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Paul Gauguin (artist) French, 1848 - 1903 Self-Portrait, 1889 oil on wood overall: 79.2 x 51.3 cm (31 3/16 x 20 3/16 in.) Chester Dale Collection 1963.10.150 |
Object 2 of 7
Gauguin painted many self-portraits, but few are as enigmatic as this one. It was part of the decoration that Gauguin and his colleague Meyer de Haan created for the dining room of the inn where they were staying in Le Pouldu. In six weeks, soon after their arrival in late 1889, they made dozens of ceramic works, woodcarvings, and sculpture, and they covered the walls with paintings. This self-portrait, and a paired portrait Gauguin did of de Haan, may have decorated cupboard doors.
At the time, Gauguin’s likeness was described by friends as an “unkind character sketch”—a caricature. Today, it is the subject of intense analysis. Some see the artist casting himself in the role of Satan, others as Christ. What are we to make of the imagery—the apples that precipitate man’s fall from grace; the halo over Gauguin’s disembodied head; the snake that is both tempter of Eve and the embodiment of knowledge; the bold division into vivid yellow and red, evocative of both hellfire and the heat of creation? Perhaps it is most likely that Gauguin is revealing his conception of the artist as hero, and—almost to challenge his colleagues—of himself, particularly, as a kind of magus, a master who knows that he possesses the power of magic by virtue of talent and genius.
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