# Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GOGH, Vincent van]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 44 x 38 cm ## Commentary <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/database/glossary/note02.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=300,height=400'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">Catalogue numbers:</a> F 344, JH 1353. Van Gogh often used himself as a model for practicing figure painting. His Paris self-portraits serve as a useful record of his painterly experiments. In this self-portrait of winter 1887/88, there is no systematic use of a single, unifying method of paint application. He used scattered dots of colour in the background and an overall reduction of the size of the brushmarks. He employed a distinct kind of mark for each area of the canvas, and these diverse and almost graphic systems of marks are related to the object or texture being represented. In the treatment of the face and head, the brushstrokes are directional, following and thus describing the planes and shapes in order to convey the structure and volume of the head or the texture and growth pattern of the facial hair. The portrait informs us about van Gogh in Paris. The image he presents by portraying himself in smart suit and hat is of van Gogh as a man of the city. In Paris, he studied the dotted Pointillist technique, and learned to apply it in his own fashion. ## Related artworks - [A Cottage on the Heath and "The Protestant Barn"]() - [A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles]() - [A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul]() - [A Pair of Leather Clogs]() - [A Pair of Shoes]() - [A Pair of Shoes]() - [A Workman's Meal-Break]() - [Agostina Segatori in the Café du Tambourin]() - [Almond Tree in Blossom]() - [Apricot Trees in Blossom]() - [At Eternity's Gate \("Worn Out"\)]() - [Avenue of Plane Trees near Arles Station]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()