Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). 1889 oil on canvas. On display at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. Like Rembrandt and Goya, Vincent van Gogh frequently took himself as a model; there are more than 43 self-portraits, painted or drawn, in a dozen years of work. Like those masters of the past, he is observed in the mirror without complacency. To paint oneself is not an insignificant act: it is a question that often leads to vertigo of identity. So he writes to his sister: "I am looking for a deeper resemblance than that which the photographer obtains". And later on to his brother: "It is said and I readily believe that it is difficult to know oneself, but it is not easy either to paint oneself." The portraits painted by Rembrandt, it's more than nature, it's about revelation. " Framed in bust, the artist presents himself in a jacket, and not with the usual work jacket. Everything focuses attention on the face. His features are hard and emaciated, his gaze surrounded by green seems intransigent and anxious. The dominant hue, absinthe green and light turquoise, finds its counterpoint in its complementary color, the fiery orange, the beard and the hair. The immobility of the model opposes the undulating curves of the hair and the beard, which find an amplified echo in the hallucinatory arabesques of the background.