You can see five such self-portraits in the Van Gogh Museum's online collection. In July 2022 a hidden self-portrait was discovered in the collection of The National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait as a Painter. Read more about this painting, zoom in, view Vincent for scale.

Van Gogh painted this self-portrait in the winter of 1887–88, when he had been in Paris for almost two years. It is clear from the work that he had studied the technique of the Pointillists and applied it in his own, original way. He placed the short stripes of paint in different directions.

Vincent van Gogh painted about 35 self-portraits in total, most of them in Paris. For him, this was a way of practising portrait painting. His intention was not to portray himself as realistically as possible.

Van Gogh painted many self-portraits, more than 20 in Paris alone. In each one he looks different. He saw these self-portraits as a way of practising the art of portraiture. So he experimented with facial expressions, colours and forms. In Paris, Van Gogh had discovered the work of Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886).

On this sheet of paper, Van Gogh drew two complete self-portraits, plus a few details in the upper right. The upper left corner of the sheet is missing. A few pencil lines are visible under the missing section – probably part of a beard.

In this self-portrait, Van Gogh is wearing a black felt hat, an overcoat and a tie (cravat). He looks like a respectable gentleman. An X-ray image of this work makes it clear that Van Gogh painted it over another painting. He had made that earlier study – of a standing nude woman – in the atelier of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924) in Paris.

This self-portrait is one of the smallest oil paintings Van Gogh ever made. Actually, it’s more of an oil sketch than a finished painting. He has used a cheap piece of card and worked fast, with fairly broad brushes.

This painting was long thought to be a self-portrait of Vincent; however, another view is that it shows his brother Theo. The brothers, namely, bore a striking resemblance to one another. Unfortunately, there is no decisive evidence to determine who is actually portrayed, which is why the painting now has a double title.<br><br>The portrait is ...

Buffalo (New York), Albright Art Gallery, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, 30 January-11 March 1962, no. 28