Portrait of Joseph-Michel Ginoux

Currently on view

Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903), Arles, 1888

oil on canvas, 40.5 cm x 32 cm

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

Apart from the flush on the man’s cheek, all the colours in this portrait are non-naturalistic. Gauguin preferred pure, unmixed colours and solid outlines. But if you look carefully you can see that he had second thoughts and softened the line of the cheekbone using pale blue paint. He left the right-hand side of the painting unfinished.

Gauguin painted this man while he was living with Van Gogh in the southern French town of Arles. They worked side by side and both painted portraits of this distinctive-looking man. It may be Joseph Ginoux, a café owner and friend of Van Gogh.

Object number
s0256V1962
Dimensions
40.5 cm x 32 cm, 55.4 cm x 46.7 cm
Provenance
Left by the artist with Vincent van Gogh, Arles, 25 December 1888; sent by Vincent van Gogh to his brother, Theo van Gogh, Paris, 30 April 1889; 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; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 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 (as Unknown, Portret van een acteur); 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
Paul Gauguin
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

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