Musée d’Orsay · 1893
Self-portrait with hat
Paul Gauguin
Gauguin paints himself freshly back in Paris after his first stay in Tahiti, his face half-shadowed by a wide-brimmed hat, with his own painting Spirit of the Dead Watching visible behind him — a defiant re-introduction of himself to a Paris art world that had mostly ignored his Tahitian work.
Why it matters
Gauguin paints himself freshly back in Paris after his first stay in Tahiti, his face half-shadowed by a wide-brimmed hat, with his own painting Spirit of the Dead Watching visible behind him — a defiant re-introduction of himself to a Paris art world that had mostly ignored his Tahitian work.
Look closer
Notice the bold, unrealistic colors and heavy outlines around his face — the same flattened style Gauguin used to paint Tahiti, now turned on himself back in a French studio.
Gauguin painted this shortly after a disappointing exhibition of his Tahitian paintings in Paris — a moody, defiant self-portrait made at a genuine low point in his career.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €8–16 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.