Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces. Each episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork – and you’re invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

This episode takes us to Van Gogh’s studio in Arles. It’s a cold day and the artist’s only just out of hospital, but he takes up his brushes and begins to paint. The result is one of the most famous self-portraits ever made. Get up close to the brushstrokes and hear what makes it so audacious – and so moving.

To see the high-resolution image of the painting made by Google Arts & Culture, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures. Scroll down and follow the link to explore Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.

Interviewees: Karen Serres, Barnaby Wright, Nienke Bakker, Gloria Groom.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.

Picture credit: Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889, The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) ©️ The Courtauld. Show less