In the winter of 1887, after nearly two years in Paris, Van Gogh created this self-portrait. He spent a lot of time in Paris studying the dotted Pointillist method and learning how to use it in his unique style. He made a self-portrait with a halo-like circle around his head in this self-portrait by orchestrating the brushstrokes running in different directions. Van Gogh's original contribution to a brand-new painting technique was this variant of the Pointillist aesthetic and the result it generated.
