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AHMADI: Of all the artists who have ever lived,

none are better known than Vincent van Gogh.

He is celebrated around the world.

His life and his work stand apart from any other painter,

filling galleries, books and movie theatres,

and selling every type of merchandise.

In the public imagination, he is an icon of art,

of loneliness and of the avant-garde.

But how much do we really know about Vincent?

Arguably, the answer lies in the pictures he painted -

not of the world around him, but of himself.

These works tell the story of Vincent van Gogh's artistic -

and emotional - journey.

In this film, for the first time,

art historians sit down to decipher

eight of van Gogh's most revealing self-portraits,

taking us as close as we'll ever come...

to understanding the man behind the icon.

In his own lifetime, Vincent van Gogh saw little success.

It was only after his death that people began to discover his work.

And with it, a myth was born.

STREET: So, van Gogh's career is incredibly short.

He's painting for about a decade.

But even within that decade,

the famous van Goghs occupy maybe four or five years.

So it's a really, really, really short career.

He was very lucky in that his brother Theo, who's an art dealer,

essentially supported him for his entire artistic career...

and supported him both physically, by paying for his rent,

his materials, but also emotionally,

by providing him with support for what he was doing.

He was probably Vincent's closest...

friend, ally, family member.

And they corresponded through letter for...

the best part of Vincent's life.

People started to connect with Vincent's work

really quite soon after his death.

And in the first two decades of the 20th century,

there were quite important exhibitions of his work...

some of which remain the biggest exhibitions of his work,

containing hundreds of paintings all at once.

He was famously shown in 1910 at Roger Fry's exhibition,

which was Manet And The Post-Impressionists.

And it caused a furore at the time.

The effect of his work is felt...

more or less internationally by the middle of the 20th century.

So, it really...becomes a really important touchstone

for loads of artists - especially painters - but not just artists.

But what also happens to van Gogh is that the figure of van Gogh...

starts to gradually eclipse his work.

So, by the '50s, you have the movie Lust For Life,

which is a melodrama of its time...

about a concept of artistic genius

that was becoming very popular in the '50s.

(TENSE MUSIC)

And so our contemporary idea of van Gogh,

which we're always kind of trying to challenge and sort of tweak,

is formed by these cinematic representations.

And there are loads - I mean, Lust For Life is the most famous,

but there are lots of cinematic

and televisual representations of van Gogh.

Most of the time, they do the same thing,

which is to present him as a certain kind of figure

that's a little bit like a rock star,

which is a bit true, and mostly not true, I think.

I think his self-portraits are hugely important

in understanding and appreciating his work.

I think he chooses what to portray to people,

and I think that's why learning about the portraits,

and looking at the portraits, is so crucial in actually...

understanding what he wanted to show us.

MILLINGTON: Van Gogh painted at least 35 self-portraits.

A great number of artists have made self-portraits

throughout art history - among them, Rembrandt,

who we know van Gogh really admired.

A good question as to why van Gogh made so many self-portraits -

there was an absence of models.

They're really kind of practical reasons why he made so many...

absence of models - he had some bad luck with...

He would pay models who wouldn't turn up for sittings.

But Vincent was incredibly poor.

Being an artist model was a profession,

and he couldn't afford to pay them,

so he would turn to himself - he would turn to the mirror.

CHRISTIE: I think another reason why he did so many self portraits

was also it allowed him...

to really look at himself, not just physically, but inside his mind.

And there's a lot written about van Gogh and his mental state of mind.

And in this sense, he was able to be really introspective.

He was looking at himself, in a mirror,

for prolonged periods of time.

He's famous for his series of sunflowers, for his landscapes.

But he probably never painted them as often

over such a long period of time.

Whereas the self-portraits are a series he knew the most intimately,

and arguably, that he could control the most,

because he was that subject.

I think creating a self-portrait...

..gives you a deep...

understanding and view of yourself,

which is why I don't do many of them -

because I find them so deeply personal.

They are a gateway into...

really delving into your subconscious.

