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Painted in muted lime green, plum purple, buttercup yellow, slate and royal blue, the head and shoulders of a man with peach-colored skin sitting in front of a window looks at us in this stylized, vertical portrait. His body and face are angled to our right but he looks at us from the corners of his eyes, which are grass-green with touches of yellow. One cobalt-blue eyebrow is cocked, and shading in denim blue, butter yellow, and fern green create hollows under both eyes. His flat nose has a broad bridge, and his pale pink lips are closed, the far corner pulled slightly up. His mustache is painted with visible strokes of forest green and his ginger-orange beard is trimmed along his prominent, jutting chin. His short, dark hair is brushed back from his temples and is painted with strokes of pine green, navy blue, and coral orange. His shirt has a wide, golden yellow stripe along the collar above indigo blue, under a grayish-violet purple jacket. The wall over his shoulder, in the upper left corner, is painted vivid lime green with long, vertical brushstrokes. The view through the window beyond his other shoulder is of vegetation and mountains. The portrait is painted with visible brushstrokes throughout, and is especially loose in the background, hair, and jacket. An inscription in dark green script in the upper left reads, “a l'ami Carriere PGauguin.” A second inscription in the lower left is written with dark brown paint: “l'ami Laval PGo.”

Paul Gauguin

Self-Portrait Dedicated to Carrière, 1888 or 1889

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 46.5 x 38.6 cm (18 5/16 x 15 3/16 in.)

framed: 66 x 58.7 x 8.2 cm (26 x 23 1/8 x 3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1985.64.20

Artists / Makers

Paul Gauguin (painter) French, 1848 - 1903

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

upper left: a l'ami Carriere / PGauguin; lower left: [a] l'ami Laval PGo (illegible)

Provenance

Gift of the artist c. 1890 to Eugene Carrière [1848-1906]; acquired 1906 by Gustave Fayet [1865-1925], Igny, France;[1] by inheritance to his wife Mme. d'Andoque de Sériège [1873- 1979], Paris. (Wildenstein & Co., London, New York, and Paris), by 1931 until probably 1946, when owned by Mrs. Mary Huttleston Rogers [1902-1953], New York.[2] (Wildenstein & Co., London, New York, and Paris), in 1947. Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, New York, by 1956.[3] (Wildenstein & Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1958 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1985 to NGA.

[1] Date of Fayet's acquisition according to Rosaline Bacou, Odilon Redon, Geneva, 1946: 210.

[2] Wildenstein lent the painting to exhibitions in 1931, 1935, 1936, 1938, and 1947; Mrs. Rogers lent it to an exhibition in 1946, and is listed as its owner in Maurice Malingue Paul Gauguin: Le peintre et son oeuvre, Paris, 1948, repro. 204.

[3] The painting was lent by the Whitneys to an exhibition in 1956.

Associated Names

Carrière, Eugène
Fayet, Gustave
Mellon, Paul
Rogers, Huttleston, Mrs.
Whitney, John Hay
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.
d'Andoque, Mme

Exhibition History

1906: Salon d'Automne, 4me exposition, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, no. 1 or 2.

1931: Modern French Painting, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1931, no. 45

1935: Nineteenth Century Masterpieces, Wildenstein & Co., London, 1935, no. 11, repro.

1936: Pauk Gauguin, a retrospective exhibition of his paintings, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1936, no. 20, repro. frontispiece.

1936: Paul Gauguin, The Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1936, repro. frontispiece.

1938: Great Portraits from Impressionism to Modernism, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1938, no. 16

1946: A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1946, no. 34, repro.

1947: European Influence of American Painting of the 19th Century, Heckschers Art Museum, Huntington, Long Island, 1947, no. 36, repro.

1956: Loan Exhibition: Gauguin, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1956, no.44, repro.

1956: Pictures Collected by Yale Alumni, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1956, no. 94, repro.

