CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/30/2021

Thinking of Vincent Van Gogh, born OTD, 1853

"Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat," painted in Paris in September/October of 1887, is reproduced from Van Gogh in Provence: Modernizing Tradition, the spectacular, highly gift-worthy survey from Actes Sud. Vividly printed on heavy matte paper, the reproductions in this deluxe monograph show every hair of the painter's brush. "I follow no system of brushwork at all," Van Gogh wrote in Provence. "I hit the canvas with irregular strokes which I leave as they are, impastos, uncovered spots of canvas—corners here and there left inevitably unfinished—reworkings, roughnesses; well, I'm inclined to think that the result is sufficiently worrying and annoying not to please people with preconceived ideas about technique."