Self Portrait

ca. 1893

Paul Gauguin French, 1848-1903

On View

Modern, Level 2, Central Wing

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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About the Artwork

Gauguin exemplified the restless artistic spirit. In this image, painted during a brief return to Paris from Tahiti in 1893, he plays the role of "outsider," wearing the clothes and long hair of a Breton peasant rather than the suit of a Parisian. The background is divided horizontally, separating a cerebral and spiritual world from a physical and material one. His hand points toward a reproduction of a sketch by the painter Eugene Delacroix representing Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise. With this gesture Gauguin alludes to his sympathies for the distraught couple, for he was temporarily expelled from the paradise he had discovered in Tahiti.

Title Self Portrait

Artwork Date ca. 1893

Artist Paul Gauguin

Life Dates 1848-1903

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 18 1/8 × 15 inches (46 × 38.1 cm) Framed: 25 inches × 21 3/4 inches × 2 5/8 inches (63.5 × 55.2 × 6.7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Gift of Robert H. Tannahill

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 69.306

Markings

Signed Signed, lower left: P Go

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

(Paul Guillaume, Paris, France)

until 1911, Brendon Davis (London, United Kingdom)

1911, until at least 1936, purchased by Sir Michael Sadler (Oxford, Old Headington, United Kingdom)

by 1946, until 1955, Mr. and Mrs. L. B. Wescott (New Jersey, USA)

1955, acquired by (J.K. Tannhauser Gallery, New York, New York, USA)

1955, purchased by Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA)

1969-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Exh. cat., Stafford Gallery. London, 1911, cat. 19.

Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat., Leicester Gallery. London, 1924, cat. 43.

List of Loans at the Opening Exhibition of the Modern Foreign Gallery. Tate Gallery. London, 1926, p. 4.

Newhall, B. "After Delacroix." American Magazine of Art, 1936, pp. 580-584, p. 582 (ill.).

Exh. cat., Newark Museum. Newark, 1946, p. 7, cat. 54 (lent by Mr.& Mrs. Lloyd B. Wescott).

Paul Gauguin, His Place in East and West. Exh. cat., Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, 1954, cat. 48 (ill.).

James, Philip. Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy and Tate Gallery. Edinburgh and London. Paul Gauguin, 1955, p. 29, cat. 45.

Sutton, D., "Notes on Paul Gauguin," Burlington Magazine, vol. 98, 1956, pp. 84-92, esp. p. 84.

Wildenstein, G. Gauguin. Paris, 1965, p. 160 (cited under W415).

"Not all painted with the same Brush." The Times Literary Supplement, August 19, 1965, p. 712.

Rothenstein, Sir J., ed. The New International Encyclopedia of Art, vol. 9. New York, 1968, pp. 64-66.

Mittelstadt, K., Paul Gauguin - Self Portraits. Oxford, 1968, p. 64 (cited under W415).

Wagner, Monique. From Gaul to De Gaulle: An Outline of French Civilization. New York, 1989, p. xiv, pl. 39 (ill.).

The Robert Hudson Tannahill Bequest to The Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1970, pp. 6, 11, 27, (ill.).

Roskill, M. Van Gogh, Gauguin and the Impressionist Circle. Greenwich, 1970, pp. 55, 296, pl. 40.

Young, M.S. "The Delights of Collecting." Apollo 92 (1970): p. 64.

La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplement to Gazette des beaux-arts 77 (1971): p. 93 (as attributed to Paul Gauguin).

Detroit Institute of Arts Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p. 164.

Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 61 (ill.).

100 Masterworks from The Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, pp. 126-127 (ill.).

Message 1995. Exh. cat., Toyota Municipal Museum of Art. Toyota, 1995-1996, pp. 58, 202-203, cat. 14 (ill.). (as datable to ca. 1893).

Degas to Matisse: Impressionist and Modern Masterpieces from The Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., The Phillips Collection. Washington, D.C., 2000-2001, pp. 50-51, 76, 139 (ill.).

Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts: Masters of Impressionism and Modern Art. Exh. cat., Sogo Museum of Art, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Yawatahama Citizen Gallery. Yokohama, Kitakyushu, Fukushima, Fukui, Yawatahama, 2001, pp. 34, 82, no. 21, color repro. p. 83.

Goldin, Marco. Raffaello verso Picasso. Storie du sguardi, volti e figure. Exh. cat., Basilica Palladiana. Vicenza, p. 291, 353.

Abt, Jeffrey. Valuing Detroit’s Art Museum: A History of Fiscal Abandonment and Rescue. Detroit, 2017, pp. xvi, 127, fig. 4.3 (ill.).

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