Self-Portrait

Currently on view

Charles Laval (1861 - 1894), Pont-Aven, 1888

oil on canvas, 50.7 cm x 60.4 cm

Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Charles Laval sent this self-portrait to Van Gogh, who was immediately enthusiastic. To his brother Theo he described it as ‘very self-assured, very distinguished’. He thought it would be ‘precisely one of the paintings you speak of, which one takes before the others have recognized the talent.’

Van Gogh did not know Laval personally, but was in contact with him via common friends, artists Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard. Like them, Laval was keen to swap paintings with Van Gogh. Two months later, he received a Van Gogh self-portrait in exchange.

Object number
s0247V1962
Dimensions
50.7 cm x 60.4 cm, 70 cm x 80.5 cm
Provenance
Exchanged by the artist with Vincent van Gogh, Arles, 11 or 12 November 1888; left by Vincent van Gogh at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; donated by Vincent Willem van Gogh to the (1st) Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Laren, 11 March 1952; transferred by the (1st) Vincent van Gogh Foundation to the Theo van Gogh Foundation, Laren, 28 December 1960; donated by the Theo van Gogh Foundation to the (2nd) Vincent van Gogh Foundation, 21 July 1962; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973, and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
artist
Charles Laval
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

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