So it is the ultimate in...

therapy.

STREET: What we get in these eight self-portraits by van Gogh

is a sense of who he thought he was

and how he wanted to be perceived by other people.

Vincent van Gogh is born on 30th March 1853,

in Zundert, a village in a southern province of the Netherlands.

But it isn't until the age of 27...

that he reaches a crossroads in his life.

It's now that he decides to fulfil his dream of becoming an artist.

Van Gogh's early life was relatively comfortable.

He was from a middle-class family. He was the eldest of six children.

Before he became an artist at the age of 27,

van Gogh tried many different careers.

He was a bookseller, a teacher.

So, when Vincent was 16, he was sort of taken into the family business,

which was art dealing, and he was taken into Goupil art dealers,

who were quite a big international art dealer

that his uncle Cent worked for.

So, he was brought to London

while he had a huge interest in art and literature.

And in London, this is where he discovered Charles Dickens,

and George Eliot - where he really immersed himself into English art.

I don't think he was a particularly good employee.

He was quite opinionated about what his clients were buying.

He was quite argumentative,

which meant that he didn't last particularly long.

Interesting, like a lot of things with Vincent,

I think it was really his brother Theo

who encouraged him to become an artist -

who spotted in his letters that he was sketching quite a lot.

That he was very good at describing things.

So, Vincent moves to Paris in 1886,

and he comes quite unexpectedly.

He arrives way sooner than he'd agreed with his brother,

and he just turns up after spending time in Antwerp and not quite...

I don't think, quite connecting with the way

he was learning art there - Paris is where it's at for him.

He's got a placement at an open studio with Fernand Cormon.

He's ready for this.

And here he paints himself as a man about town,

someone in a smart hat, smart coat.

He's a gentleman, the way he portrays himself here.

MILLINGTON: This self-portrait doesn't quite look as we imagine

van Gogh's typical works.

It's depicted in a much darker palette, with sombre, moodier tones.

That shows that at this point, he was inspired by the Dutch masters.

LEBETER: So what's interesting is that while the influence

of the impressionists comes to bear on Vincent, it's not immediate.

It's quick, but it's not immediate.

So, he's still making work like the Dutch school, like Rembrandt.

For Vincent van Gogh, his adopted home of Paris

will soon become more than just a place to live and work.

He will make new friends and embrace a modern,

radical approach to painting.

When Vincent van Gogh first arrives in Paris in 1886,

he is not the only creative in town.

The city is buzzing with painters, writers and thinkers.

Vincent writes to a friend in Belgium.

'Paris is Paris.

There is but one Paris.

And however hard living here may be,

the French air clears up the brain and does one good.

In Antwerp, I did not even know what the impressionists were.

Now I've seen them, and though not being one of the club yet,

I have much admired certain impressionist pictures.'

I think his life in Paris was probably quite frenetic.

I get the sense, from reading letters, and just from accounts,

there was so much to see and create, and there was a real fervour.

By the time Vincent arrived in Paris in 1886,

impressionism was in full flow.

And there were many young artists working in Paris

who were creating really avant-garde painting,

and he was exposed to that.

The impressionist movement was radical for its time,

because...

instead of creating works that were...

about specific objects, and detail,

it was more about...

capturing a moment,

an emotion, a mood.

It was through his brother Theo

that he could meet other painters who were like-minded.

Among these were Signac, Seurat and Pissarro,

who were experimenting with impressionism

and pointillist techniques.

applying small dabs of paint to the canvas,

which was a style that van Gogh then began to adopt himself.

While Vincent's in Paris, we do see the...

influence of impressionism start to come into his work.

Some of the first pieces that show this are his still lifes.

The browns of the Dutch school sort of get pushed aside,

and Vincent's bringing in a more modern palette.

So we can see the influence of pointillism

In Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat,

but Vincent's really putting his own stamp into this.

So instead of dots of pure colour, Vincent's bringing dashes

that create a sort of swirl and a halo effect around his head.

So again, he's pushing existing forms of art

to create it in his own way.

