Vincent Van Gogh painted dozens of self-portraits, but he has surely never appeared quite like this.
A photographer has managed to create an incredibly life-like image of the famous impressionist thanks to a doppelganger friend, some appropriate attire and a bit of digital trickery.
The result is a remarkable similarity to Van Gogh's 1889 self-portrait depicting himself with a hard face, ginger beard and green-rimmed eyes.
Lithuanian photographer Tadas Černiauskas came up with the idea on a whim.
He said: 'I saw my friend that has ginger hair and beard and thought that it would be very funny to make a portrait of Vincent Van Gogh.
'He liked the idea and a week later we met in my studio. After some preparation, we made few shots and after a day of making the final image I posted it on the Internet.'
He said a lot of people have been confused by the picture.
Mr Černiauskas added: 'Some of them keep asking me if there's really a guy that looks so alike Van Gogh. Some of the don't believe that it's a photo at all.
'And some of them thought that I really took a picture of Vincent Van Gogh.'
Van Gogh painted this portrait in September 1889 during his year-long stay at the psychiatric hospital at Saint Remy when he produced many of most iconic works.
He went there soon after 'the ear incident' when, following a raging argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin and caught up in the first of his epileptic-like attacks, Van Gogh used a razor to slice off his left ear lobe, which he then presented to a prostitute.
The painting is currently housed in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, which says of the work: 'In this head-and-shoulders view, the artist is wearing a suit and not the pea jacket he usually worked in.
'Attention is focused on the face. His features are hard and emaciated, his green-rimmed eyes seem intransigent and anxious.
'The dominant colour, a mix of absinth green and pale turquoise finds a counterpoint in its complementary colour, the fiery orange of the beard and hair.'
After years of mental illness, Van Gogh died in 1890 aged 37 from a gunshot wound. It is generally accepted to have been self-inflicted, although no gun was ever found.
Mr Cerniauskas received a Master's degree in architecture before trying out wedding photography as a hobby.
But his passion soon took over and, before long, he set up his own Tadao Cern studio so he could turn it into a full-time job.
In a previous project, which featured on MailOnline, Mr Černiauskas invited 100 models into his Vilnius studio so he could blast their faces with air with an industrial hairdryer.
http://www.tadaocern.com/gallery_vincent_van_gogh.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-portrait.html
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