Self-portrait, dedicated to Paul Gauguin

Van Gogh's Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin (September 1888) was painted as part of an exchange of self-portraits between the two artists in anticipation of Gauguin's arrival in Arles for their planned joint artistic enterprise. Van Gogh described himself as 'a simple worshipper of the eternal Buddha' — presenting himself as a Japanese bonze or monk — reflecting his deep absorption in Japanese aesthetics during his Arles period. The gift was an act of artistic friendship and intellectual kinship, and the painting represents one of the most profound exchanges in the history of modern art. Its designation as 'degenerate art' by the Nazis placed it among the works of the avant-garde most threatening to totalitarian aesthetic ideology.

The self-portrait is constructed from dense, parallel directional strokes that create the texture of the background and clothing as a unified painterly field, with the face emerging from this surface in strong tonal contrast. The grey-green pallor Van Gogh chose for his complexion gives the image an otherworldly, ascetic intensity that supports his 'Buddhist monk' self-characterization.