(in chronological order)
Albrecht Dürer: Self-portrait as an Ecce Homo, c.1500
Leonardo da Vinci: Self-portrait, c.1512
Rembrandt van Rijn: Self-portrait, 1659
Vincent van Gogh: Self-portrait with bandaged ear, 1889
Pablo Picasso: Self-portrait, 1901
Egon Schiele: Self-portrait, 1911
Max Beckmann: Self-portrait with glass of champagne, 1919
Frida Kahlo: The broken column (Self-portrait), 1944
Francis Bacon: Self-portrait, 1971
Jean-Michelle Basquiat: Self-portrait, 1982
VINCENT VAN GOGH: “Self-portrait with bandaged ear”
January 1889 - oil on canvas, 60-49 cm., London, Courtald Institute Galleries
The story of van Gogh and its self-bandaged ear is so famous that we only need to make a brief summary for it: In December 1889, Van Gogh stalked Gauguin with a razor –this version told by Gauguin have been discussed by some experts- and then cut off the lower part of his own left ear, which he wrapped in newspaper and gave to a prostitute named Rachel in the local brothel, asking her to "keep this object carefully." Gauguin left Arles and did not see Van Gogh again.
This is one of the two self-portraits that van Gogh painted after sectioning his ear (the other, previously in the collection of Leigh B. Block in Chicago, was bought later by the Niarchos family). The expression of the face of the artist is, paradoxically, calmer than in other many self-portraits by the artist. Perhaps it can be interpreted as an effort of the painter to find in the painting his particular salvation, enforced by the presence of a Japanese stamp. Vincent affirmed that he envied the Japanese painters for “his style as simple as to breathe”