Musée d’Orsay · 1889
La belle Angèle
Paul Gauguin
Gauguin painted Angèle Satre, a Pont-Aven innkeeper, framed inside her own circular medallion like a Japanese print or a devotional icon — an experimental, almost decorative format he was developing at the time, far from a conventional portrait.
Why it matters
Gauguin painted Angèle Satre, a Pont-Aven innkeeper, framed inside her own circular medallion like a Japanese print or a devotional icon — an experimental, almost decorative format he was developing at the time, far from a conventional portrait.
Look closer
Notice the flat, deep blue background pressing right up against her traditional Breton costume — Gauguin uses bold, unmodulated color blocks instead of realistic shading, a style historians call Synthetism.
Gauguin gave this portrait to Angèle and her husband to settle a debt at their café — but they disliked it so much they refused to accept it.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €15–30 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.