Vincent at the Norton Simon

Lunch with friend Bonnie on Friday at the Norton Simon museum, outside, overlooking flowers, and Koi in a pond.  Then inside to visit the self portrait by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 the year that he committed himself to mental hospital in May and less that a year before his suicide at age 37.  The accompanying description states that it was in the hospital that van Gogh began the isolated and recuperative process of calming the delusions, paranoid panics and poor health that had plagued him for much of his life.  "Six months before, he had quarreled with Paul Gauguin in Arles, and then severed part of his own ear in a fit of despair."

The painting shows Vincent in his red hair and looking very gaunt.  Most striking are his dark blue eyes that perhaps were once violet in color....blued with age.  The greens and blues of his face, shirt and background reflect the colors in the pallet he was holding.  He wrote to his brother that he decided to paint himself as he didn't have another subject at hand and he wanted to perfect his skills as a portrait artist.

The painting is on loan from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.