Self-Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh composed this painting, Self-Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat, in 1888. Like all of van Gogh's self-portraits, this painting is a record of the artist's sense of identity at the time of the painting.

Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat, 1888
Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Pipe and
Straw Hat is an oil on canvas on cardboard
(16-1/2x11-3/4 inches) that is housed in
the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Here, near the end of his summer in Arles, France, van Gogh wears a coarse peasant shirt and a common straw hat and smokes a long pipe, expressing his feelings of kinship with the local farmers. But these portraits also allowed him to continue his chromatic experiments, laying tone next to tone -- such as the pink and gray strokes on his cheeks -- for color effects rather than naturalistic depiction.

Vincent van Gogh concentrated on the application of pigment to canvas while painting Encampment of Gypsies with Caravans. Keep reading to learn about this painting.

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