Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries. © Martin Bailey
The Musée d’Orsay in Paris is lending its Self-portrait (autumn 1887) to the National Museum Cardiff, where it will go on display on 16 March. This will be the first time that any of Van Gogh’s self-portraits have been exhibited in Wales.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Parisienne (early 1874) and Van Gogh’s Self-portrait (autumn 1887)
National Museum Cardiff and Musée d’Orsay, Paris
The Van Gogh will be shown in Cardiff’s exhibition on Art of the Selfie (until 26 January 2025). In exchange, the National Museum Cardiff is lending Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Parisienne (early 1874) to the Musée d’Orsay’s ambitious show Paris 1874: Inventing impressionism (26 March-14 July).
The Musée d’Orsay’s Self-portrait nearly entered a UK collection a century ago, when it was offered to London’s National Gallery for 11,400 guilders, around £1,000. The painting was then a highlight in the artist’s first one-person exhibition in Britain, organised by a London dealer, the Leicester Galleries.
Title page of the catalogue of the Van Gogh exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, London, December 1923
On 9 January 1924 the National Gallery’s director, Charles Aitken, wrote to Jo Bonger, who had inherited the painting from her husband Theo, Vincent’s brother. Aitken informed her that “an American lady” was considering buying the picture for the National Gallery. Her identity still remains a mystery and, unfortunately, she never actually proceeded with the purchase.
Instead the self-portrait was sold to a French collector, Henri Jean Laroche, whose son Jacques bequeathed it to the Louvre in 1976. It was transferred to the Musée d’Orsay when it opened in 1986.
Van Gogh’s Self-portrait (autumn 1887) Musée d’Orsay, Paris
In the Musée d’Orsay’s Self-portrait the artist has built up his image with a series of defined brushstroke lines. What is striking is the range of colours in the face, mainly yellows and ochres, but also with strong green lines, particularly around the eyes. As in many of Van Gogh’s 35 self-portraits, the two eye pupils do not seem to look in the exactly same direction.
Painted in Paris, while Vincent was living with Theo, the artist is smartly dressed in a jacket and cravat. As in his other self-portraits, his beard and moustache are more gingery than his head hair, which (at the age of 34) is already beginning to recede. With pursed lips, Van Gogh has a wary expression.
The Musée d’Orsay painting has travelled widely in recent years, having been shown in far-flung venues in Brazil, Australia and Abu Dhabi (2016-18) and then at Tate Britain (2019).
The Self-portrait’s insurance value is highly confidential, but the work would certainly be worth well over £100m – quite a markup on the £1,000 of a century ago.
Other Van Gogh news:
Cover of My Friend Van Gogh, published by David Zwirner Books
The first English translation of Emile Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh will be published next week by David Zwirner Books, run by the New York-based gallery. The original 1911 French edition (Lettres de Vincent van Gogh à Emile Bernard, Vollard gallery) included five texts by Bernard, along with the letters he received from Van Gogh. The Zwirner book, entitled My Friend Van Gogh, has been translated by Elizabeth Heard and I have written the introduction.
Martin Bailey is the author of Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln, 2021, available in the UK and US ). He is a leading Van Gogh specialist and investigative reporter for The Art Newspaper. Bailey has curated Van Gogh exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery and Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland. He was a co-curator of Tate Britain’s The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain (27 March-11 August 2019).
Martin Bailey’s recent Van Gogh books
Bailey has written a number of other bestselling books, including The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh's Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, available in the UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence(Frances Lincoln 2016, available in the UK and US), Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, available in the UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, available in the UK and US). Bailey's Living with Vincent van Gogh: the Homes and Landscapes that Shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, available in the UK and US) provides an overview of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, available in the UK and US).
To contact Martin Bailey, please email [email protected]. Please note that he does not undertake authentications.
Read more from Martin's Adventures with Van Gogh blog here.