London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

'Electrifying' Vincent van Gogh self-portrait exhibition hailed by critics

'Electrifying' Vincent van Gogh self-portrait exhibition hailed by critics

A new exhibition of self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh in London has received rave reviews from art critics.

The show was awarded five stars by The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard and iNews.

Nineteen works feature in the show, 17 of which are self-portraits by the tortured 19th Century Dutch painter.

The Courtauld Gallery curator Dr Karen Serres said the collection was "the first to explore the full span of Van Gogh's self-portraiture".

The Guardian's Adrian Searle said it was "a magical and at times mysterious show" and "an exhibition of electrifying intimacy".

He wrote: "Toothless, bearded, haggard, injured, shaved, well fed, on the mend, jaunty, natty… this superb show cascades through the many faces of Van Gogh - and reveals the anguished brilliance that lay beneath."

He added: "It is filled with presences, absences, substitutions, and echoes of different kinds... It shows the artist at his most self-aware and at his most vulnerable. Every painting is both a kind of analysis and a rescue attempt."

Several critics noted how, despite almost all of the paintings in the show being self-portraits, the techniques and styles vary wildly.

Van Gogh, who suffered from poor mental health, took his own life in July 1890


"The only constant is that he never smiles," noted The Telegraph's Alastair Sooke

"The show proposes a new argument. It's time, it suggests, to finish off the myth of Van Gogh the mad genius, involuntarily splurging 'raw emotions' onto the canvas; rather, each self-portrait was a complex product of conscious artistic decisions.

"He painted in between crises, staring into a mirror to fortify himself and start again... More than 130 years after his death, his gaze, in paint at least, still stabs your soul."

It is widely assumed today that the painter, who took his own life in July 1890, was suffering from mental health issues during his lifetime, which influenced his work.

Rachel Campbell-Johnston of The Times said Van Gogh "paints with a force and a frankness in the belief that his work would help him to get well".

She continued: "The Courtauld has pulled off a coup. Against the pale grey walls of two small, understated galleries blaze some of the most vividly evocative self-portraits art history can offer.

"It is the soul of the artist that you find burning within them. I defy you not to feel moved. The spirit of Van Gogh haunts this show."


The Evening Standard's Ben Luke said the exhibition was "rigorous and thoughtful, with smart pairings and groupings".

"And it has a compelling argument: that we inevitably see the artist's paintings of himself through the prism of his mental health and suicide, but they should instead be seen as him pursuing a unique artistic language despite rather than because of his illness," he wrote.

"Yes, they were vehicles for expression, but it was a more rational pursuit rather than one governed only by torment."

The only critic from a major media outlet not to award the show five stars was Time Out's Eddy Frankel, who gave it four.

"He painted 35 known self-portraits, and a good chunk of them are on display in this neat little exhibition; some of them are masterpieces, some of them are total duds," Frankel wrote.

"Lots of these earlier pieces are tentative, unsure, questioning - some aren't even any good." He concluded: "What the impressionists did for light - exposed it, exalted it, wallowed in it - Van Gogh did for his own emotions. His story is tragic, but we're lucky he told it, and told it so beautifully."


In her five-star review, Hettie Judah of iNews noted how self-portraits gave Van Gogh an opportunity to experiment.

"Often, Van Gogh used himself for convenience," she wrote. "He could experiment with ideas about how to construct a modern portrait free from the pressures that might have come with a commissioned work.

"He also played with his image as an artist: in some he is a cravat-wearing bohemian in his Paris garret, in others a working painter in a heavy blue smock. There are, too, flashes and clouds of introspection."

Van Gogh Self Portraits opens at The Courtauld Gallery on Thursday and runs until 8 May.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×