The really happy accident about Vincent's own appearance

for the self-portraits is that he has the perfect face

for a pointillist self-portrait in that he has red hair and green eyes.

The very colour of his own make-up is ideally suited for his own work.

In works like Self-Portrait With A Grey Felt Hat,

we can see van Gogh beginning to experiment

with impressionist techniques and those small dabs of colour.

However, he's also upping the ante and adding more colour,

more expressive colours, and colour contrasts.

So we begin to get the bright orange next to the blue,

which really shimmer on the canvas.

While van Gogh typically worked on self-portraits

in one single session, we know from technical analysis...

that this one was made over a number of sessions.

And I think this indicates that he was still getting to grips

with this new style and technique at that time.

His brushstrokes have started... they feel like they're radiating out

in really thick daubs of impasto from the centre of his face.

They couldn't be more different...

from the self-portrait painted in late 1886,

where you often can't tell one brushstroke from the other.

Here you can almost isolate both each brushstroke...

and the colour used.

What I also think is really interesting about this portrait

is how he's chosen to portray himself in quite a smart suit.

He's now a serious person who is working in Paris,

who has absorbed some of the most radical changes in art

that have ever occurred, and not only has he absorbed them,

he's able to create them into his own unique style.

I think this is one of the most confident images

that he produces in his canon of self-portraits.

People might think that the self-portraits

are just for his own self-expression,

but he wanted to show them, and he wanted to sell them.

While he was in Paris, van Gogh took the initiative

to arrange exhibitions of his work,

and he actually exhibited this self-portrait,

with the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard,

in a restaurant in Montmartre.

However, the restauranteur gave him a call

and told him that the diners were complaining about the portraits,

so van Gogh turned up and took the paintings back to his flat.

For Vincent, the close of 1887

heralds more paintings and more self-portraits.

But the chill of a Paris winter

also brings familiar feelings of sadness and dejection.

'Many thanks for your letter,

which I'd been looking forward to.

I daren't give way to the desire to write to you often

or to encourage this on your part.

All this correspondence doesn't always help to keep us, who are...

..of a nervous disposition,

strong in cases of possible immersions in melancholy.

Here is an impression of mine,

which is the result of a portrait that I painted in the mirror.

A pink-grey face with green eyes...

..ash-coloured hair,

wrinkled in forehead and around the mouth.

Stiffly wooden,

a very red beard, quite unkempt and sad.

This is what impressionism has to my mind over the rest.

It isn't banal,

and one seeks a deeper likeness than that of the photographer.'

What's interesting about Vincent's letters to his sister Wil,

as opposed to his letters to Theo,

is because his sister is not from an artist background.

He goes into much more detail describing what he's working on,

and he gives a kind of, through words,

a picture of what he's trying to create.

MILLINGTON: In this self-portrait, we see...

Vincent presenting himself as a modern artist.

He's wearing a blue artist's smock,

and the whole portrait is painted in really bright, exuberant colours.

We have the bright oranges and the blues next to one another,

which became his signature style.

This portrait is one of van Gogh's...

most confident images as an artist.

He's positioned the easel right in the foreground. You cannot miss it.

He's holding his palette very prominently,

and there's a kaleidoscope of colours on it,

which references the brightening of palette

that happened in his transformation of style from moving to Paris.

I think there's a really interesting central element to the painting

in that he signed it and dated it in red,

virtually in the middle of the picture,

which again, I think, gives a signal to how...

confident he is about the picture,

and actually, probably how pleased he is.

This is the last self-portrait, that we know of,

that Vincent painted in Paris

before he then moved to the south of France.

And for me, the colours in this self-portrait

really indicate that search for light.

We know Vincent was sick of Paris.

He wanted to escape the city and reconnect with the countryside,

and find light and colour.

I think there is hope and positivity in this work.

And I think Vincent was very excited and hopeful

for what was going to come next after he left Paris.

And the plans that he had for an artist colony

where he was going to bring together lots of like-minded artists

was a source of huge excitement for him.