1959: Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1962: Artmobile II ("Twelve Portraits: Delacroix to Gauguin"), sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1962, no. 12

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 126, repro

1988: The Art of Paul Gauguin, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Art Institute of Chicago; Grand Palais, Paris, 1988-1989, no. 29.

1989: Gogen: Vzgliad iz Rossli, The State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1989, no. 27, repro.

1998: Gauguin, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Switzerland, 1998, no. 43, repro.

2000: Paul Gauguin: Von der Bretagne nach Tahiti. Ein Aufbruch zur Moderne, Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria, 2000, no. 2, repro.

2001: Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, The Art Institute of Chicago; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2001-2002, no. 48, repro.

2004: Gauguin and the Origins of Symbolism, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2004-2005, no. 48, repro. (part of the exhibition, including NGA's Vuillard, The Yellow Curtain, shown consecutively at Casa de Alhajas, Madrid).

2007: Paula Modersohn-Becker und die Kunst in Paris um 1900 - Von Cézanne bis Picasso [Paula Modersohn-Becker and Paris Art around 1900 - from Cézanne to Picasso], Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, 2007-2008, no. 4, repro.

2010: Gauguin: Maker of Myth, Tate, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, no. 6, repro.

2011: Gauguin / Polynesia, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen; Seattle Art Museum, 2011-2012, no. 23, repro.

2013: Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016.

2017: Zuloaga in Paris of La Belle Epoque (1889-1914), Fundación MAPFRE, Instituto de Cultura, Madrid, 2017-2018, no. 27, repro.

2018: Gauguin & Laval in Martinique, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2018-2019, no. 136, repro.

2019: Gauguin Portraits, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The National Gallery, London, 2019-2020, no. 6, repro.

Bibliography

1919: Morice, Charles. Paul Gauguin. Paris, 1919: repro.

1930: Alexandre, Arsène. Paul Gauguin: sa vie et le sens de son oeuvre. Paris, 1930: repro. 155.

1936: Cogniat, Raymond. La Vie Ardente de Paul Gauguin. Paris, 1936: repro. 51.

1938: Rewald, John. Gauguin. Paris, 1938: repro. 42.

1941: Rocheblave, S. French Painting XIXth Century. New York, 1941: repro. 103.

1948: Malingue, Maurice. Gauguin, le peintre et son oeuvre. Paris, 1948: pl. 204.

1956: Bacou, Roseline. Odilon Redon. Geneva, 1956: 210, 217n.

1964: Wildenstein, Georges. Gauguin. 2 vols. Paris, 1964: no. 384, repro.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966: repro. no. 126.

1966: Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 42.

1981: Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gauguin. Milan, 1981: no. 224, repro.

1983: Bantens, Robert James. Eugène Carrière: His Work and His Influence. Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1975. Ann Arbor, 1983: 95-96.

1988: Bretell, Richard R. The Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Washington, D.C., 1988: 75-76, no. 29, repro.

1989: Bantens, Robert James. “Eugène Carrière and Paul Gauguin.” Southeastern College Art Conference Review 11, no. 4 (1989): 260-262.

1993: Christensen, Carol. "The Painting Materials and Technique of Paul Gauguin." Studies in the History of Art 41 (1993): 66, repro. no. 3.

1993: Thomson, Belinda, ed. Gauguin by Himself. New York, 1993: no. 3, repro.

1998: Bajou, Valérie. Eugène Carrière: Portrait intimiste 1849-1906. Lausanne, 1998: 162, repro.

1998: Pickvance, Ronald. Gauguin. Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny Suisse, 1998: 13-19, repro. no. 43.

2000: Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 36, fig. 43

2001: Gauguin's Nirvana: Painters at Le Pouldu 1889-1890. Exh. cat. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 2001: 27-28, repro.

2001: Wildenstein, Daniel. Gauguin: Premier itinéraire d'un sauvage. Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint (1873-1888). 2 vols. Paris, 2001: 2:no. 291, repro.