Van Gogh painted numerous self-portraits in his career. Most likely, the self-portraits of Van Gogh depict the face as it appeared looking in the mirror, that is, the right side in the image is, in reality, the left side of his face.

 

A famous phrase by Van Gogh: "I prefer to paint the eyes of men than cathedrals, because in the eyes of men there is something that is not in cathedrals"

 

And it is precisely the hallucinated gaze that immediately strikes, so much so that it remains fixed in the observer. The swirling brush stroke seems to witness the loss of orientation due to serious nervous crises, so much so that Van Gogh spent a period in the asylum of Saint Remy, in which he attempted suicide by ingesting colors.