.2 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Post-Impressionism |
| Located at: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris (inv. RF 1949 17) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 16 sizes or made to measure |
Self-Portrait with Swirling Background – Vincent van Gogh
What does Self-Portrait with Swirling Background show?
Van Gogh shows himself from the waist up, close to the viewer, his head turned in three-quarter view towards our left while his eyes look sideways out of the canvas. His brows are drawn together and his mouth is closed tight. The hair is combed back from a high forehead in orange and ochre strokes, the beard and moustache are a deeper orange-red, and the face is modelled in yellow and ochre with green shadows on the cheek and the temple. One ear shows on our right.
He wears a jacket and a buttoned waistcoat in the same pale blue-grey, with a white shirt closed by a small button at the throat. Dark blue lines trace the lapels, the buttons and the edges of the sleeves. Behind him the whole background is filled with curling strokes of pale blue, turquoise and lilac that form spirals and waves, the largest at the upper left. Because the suit and the background share the same cool colour, the warm head is the strongest note on the canvas.
What did Van Gogh write to Theo about this self-portrait?
In a letter to his younger brother Theo he described his own face: ‘I hope you will notice that my facial expressions have become much calmer, although my eyes have the same insecure look as before, or so it appears to me.’ One can read both halves of that sentence in the canvas: the mouth and the posture are still, the eyes watchful.
The painting was made in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in September 1889, during his stay in the asylum there. The English Wikipedia article on this self-portrait counts it among about 32 self-portraits he produced over ten years, and notes that he often painted himself because he lacked the money to pay for models.
What does Self-Portrait with Swirling Background mean?
The Musée d’Orsay, as quoted on Wikipedia, notes that the model’s immobility contrasts with the undulating hair and beard, echoed and amplified in the hallucinatory arabesques of the background. In Sister Wendy Beckett’s reading, the dissolving colours and turbulent patterns signal strain and pressure and stand for the artist’s state of mind.
Whether it is his last self-portrait is not settled. The art historians Ingo F. Walther and Jan Hulsker consider this canvas to be the last; Ronald Pickvance holds that the small self-portrait without a beard, also painted in Saint-Rémy, came later.
Where is the original today?
The original belongs to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The museum records it under its own title, Portrait de l’artiste, dated 1889, oil on canvas, 65 cm high and 54.2 cm wide (91.5 x 80.2 cm with its frame), with the inventory number RF 1949 17.
Its route there passed through Auvers-sur-Oise. Van Gogh took the painting with him to Auvers and showed it to Dr Paul Gachet, who, in Van Gogh’s words, was “absolutely fanatical” about it. The museum records the canvas as a gift in 1949 from Paul and Marguerite Gachet, the doctor’s son and daughter.
Self-Portrait with Swirling Background or Self-Portrait without Beard – which should you choose?
Choose this one for the bearded face against a large, moving background of swirls, or choose Self-Portrait without Beard for the small, clean-shaven portrait he also painted in Saint-Rémy in 1889, with a blue jacket against short upright strokes of blue-green. The two are close in time, and art historians still argue about which of the two came last.
For a different moment in his life, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear was painted in Arles in January 1889 and shows him with a fur cap and a bandage. Self-Portrait as an Artist, painted in Paris, shows him at the easel with palette and brushes, and Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat is another self-portrait from his Paris years.
How is our hand-painted Self-Portrait with Swirling Background made?
The painter first draws the head, the line of the hair and beard, the ear and the shoulders, and checks the proportions against the original. Then comes the background, spiral by spiral, then the blue-grey suit with its dark outlines, and last the face, the hair and the beard. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand on canvas, with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as they do in the original and catch the light.
On this painting the relief shows most in the curling strokes of the background, in the combed strokes of the hair and beard and in the long strokes that follow the folds of the jacket. A print is completely flat; on our painting every stroke is real.
Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
Short answer: 40 x 50 or 55 x 66 cm for a narrow wall in a hallway or a study, 64 x 80 or 75 x 90 cm above a chest of drawers or a desk, and 100 x 120 or 110 x 130 cm above a sofa or on a large wall.
There are 16 sizes: 40 x 50, 55 x 66, 60 x 70, 64 x 80, 70 x 85, 75 x 90, 80 x 100, 85 x 105, 90 x 110, 93 x 115, 100 x 120, 105 x 125, 110 x 130, 120 x 140, 127 x 150 and 135 x 160 cm (width x height). The original is 54.2 cm wide and 65 cm high, so 55 x 66 cm is very close to the size at which Van Gogh painted it, and 100 x 120 cm keeps his proportions almost exactly at nearly twice the size. Because the canvas is upright and the figure fills it, the portrait works well on a narrow wall, between two windows or beside a doorway. A painting for the living room should cover about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it.