So while he does look drawn and slightly pained in this portrait,

it's actually a really exciting time in his life. And he felt that.

Like, he was aware that this is... the next big thing was coming.

Bidding farewell to the friends he's made in Paris, Vincent heads south.

He has big plans for the future,

and is excited to escape the cool northern climate

for the warm, bright light of Provence.

On 21st February 1888,

Vincent arrives in Arles, in the south of France.

In Paris, he has adopted a modern style of painting.

But the pace of life there is too frenetic.

He hopes the serenity will restore some balance,

while the warmer weather and vivid colours will fire his art.

Vincent set off for the south of France

in search of light and colour.

But when he arrived, there was freezing conditions.

And the whole region was covered in snow.

However, he was still inspired

by these bright white fields and the light.

When he got to Arles, he was almost returned to a rural setting...

and we know from his early childhood

that he had an affinity with the rural landscape.

The overarching plan for Arles was to create an artist community.

So a cooperative of artists who would make work together,

share the proceeds of sales,

and fundamentally, collaborate to kind of create a new art.

He had this idea for a number of reasons - I think he thought...

the Japanese woodcut artist that had so inspired him,

and that he'd first come across in Antwerp.

Then when he was in Paris, he and his brother

amassed an incredible collection of 19th-century woodcut prints.

He had the idea that this is how Japanese artists worked together.

The fact that Vincent was keen to set up a cooperative

shows you a very different side to...

..one that a lot of people know.

And that side of being very introspective,

it shows a side of...

community and collaboration,

and an understanding that in order to perpetuate...

this being an artist, he needed more, he needed support.

Not only emotional but practical support.

I think a lot of the people that Vincent was meeting in Paris,

they were all struggling - nobody had money.

And Vincent's brother Theo, at that time, was kind of dealing in art,

was a businessman, knew the art world.

So it's quite a pragmatic plan.

MILLINGTON: Vincent van Gogh had met Gauguin while he was in Paris,

through Theo, and he wanted this older artist to join him

in the south of France and become one of the first members,

and even the leader of his artist colony there.

Gauguin wanted Theo van Gogh to be selling his work,

to kind of represent him.

So there is an argument that Gauguin was sort of

trying to get to Theo through Vincent,

and kind of befriended Vincent as a way to get to Theo,

who was quite an important player in the art world in Paris.

So they corresponded, they exchanged portraits -

this one, which van Gogh dedicated to Gauguin.

And Gauguin reciprocated by sending a picture back to Vincent.

What's really interesting is in the letters to Theo about this portrait,

Vincent really believes in his own work.

He says in a letter that his portrait, he's sure,

stands up against that of Gauguin.

He's quite self-assured.

It's now known as Self-Portrait Dedicated To Paul Gauguin,

but it's had other titles.

I think one of them is Self-Portrait As Bonze,

which is a Japanese Buddhist monk.

And I think the link to the Buddhist monk...

..was to showcase his commitment, his commitment to painting.

In Arles, Vincent painted everyday life.

He painted the cafe, blossom,

the harvest... of course, sunflowers.

It's the series of sunflowers which has become most famous.

And they were created because in preparing for Gauguin's arrival,

he wanted to decorate Gauguin's room.

And so he painted what have now become...

some of the most iconic images of...

late 19th-century art anywhere in the world.

Vincent and Paul Gauguin lived, and worked,

in this place called the Yellow House, in Arles.

Which was a very large building,

really designed for more artists to be working.

Unfortunately, it was just the two of them.

It became apparent, quite quickly,

after Gauguin had moved down to the south of France,

that this colony, this community that Vincent had envisioned...

would, in fact, just be him and Gauguin...

working intensely together.

Although most of Vincent's self-portraits

feature the artist's head and shoulders,

one iconic work stands apart from the rest.

LEBETER: So, van Gogh's chair is a really interesting take

on the self-portrait, because of course, he's not physically there.

But he's making a statement here about his personality

and his kind of outlook as an artist.

