Self-Portrait with Glass

By 1887 Van Gogh had been in Paris for over a year, living with his brother Theo and picking up the bright broken colour of the Impressionists he met there. He was also a fixture of the cafes, and once described himself flatly as a problem drinker. He painted himself here at a table with a full glass in reach, most likely wine. Short of money as always, he worked on a reused canvas, painting over an earlier picture rather than buy a new one, something later study of his self-portraits keeps turning up. He made dozens of self-portraits in these Paris years, partly because a model he never had to pay was always to hand.