Gogh Pallet Brushes

This artwork is a realistic, but expressive painting produced in 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh, He painted it in single sitting after having a mental breakdown and injuring himself after a collapse. The portrait tries to convey his distress, how everything around him seems to be collapsing in on him and how his only escape from these problems is art. In this artwork the following can be seen:

A pallet
Paint Brushes
Vincent Van Gogh himself
A dark background

In the middle of the artwork Vincent himself can be see, and in the bottom corner he is holding a pallet. The background is painted in a dark blue with flowing lines. This matches the way his jacket has been drawn. There are only 2 main focal points in this painting, these are his face and the pallet as they are the only things in this painting that aren't painted in dark blue (and his shirt). Gogh has put his face in the centre of the artwork to signify that he is trapped by the outside world and art is his only escape that is why the
While I could see the distress on Gogh's face, at first I thought it was just another dark abstract painting that was interesting to look at. After some research I discovered that this image has a lot more meaning to it then what it seems like at first. To really understand this image you must first take a step into Vincent's life to grasp onto his struggles and come to realise that this portrait was not made to look pretty (well sort of) but was made to express Gogh’s views in the only way he truly knows how. The aspects of this image I like are the wavy dark colours that contrast the bright colours of Gogh’s face and how this signifies he is surrounded. I do however think that the pallet needs to be brighter when taking into consideration it is one of the most important aspects of the image. Without the pallet we wouldn’t understand that art is his