Analysing(describing) a (self) portrait

-Medium (oil,watercolour,gouache,photograph,etc)
-Size,colours,shapes,texture,light+shade
-Style(school):cubist,expressionnist,surealist,dadaist,impressionnist...
-How is the subject treated?(the atmosphere)?
-What do you think the artist tried to say?
About himself? What do we learn about his personnality?
-What have others said about the portrait?
-When the artist did the portrait,how old circumstances revealed in the portrait?
-For whom was the portrait intended?
-What are your thoughts,memories,emotions,(association of ideas) when looking at the portrait?

A self-portrait of Van Gogh

This photo is a self-portrait of Van Gogh.

Name: "Autoportrait à l'oreille bandée"

Date:1889

This self-portrait was painted with oil paint.On this self-portrait, there are lots of cold-colours like green and black and not much hot-colours.It's an impressionnist self-portrait.

I am fond of this self-portrait because it reflects his life very well. It shows that his life wasn't always easy.In my opinion, this self-portrait shows us very well that he was very mad during his life.When I have seen this self portrait for the first time, I was a little scared because Van Gogh must be a little violent.When I see this self-portrait, I resent a sort of pity because he didn't have an easy life.In my view, he has cut his ear because his life was very bad for him and he tried to commit suicide.In fact, he has cut his ear after he tried to hurt Paul Gauguin. After that,in 1889, he painted this self-portrait at the age of 36.

Van Gogh's biography

Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 (the 30th March) at Groot-Zundert which is a small village near Bréda, in Dutchland. He died in 1890 (the 29th July) at Auvers-sur-Oise, in France.He commited suicide. He was a Dutch painter. His artistic movement was the post impressionism. His parents were Theodorus Van Gogh and Anna Cornelia. He had 5 brothers or sisters: Anna Cornelia, Théo, Elizabeth, Willemina and Cornelius. He was the eldest child.
In 1869 (the 30th July), at 16 years old, he became an apprentice in the "Art Goupil et Cie" at La Haye.
In 1880 (the 15th November), he registered at the Royal Academy of beautiful arts at Bruxelles.
In 1882, in summer, he started to paint with the oil paint.
After that, he became a famous painter. He was influenced by Jean François Millet. He reproduced other artists' works like paintings of Jean François Millet("La Nuit", "Premiers pas"), Eugène Delacroix("La Piéta", "Le Bon Samaritain") and Rembrandt("Résurrection de Lazare"). His works was inspired of the naturalism, impressionism, divisionism, fauvism, expressionism and cubism.




Some famous paintings of Van Gogh:


-"Les mangeurs de pommes de terre"(1885)

-"La chambre de Van Gogh à Arles"(1888-1889)

-"Les tournesols"(1888-1889)

-"Autoportrait à l'oreille bandée"(1889)

-"Nuit étoilée"(1889)

-"Portrait du Dr Gachet avec branche de digitale"(1890)

-"L'église d'Auvers-sur-Oise"(1890)

At the top:"Les tournesols"(1888-1889)
At the bottom:"Les mangeurs de pommes de terre"(1885)

Artists write about painting portraits….

The distance from the chin to the nostrils makes up a third of the face. It is the same from the nostrils to the eyebrows, and again from the eyebrows to the hairline. From one ear to the other, the distance is the same as from the eyebrows to the chin. The width of the mouth is the same as that from the middle of the lips to the chin.
Leonardo da Vinci










To displace. Put the eyes where the legs are, the genitals where the face is. To contradict. To do an eye face on and one sideways. Nature does many things like me, but she hides them.
Pablo Picasso











The way the nose is rooted in the face, the way the ear is screwed into the skull, the way the lower jaw is hung, the intensity of the gaze…
Henri Matisse










By the way, I am not a prince, but someone who makes his living from his handicraft.
Peter Paul Rubens











I have finished the portrait of me that you wanted… You will not be disappointed; I have kept my promise, since I have chosen the best and most lifelike for you: you will see the difference for yourself.
Nicolas Poussin












In a head, the first thing for an artist to do is to make the eyes speak…then you move on to how the nose sticks out. The sloping nostril is a good means of expression: it indicates a peaceful character.
Dominique Ingres












I am getting really old, I am covered in wrinkles, and you would not even recognize me apart from my puggish nose and my sunken eyes… What is certain is that I look my age: forty-one…
Francisco Goya












The flesh only has its true colour in the open air, especially in the sunlight. The local complexion must be transparent; though if halftoned it gives the illusion, in principle, of the blood under the skin.
Eugène Delacroix












I have bought for the purpose a fairly good mirror in order to work using myself as a model, as I do not have a real model, because if I manage to paint the colouring of my own head, which is a bit of a challenge, I could then just as easily paint the faces of other good men and women.
Vincent van Gogh

Questions about exhibition

-Why did Virginie Rouve take black and white portraits?

-Why did she take instantaneous portraits?

-Why did Marc Jourdan take portraits of old people?

-Why didn't all portraits have a date?

-Why on some portraits do we see people from behind?

-Why were some portraits blurred?

-What do you think of the portrait of the grand-parents?

-What do you think about all these portraits?

-What portrait do you prefer and why?

-What portrait do you detest and why?

-Why is the woman represented with chewin-gum?