Message and Meaning
Vincent Van Gogh completed nearly 40 self-portraits—all between 1886 and 1889. He used the medium as a method of introspection and a way to practice his craft. “If I can manage to paint the coloring of my own head,” he said, “which is not to be done without some difficulty, I shall likewise be able to paint the heads of other good souls.” Students in last fall’s Intermediate Drawing course sketched self-portraits of their own, combining images and text to explore meaning and identity.
