Van Gogh’s Hat

My mother likes a tiny Dutch stamp featuring the self-portrait of a painter very much. She did not recognize the painter but told he looked like her father. I do like this stamp as well and as I am just reading a book about Van Gogh’s life the idea of a new picture was born at once. I cut the tiny stamp into three pieces, one for the hat, one for the face and one for the shirt. Van Gogh painted a large number of self-portraits looking at which we can realize without words features of his life: hunger, deprivation, incomprehension, loneliness. He was permanently searching for his place in the world for all his short life, one single thought dominated his mind: who am I? This picture reflects the same notion.