Talks & Conversations

The Art, Life, and Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Part of Modernist Visions
Shown from the chest up, a man with short, orange hair and green-tinted, pale skin looks at us, wearing a vivid blue painter's smock in this vertical portrait painting. His smock and the background are painted with long, mostly parallel strokes of cobalt, azure, and lapis blue. His shoulders are angled to our left, and he looks at us from the corners of his blue eyes. He has a long, slightly bumped nose, and his lips are closed within a full, rust-orange beard. He holds a palette and paintbrushes in his left hand, in the lower left corner of the canvas. The background is painted with long brushstrokes that follow the contours of his head and torso to create an aura-like effect.
Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.5

Vincent van Gogh’s own words offer deep insights into his paintings. Through almost two decades of letters, senior lecturer David Gariff explores Van Gogh’s references to specific paintings, his broader views on art, life, religion, and nature, and his aspirations as an artist.

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