Self-Portrait with Straw Hat

Turn this panel over and there is another painting on the back, an earlier still life. Van Gogh could not always afford fresh canvas, so he worked on both sides. He could not afford models either, which is much of why he painted himself so often in Paris, more than 30 times in two years. Here he is in a yellow straw hat and a workman's coat, cast as a labouring painter rather than a gentleman. The real subject is colour. He has broken the face and background into short separate strokes and dots, the technique he picked up from the younger painters around Seurat, testing how dabs of blue and orange set side by side make each other burn brighter. One eye he painted blue, the other closer to green.