Near-Death Self-Portraits: Edvard Munch, van Gogh, and More Confront Mortality

In 1889, the year of his death, Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo. “They say—and I am willing to believe it—that it is difficult to know yourself—but it isn’t easy to paint yourself either,” van Gogh wrote. To know oneself fully through that creative process had been a lifelong goal for the great Post-Impressionist. Over his career, he created 30 self-portraits which, when arranged in chronological order, act as visual autobiography. He was h