A HUGE sculpture of Vincent Van Gogh’s head, modelled on a Christchurch man, has been installed in a Canadian vineyard.

Actor Daniel Baker won a global competition to find the “world’s most accurate” lookalike of the famous Dutch artist.

The 35-year-old was chosen by renowned Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland out of 1,250 entries from 37 countries.

Coupland, author of cult novel Generation X, used Van Gogh's self-portraits, which he describes as "the selfies of their era" to choose Mr Baker as his subject.

He used him as the source material for the 3m (10ft) high and 2m (6.5ft) wide bronze sculpture of Van Gogh. It is the first in a series of outdoor works entitled Redheads, commissioned by Anthony von Mandl for his Martin's Lane winery in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley.

The statue is lying on its side as if listening to the grapes growing, according to Coupland.

Mr Baker underwent a 3D-photogrammetry scanning process using hundreds of cameras to generate a wealth of multidimensional facial data so that Coupland could create a likeness of Van Gogh's head.

He said: "Meeting Dan was a very strange experience because I'd spent months looking at Vincent lookalikes 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."

Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert on March 30, 1853. He painted around 2,100 artworks in just over a decade including landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits.

He suffered from mental health issues and cut off his own ear in 1888. In July 1890, he died from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide.

Unsuccessful during his lifetime, it was not until after his death that his work was bought and his reputation grew.

In the 20th century, he became considered as one of the most influential figures in Western art.