# Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler)

**Vincent van Gogh** (Dutch, 1853–1890)  
1887  
Oil on canvas  
16 x 12 1/2 in. (40.6 x 31.8 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 67.187.70a. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436532).

## About this work

Van Gogh looks out from beneath a straw hat, his face built from short, separate strokes of blue, orange and yellow that show how quickly he absorbed the bright palette and broken touch of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists after moving to Paris in 1886. Short of money for models, he painted dozens of self-portraits there. He painted this one on the back of an earlier canvas, The Potato Peeler, a dark peasant study from his years in Nuenen, so the two sides record the transformation of his art within a couple of years.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Vincent van Gogh painted this in 1887, aged 34. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Vincent van Gogh](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/vincent-van-gogh)

Dutch, 1853–1890; born in Zundert; died in Auvers-sur-Oise

Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and lay preacher before he turned to art in 1880, at twenty-seven. His early pictures of Dutch peasants are dark and heavy; in Paris from 1886 he met the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, and his palette brightened. In Arles in 1888–89 he painted with intense colour and thick, directional strokes, and he worked on at the asylum in Saint-Rémy and finally at Auvers-sur-Oise. The Poet’s Garden belongs to a group made to decorate Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was 34
- Real size: about 16 × 13 in (41 × 32 cm). The 12 × 16 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: Men, Self-portraits
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1094.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1094/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/self-portrait-with-a-straw-hat-obverse-the-potato-peeler-met-436532).