Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear

Van Gogh painted himself with a bandaged ear in January 1889, days after his breakdown on December 23rd, as a conscious act of self-confrontation through painting. He had severed part of his own left earlobe following the heated argument with Gauguin that ended their experiment in communal artistic life, had been hospitalised, and was now recovering in his apartment. The Courtauld Gallery version shows him in fur-lined coat, pipe in hand, a Japanese woodblock print visible behind him — he appears calm, composed, entirely himself, as if the bandage were simply a detail rather than evidence of a catastrophic episode. Van Gogh rarely explained the crisis directly but painted himself through it: the act of self-portraiture as self-restoration, the face in the mirror restored to a semblance of dignity. The Japanese print in the background — one of the hundreds he and Theo had collected — is not accidental: Japan was his aspiration, the art he had always held as a standard.

The composition is anchored by the white bandage across the left ear and cheek, which draws the eye immediately. The fur coat is rendered with thick, swirling strokes, and a Japanese woodblock print is visible in the upper right background, referencing Van Gogh's longstanding admiration for Japonism.