I think an artist can, very easily, be...

simultaneously present and not present

in the work that they produce.

It could be...

through the objects they choose to represent,

or even the lack of objects.

So, when we look at Vincent's chair,

what sort of person would sit in a chair like this?

And you say, well, it's kind of rustic, you know, it's wicker.

And it looks like it was made by hand,

and it looks like not much effort was given to decoration.

And it's not painted, and it's pretty...

like a farmhouse kind of chair.

And that's exactly what he wants you to be

thinking about when you look at the painting.

Not only that, the texture... of the painting itself,

which is pretty coarse and rough in places,

it emphasises this idea about the rural and the handmade,

and the dirty, and everything that isn't Paris, basically.

Everything that isn't sophistication,

the metropolitan, the designed, and all of that stuff.

He's basically...

naming his direction in this painting.

This kind of image of simplicity

says a lot about van Gogh as a person,

that he sees himself as a working person.

That he's a working artist, that he kind of has his...

fingers in the dirt, so to speak.

I often think about van Gogh's chair alongside one of his early works,

The Potato Eaters, as a sort of political statement

of him as a working person alongside working people in communities.

CHRISTIE: He's placed his pipe, his tobacco, on the chair,

and it's surrounded by...

a place he felt very comfortable, the Yellow House at Arles.

And it contrasts, quite clearly,

with what he painted as Gauguin's chair.

In Gauguin's chair, it's on a sort of what looks like a Persian rug.

It's a much sort of more sophisticated, richer environment.

The look of Gauguin's chair...

immediately tells us that we're dealing with a personality clash.

Because Gauguin's chair is quite elaborate,

relatively speaking - it's quite ornate.

It looks quite kind of fancy.

It has a sort of class association that Vincent's chair doesn't have.

Van Gogh and Gauguin argued about modern painting,

and while Gauguin worked in a slow and methodical manner,

van Gogh worked in a more fast-paced style.

Vincent just couldn't get his head around...

trying to be more abstracted.

He wanted to be more linked to time and place.

Gauguin was quite an overbearing character,

who had a huge amount of self-belief,

and was quite keen to tell absolutely everyone

what he thought about their work.

So while Gauguin...

was a great proponent of the art of the imagination,

that you don't necessarily need to be out in nature to produce nature,

that how you can kind of envisage it in your head,

and onto canvas, is more important.

So their approach to work is completely different,

and that comes to bear in the Yellow House

in what becomes quite a...

claustrophobic, I imagine, quite a cabin-fevered...

atmosphere in the house, where they are clashing up against each other

in that autumn and winter.

By 23rd December 1888,

van Gogh and Gauguin already had their artistic differences.

But this was the evening when they had a huge argument,

possibly about the fact that Gauguin, by this point,

wanted to leave, whereas van Gogh wanted to keep him here.

So Gauguin had only been in Arles for a few months.

Gauguin had already thought about leaving and going back to Paris,

and had written to Theo to say that he changed his mind,

and then very quickly,

the situation seems to have escalated quite dramatically.

Disagreements with Gauguin,

and what was clearly quite a tense period working together,

led to van Gogh's first bout of illness.

We're still not sure quite what that illness was.

There are many theories - whether it was a form of epilepsy,

whether he was bipolar.

Whatever it was, it led to...

a major crisis on 23rd December,

where he tried to attack Gauguin with a razor.

We only really have Gauguin's account for what happened,

but it seemed that there was an argument in the Yellow House.

And Gauguin said that he was going to leave. Left the house.

He was pursued by Vincent, who...

Gauguin reports had a razor in his hand.

There was an altercation, no physical violence.

But there was an argument. Vincent went back to the Yellow House.

And Gauguin went somewhere else to stay the night.

And during that night, at some point,

Vincent is said to have cut off his ear.

There's a great deal of art historical debate

about how much of Vincent's ear that he took off.

I think that debate is somewhat redundant,

and that it doesn't really matter.

I think this is...

an acute mental health crisis that Vincent is going through,

and quite a shocking act of self-harm.

