Vincent Van Gogh's , Self Portrait.

The piece I was drawn to is Vincent Van Gogh's 1886, Self-Portrait, the painting seems simple in subject matter, but to me it is one of the most powerful in the museum. Upon first looking at the painting is a rather straightforward portrait from the shoulders up and Van Gogh is making eye contact with the viewer.  That is where the classical formalities of this painting end, step close to the painting and it explodes with passion and color.  The paint is applied in a free and expressive way that captures the viewer and really draws you into the piece.  What I enjoy most is, Van Gogh's ability to capture and display emotion is his work. Its common knowledge that he was not the happiest or most stable of artists and in this era of post Impressionism, the paintings are all about capturing the spiritual and inner being, and representing that in your work through color and imagery.  The fact that he uses these loose dots and smears of colors to create his portrait, has a lot to say about what he thinks about himself as a person.  He feels broken and lonely, the painting is so honest and haunting that I can't help but fall in love with its raw emotion. I also enjoy that fact that the background is treated in a pointalistic fashion, he uses blue and green cool colors to create from and composition in the painting, as well as small dots of orange to balance out the warm colors used in the face in the foreground.  The lines and expressive colors in the hair create motion and depth, and the dancing dots throughout the piece take you all over the painting and draw you to his face.  The eyes in this piece hold so much emotion that you can almost see into his soul, that intense presence of personality are what make this painting so successful as well as timeless.