Place the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, so Van Gogh’s eyes are close to your own. Above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, leave 20 to 30 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the canvas.
What if I need a custom size or a frame?
If none of the 16 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure in any width and height you need. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote you a price and a delivery time. Every painting we make is mounted on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang.
Our 3D app shows each of our frame profiles on this painting, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood. The app is for choosing the frame only. To see the painting on your own wall, use our separate room placement service. A gold frame picks up the orange-red hair and beard, while a dark one repeats the blue outlines of the suit.
How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?
Every painting is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it on its stretcher, carefully packed (and framed, if you chose a frame), across the EU with no customs duty. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.
You will find more of Van Gogh’s famous works among all our Vincent van Gogh paintings, and more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If it is a present and you are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original Self-Portrait with Swirling Background today?
In the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The museum lists it as Portrait de l’artiste, 1889, oil on canvas, 65 x 54.2 cm, inventory number RF 1949 17, and records it as a gift of Paul and Marguerite Gachet, the children of Dr Paul Gachet, in 1949. Before that, Van Gogh had shown the canvas to their father in Auvers-sur-Oise.
When and where did Van Gogh paint the Self-Portrait with Swirling Background?
In Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, in September 1889, while he was staying in the asylum there. The Musée d’Orsay dates the canvas to 1889, and Wikipedia gives the month. The small self-portrait without a beard was also painted in Saint-Rémy, and the two portraits are very close in time.
Why is the background of the Self-Portrait with Swirling Background so restless?
Van Gogh did not explain it, so it is read in different ways. The Musée d’Orsay, as Wikipedia quotes it, sees the stillness of the sitter set against the waving hair and beard, echoed in the hallucinatory arabesques behind him. Sister Wendy Beckett read the turbulent patterns as signs of strain and pressure on the artist.
Is the Self-Portrait with Swirling Background Van Gogh’s last self-portrait?
Possibly, but scholars disagree. Ingo F. Walther and Jan Hulsker consider this canvas his last self-portrait, while Ronald Pickvance believes the small beardless self-portrait, now in a private collection, was painted later. Both were made in Saint-Rémy in 1889, so either way the two are close in time.
What did Van Gogh say about his Self-Portrait with Swirling Background?
That his face had calmed but his eyes had not. In a letter to his brother Theo he wrote that he hoped Theo would notice his facial expressions had become much calmer, although his eyes had the same insecure look as before, or so it appeared to him.
How many self-portraits did Van Gogh paint, and where does the Self-Portrait with Swirling Background fit?
About 32 over ten years, according to Wikipedia, and this is one of the last of them. He often painted himself because he lacked the money to pay for models, so his own face became one of his regular subjects, from Paris to Arles and Saint-Rémy.
How big is the original Self-Portrait with Swirling Background?
65 cm high and 54.2 cm wide, according to the Musée d’Orsay, which also gives 91.5 x 80.2 cm with the frame. Our 55 x 66 cm size is very close to the original, 40 x 50 cm is a smaller option, and if you want the face larger there are 16 sizes up to 135 x 160 cm, plus custom sizes.
Which size of Self-Portrait with Swirling Background suits a living room?
Above a sofa, choose 100 x 120 or 110 x 130 cm, so that the canvas painting holds its own on a large wall and the face reads clearly from across the room. On a narrower wall, beside a bookcase or above a sideboard, 64 x 80 or 75 x 90 cm works well. For a very large wall, choose our largest size, 135 x 160 cm.
Does your Self-Portrait with Swirling Background have the raised brushstrokes of the original?
Yes. We paint it in impasto, building up each brushstroke in thick oil, so the surface is raised like Van Gogh’s original. You see this best in the spirals of the background, in the combed strokes of the orange-red hair and beard and in the long strokes of the jacket, where the relief catches the light from the side.
- Subject: Van Gogh himself, with orange-red hair and beard, in a pale blue-grey suit, against a background of pale blue swirls.
- Original: September 1889, Saint-Rémy, oil on canvas, 65 x 54.2 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
- Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: our 3D app shows every frame profile on this self-portrait, so you can choose the frame before you order.