Whether he takes off his whole ear or the lobe is...

irrelevant, really.

It's Christmas Eve...

when Vincent is admitted to hospital.

On hearing what has happened in Arles,

Theo van Gogh immediately leaves Paris and heads south.

He writes of his brother's condition to his wife, Jo.

'I found Vincent in the hospital in Arles.

It was terribly sad being there...

because from time to time, all his grief would well up inside,

and he would try to weep... but couldn't.

Had he just once found someone to whom he could pour his heart out...

..it might never have come to this.

In the next few days,

they will decide whether he is to be transferred

to a special institution.

There is little hope,

but he has done more than so many in his life,

and suffered and fought more than most people are capable of doing.

If he must pass away...

so be it.

But the thought of it breaks my heart.'

So Vincent is in hospital for a few days

but then returns to the Yellow House.

We know that Theo and Paul Gauguin went back to Paris the same day,

so now Vincent is alone in Arles.

Very soon after the incident...

Vincent returns to painting.

And it shows that he was a very resilient man.

And it also shows that he was totally dedicated to making art.

The first months of 1889

find Vincent van Gogh in the depths of a profound emotional struggle.

Returning to Arles after a stay in hospital,

Vincent paints what will become...

his most internationally recognisable self-portrait.

Self-Portrait With A Bandaged Ear

is another truly extraordinary self-portrait,

because it was painted a week, two weeks after...

van Gogh's first crisis of mental illness, when he cut off his ear.

Clearly, a very traumatic time...

for both himself and his family and everyone around him.

This is one of the most iconic self-portraits in Western art.

It is following quite a shocking episode,

and his reasons for creating this...

self-portrait are complex,

and maybe something we will never fully understand.

We know from the letters to Theo that...

Vincent is trying to reassure Theo that he's getting back to normality,

he's working again.

So you could possibly argue that this portrait is created

as a way to try and reassure his brother that he's on the mend.

In Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear,

Vincent is in the Yellow House, and he's really buttoned up.

This is the first month of the year. It's really cold.

He's got his big overcoat on and his furry hat on.

And you can see the bandage around his ear,

which...he's turned his head towards you so you can see it.

He doesn't look...

traumatised.

He looks, actually, quite serious and together.

He's showing us, 'I'm still fully committed to being an artist.

I've got my easel behind me, and I'm showing you...

my hugest influence of the Japanese print.

I'm also placing myself within this studio in the south of France

to show how important Arles has been to me.'

So, I think,

considering the state of mind he was in a few weeks before this portrait,

it's a confident assertion...

of himself as an artist.

I think this work really does show how important self-portraiture is

to Vincent because it is the first thing that he creates

when he's released from the hospital and is back in the Yellow House.

And his first thought is to pick up a paintbrush again,

look in the mirror and paint what he sees.

So this self-portrait is a way of reckoning with himself.

This work could be seen as an image of recovery

just as much as it could an image of injury.

'Unfortunately, it's complicated in several ways.

My paintings are worthless.

They cost me an extraordinary amount, it's true.

Perhaps, sometimes, even in blood and brain.

Nevertheless... I've started work again,

and I already have three studies done in the studio.

I retain all good hope.

But I feel weak...

..and a little anxious, and fearful.'

Vincent had had relapses and seemed to realise

he couldn't live this independent life in the Yellow House.

And so he admitted himself, voluntarily,

to the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Remy.

Far from slowing Vincent down,

a prolonged stay in hospital results in one of his most prolific periods.

As ever, self-portraits are central to his output.

'I hope you're well, and your wife too.

And that you'll enjoy a little of the good weather.

As for me, my health is good.

As for the head...

it will, let's hope, be a matter of time and patience.

I've been here almost a whole month and not one single time

have I felt the slightest desire to be elsewhere.

Just...

the will to work again is becoming...

..a tiny bit firmer.'

So the August 1889 portrait is really significant

for a number of different reasons.

Firstly, it wasn't thought to be a van Gogh until relatively recently.

