Musée d’Orsay · 1887
L'Italienne
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh painted Agostina Segatori, an Italian former artist's model who ran a Paris café he frequented, in a striking pose against a flat yellow background — a personal blend of Japanese print style and the latest color theory he was absorbing in Paris.
Why it matters
Van Gogh painted Agostina Segatori, an Italian former artist's model who ran a Paris café he frequented, in a striking pose against a flat yellow background — a personal blend of Japanese print style and the latest color theory he was absorbing in Paris.
Look closer
Notice the flat, unshaded yellow background and the confident dark outline around her figure — borrowed directly from the Japanese woodblock prints Van Gogh collected and admired.
Segatori and Van Gogh are believed to have had a brief romantic relationship not long before this portrait was painted, in the café she ran, where Van Gogh also displayed his own paintings on the walls.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €25–42 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.