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After sifting through 1,250 photos of gaunt gingers from 37 different countries, Douglas Coupland has found his Vincent van Gogh.

The Vancouver artist began his search in June for the Dutch master’s doppelgänger to model for a 3-D scanned bronze bust of van Gogh.

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The winning mug — and beard — belongs to Daniel Baker from Christchurch, in southern England.

“Meeting Dan was a very strange experience because I’d spent months looking at Vincent look-alikes on a computer screen and then suddenly there was this man — my Vincent van Gogh — hopping out of a taxi looking like he’d just stepped out of the year 1889,” Coupland said in a release.

Photo by (CNW Group/VMF Estates) / PNG

Just for looking like van Gogh, Baker received 5,000 euros ($7,200) and was flown to Vancouver where his head was 3D-scanned. His facial data will be used to create a likeness of Van Gogh’s head for a two-metre by three-metre bronze sculpture.

Coupland used Van Gogh’s original self-portrait paintings, which he refers to as “the selfies of their era,” as the guideline to select the Dutch artist’s modern-day twin from the range of international entrants who submitted photographs online.

The bust, the first in a series of monumental outdoor works titled Redheads, was commissioned by Okanagan wine king Anthony von Mandl and will be installed at the new Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir winery in Kelowna.

The completed piece will be revealed on April 22 at a special pre-conference event for attendees of the TED Conference inVancouver.

Photo by (CNW Group/VMF Estates) / PNG

sbrown@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/Browniescott