Its attribution was contested for decades.

And the Van Gogh Museum did a technical analysis on it

relatively recently and found that it definitely is a van Gogh

that was painted at Saint-Remy.

Van Gogh is incredibly productive in Saint-Remy.

This is one of his most prolific periods in his career,

and where he creates some of his most iconic works as well.

CHRISTIE: He was quite lucky when he arrived, because it wasn't full,

and so he was able to have two rooms.

So he used one room for his studio and one room that he slept in.

And actually being in the asylum, which was an odd monastery...

..set up a kind of regular routine for him.

What's a really key thing to understand

about the way that Vincent worked...

was that he did not paint when he was in his periods of crisis.

He couldn't paint. He didn't want to do anything.

He couldn't even write letters home

when he was in his periods of crisis.

This self-portrait is the exception to the rule,

and is one of the only works that he made

while he was going through a period of mental health crisis.

MILLINGTON: This self-portrait stands in stark contrast

to many of the others - Vincent used a much more muted palette,

and these sort of lurid greens for this self-portrait.

For me, there's something quite...

claustrophobic about the composition.

And we know at the time that he'd been banned

from going outside of the hospital.

In this portrait, Vincent looks sick.

And in fact, he had recently...

had this incident where he ingested paint.

And paint at this time was highly toxic.

So he got sick, and his paints were taken away from him.

Theo then wrote to the hospital, saying actually,

he needs his paint, cos his paint is kind of his medicine.

It's what helps him get on an even keel mentally.

So he got his paints back.

But he wasn't able to leave the hospital.

So he was painting, essentially,

plant life, vegetation in the courtyard,

and views from outside of the asylum window.

He still wants to show he's an avant-garde artist,

because you see, in the background,

this wonderfully dynamic brushwork,

these bold colour contrasts.

But his facial features here,

he does look incredibly vulnerable.

And I think it's a very rare...

moment where... he let that side of his character

come out in one of the self-portraits.

I think, for me, this...

this really is one of the bleakest portraits that van Gogh created.

This is a man who looks exhausted, he looks drawn,

his gaze is not as confident,

not as direct as it is in some of the other self-portraits.

And I think it's... it's interesting...

who Vincent was creating this painting for.

Was this for a public? Almost certainly not.

I think this is one of the clearest indications of Vincent...

coming to terms with himself,

of trying to understand what is happening to him.

So one of Vincent van Gogh's final self-portraits is created

mere days after the August 1889 self-portrait.

And the difference between the two could not be more stark.

Here, Vincent looks confident.

The direct gaze is back.

He's an artist who is in complete control of his craft.

What stands out to me about this portrait

is that it's a celebration of colour again.

The blues and the smock and in the background are truly so deep,

so vibrant, almost like the colours in Starry Night,

in those other works from this time in his life

that we know so well, and we love so much.

He's showing everyone that regardless of his mental state,

he still has this very fervent commitment to be an artist.

When you look at the style, it's absolutely dazzling.

He's holding a palette. He's turned facing the viewer.

Again, you see those complementary colours coming through.

He's wearing the painter's spot, which is blue,

which contrasts with his sort of orange features within his face.

You see the reds and the greens drawing out...

the definition of his eyes, and his nose, and his beard.

It is an absolutely cracking portrait,

which I think is...

a real culmination of what he'd learnt.

He's showing himself with his brushes and his palette,

and he's someone who again, is thinking about...

the next step as an artist who is moving forward his career.

And as a bookend of this self-portrait,

and going back to the self-portrait in 1886 in Paris,

three years have passed between those two paintings.

And the advances that Vincent has made in that time is unprecedented.

It couldn't be more different to that early self-portrait

that we first looked at from 1886,

where he was emerging from a dark background.

Here, he's literally radiating energy.

I think this is an incredible culmination...

of all that he'd learnt, and absorbed,

since moving to France.

In May 1890,

Vincent decides to move north again.

He remains incredibly productive,

making 75 paintings in 70 days.

