Description
Still Life with Profile of Laval – the vessel in the picture is a lost Gauguin ceramic
On a rumpled white cloth lies a large ochre gourd, and beside it apples in red and green are arranged along with one yellow fruit. Behind stands a dark vessel with open handles, almost black against the pale wall. The ground is light and patterned, and a dark green vertical band runs through the middle. At the right edge the profile of a bearded man is visible, looking towards the still life, and the edge of the canvas cuts him. Below, the brown table top appears. The work is held by the art museum in Indianapolis under number 1998.167; it was made in 1886.
A vessel that no longer exists
The museum’s label explains that the tall vessel behind the fruit is one of Gauguin’s own ceramic experiments, which he began making in 1886, and adds that its current location is unknown. The object therefore exists only inside this picture. What looks on the canvas like an ornament in the background is in truth the only surviving view of a lost work by the same maker.
The profile at the edge
The man’s profile at the right edge belongs to the painter Charles Laval, Gauguin’s companion. The museum explains that so displaced and cropped an arrangement points to Gauguin’s admiration for the compositions of Degas, while the parallel brushstrokes and the outlined fruit point to the influence of Cézanne. The canvas was painted in Paris late in 1886, after the painter returned from his first stay at Pont-Aven, where he had become friends with Laval.
The signature the record places to the right
The museum record says the work is signed and dated in blue paint at the lower right, from the point of view of the picture itself. For the viewer that is the left side, and that is exactly where the signature P. Gauguin with the year 86 stands. The record also notes an export stamp with the Hungarian national crest on the back of the canvas. The museum gives the measurement in inches only, 18 1/8 inches high and 15 inches wide, which comes to about 46 x 38 cm; that conversion is ours.
How a hand-painted reproduction is made
Every reproduction here is hand-painted in oil on canvas, stroke by stroke. In this motif the cloth is the hardest part: if it goes merely white the fruit peels away from the ground, so it has to stay full of blue and grey shadow. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval.
- Subject: a still life with fruit and a dark vessel, with a painter’s profile at the edge.
- Technique: oil on canvas, a warm ochre mass on a cool white cloth.
- Sizes: portrait format, from 42 x 50 cm to 164 x 200 cm; 75 x 90 cm and 90 x 110 cm are often chosen.
- Of note: the vessel depicted is considered lost.
If the same period interests you, see also Roses and Statuette, Interior from the Artist’s Home, rue Carcel and Schuffenecker’s Studio. The museum record gives the measurement in inches: 18 1/8 by 15 inches.
