Vincent van Gogh
Like Rembrandt and Goya, Vincent van Gogh often used himself as a model; he produced over forty-three self-portraits, paintings or drawings within a period of ten years. Like the old masters, he observed himself critically in a mirror. Painting oneself is not an innocuous act, it is a questioning which often leads to an identity crisis. Thus he wrote to his sister, "I am looking for a deeper likeness than that obtained by a photographer." And later to his brother, "People say, and I am willing to believe it, that it is hard to know yourself. But it is not easy to paint yourself, either. The portraits painted by Rembrandt are more than a view of nature, they are more like a revelation."
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