Vincent moves to Auvers, which is a little village northwest of Paris,

to be closer to Theo.

There's a sense that the dream of the studio of the South,

of the Yellow House, is kind of over.

It's as though he recognises that it's over, I think.

During the summer of 1890, Vincent was hugely productive,

painting at least one work a day.

However, we also know he was riddled with...

doubts and worries about his future.

Theo and his wife, Jo, had just had a child earlier that year.

It was a recurring worry for Vincent

that he was becoming a financial and emotional burden

on his brother Theo.

And I think the arrival of a child into their marriage...

accentuated that.

Theo was also having troubles at work,

and he was thinking about leaving the Goupil Gallery

and starting up on his own,

which would have added financial stress to the household.

And Theo, of course, had been financially supporting Vincent

for years up until that point.

In July 1890,

Vincent walked out into a wheat field in Auvers

and shot himself in the chest with a revolver.

He managed to make it back to the house where he was staying,

and he survived for a day and a half with mortal injuries.

He wouldn't let anyone in the house tell Theo that night,

because he didn't want him to worry and rush to...

..rush from Paris there and then, so Theo was only informed the next day.

He apparently arrived, and Vincent died,

with Theo by his bedside, later that same day.

'Vincent said, "I would so like to go."

And an hour later, he had his wish.

Life weighed so heavily on him.'

Theo van Gogh dies just six months after Vincent,

and they are both buried alongside one another in Auvers, near Paris.

Over the next few decades,

interest in Vincent's work begins to grow.

The really key person...

who was responsible for van Gogh's legacy

was his sister-in-law, Jo Bonger,

who was married to his brother Theo.

Over the years, van Gogh had just been sending his work to Theo,

and he actually said because he couldn't pay Theo,

he was paying him, essentially, in paintings.

And so Jo suddenly found herself responsible for all this work.

She was a smart and savvy businesswoman,

who negotiated sales, and also loans of paintings,

to museums and galleries around the world.

Another really crucial thing that happened in 1914

was the first publication of the letters between Vincent and Theo,

and opening up that personal story straight away

added into that artistic legacy,

as well as the paintings themselves.

And now, over 100 years later,

he is, without doubt, one of the most iconic,

if not the most iconic, artist of the late 19th century.

Vincent van Gogh became a global phenomenon.

His story has touched millions.

But his self-portraits speak of more than just loneliness

and mental breakdown.

They speak of resilience,

and the transcendent power of art.

These eight portraits show a very multifaceted

and complicated artist,

who went through various stages of development,

both in his artistic life but also in his personal life.

And I think his portraits would show that development,

would show these moments of turmoil but also of triumph.

These portraits, they're crucial to knowing him.

MILLINGTON: There's something really frank and expressive

in the way that van Gogh portrayed himself in his self-portraits.

We go beyond the myth of the tortured genius

and see a painter mastering his craft

and becoming one of the greatest modern artists of all time.

They're a way for us to...

get an insight into him as a person,

where he lived, but also how his practice developed.

STREET: I think the self-portraits...

have made van Gogh even more beloved.

When we see Vincent looking out at us from a painting,

remember, he's looking at himself in a reflection in a mirror,

first of all, but now he looks at us.

And somebody looking at you in a painting

is a way of building a bridge between their world and ours.

And that's why, I think, they feel so close to us.

I think anyone who...

creates so many self-portraits

is, one, very brave,

and, I think,

intimately connected to their own emotional state.

Creating so many self-portraits,

I think, is also a way of documenting...

..the stages of your...

mental state, and its ups...

and its downs.

What I think is particularly incredible

about Vincent's self-portraits is you've got the myth of...

him cutting off his ear, and so that obviously draws people in.

But then when, I think,

people look properly at all the self-portraits,

they realise they aren't...

just portraits of someone who is totally mentally ill,

painting without direction.

They were the result of years of painstaking...

effort on his part.

They don't feel sad and downtrodden.

They feel uplifting and affirmative.

And I think that is the power of seeing them all together.

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