Artwork Details
18-1/8 x 15 in. (canvas) 26 x 22-3/4 x 2-1/4 in. (framed/glazed)
Mark DescriptionSigned and dated, in blue paint, lower left: P Gauguin 86
Accession NumberSamuel Josefowitz Collection of the School of Pont-Aven, through the generosity of Lilly Endowment Inc., the Josefowitz Family, Mr. and Mrs. James M. Cornelius, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard J. Betley, Lori and Dan Efroymson, and other Friends of the Museum
CopyrightEuropean Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945
Color PaletteProvenance
Given by the artist to Charles Laval [1862-1894] in 1887.{1} Possibly to (Ambroise Vollard [1867-1939], Paris, France).{2} Schuffenecker, around 1906.{3} With the (Galerie Miethke, Vienna, Austria) by 1907.{4} Marczell de Nêmes [1866-before 1931], Budapest, Hungary.{5} (Alexandre Rosenberg, known as Rosenberg Père, Paris, France);{6} Baron Mór Lipót Herzog [1869-1934], also known as Moritz Leopold Herzog, by 1912;{7} By inheritance to his son András Herzog [1902- 1942?] by 1938;{8} Seized from Herzog storage by Hungarian State Security Police and placed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, in 1944;{9} With other art from Budapest, the painting is accompanied by Dénes Czánky, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, via the convent in Szentgotthárd, Hungary, and the monastery in Admont, Austria, to the town of Grassau, in southeastern Bavaria in spring 1945;{10} Taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point by Monuments Man, Thomas Carr Howe, Jr., on 25 June 1945;{11} Munich Central Collecting Points no. 1099/25;{12} Restituted to Maria Izabella Parravicini [1912-1982], former wife of András Herzog, via Dr. Emil Oppler, Budapest, a family friend and lawyer, in 1948;{13} To (Sándor Donáth, Hungary, then Zurich) in 1948.{14} (Wildenstein and Co., New York, New York).{15} Mr. and Mrs. Otto L. Spaeth, New York, New York, by 1952.{16} Mr. and Mrs. Walter B. Ford II, by 1964;{17} Sold at (Christie's, New York, New York) to Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1980;{18} Acquired as a partial gift/partial purchase by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1998 (1998.167). {1} This early provenance is given in Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin, 2002, catalogue raisonné no. 238. {2} Vollard's name appears in a typescript copy of an unpublished catalogue of Gauguin's paintings (by Douglas Cooper?). Copies in IMA Provenance file (1998.167). {3} See footnote 1 above. {4} It appears in an exhibition of works by Gauguin held at the Galerie Miethke, March-April 1907, as no. 70 with the notation "for sale." See Donald Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions 1900-1916, volume II, 1974, p. 191. {5} See footnote 1 above. {6} According to a document prepared in 1998 by Lászlo Mravik, Director of the Cultural Research Group at the National Museum, Budapest, the painting was sold to Mór Lipót Herzog by Rosenberg Père, Paris. Copy in IMA Provenance file (1998.167). {7} The painting appears in the Sonderbund Internationale Kunstausstellung, Cologne, Städtische Ausstellungshalle, 25 May - 30 September 1912, catalogue no. 152, as lent by "Baron Moritz Leopold Herzog." See Donald Gordon, as cited above, p. 589. (It was not purchased out of the auction of Baron Marczell de Nêmes' collection in 1913, as is sometimes stated.) {8} The collection of Mór Lipót Herzog was, for the most part, distributed between his three children: András Herzog, Erzsébet Herzog (then already married to Alfonz Weiss), and István Herzog. This painting was included in the exhibition Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1938, catalogue no. 122a, as lent by" Baron A. Herzog, Budapest." He lent five paintings to this exhibition and all were returned to him upon its closing. Following the exhibition, this painting, along with other items in the Herzog collection were stored by the owners in the cellars of the Labor Company at Budafok, outside Budapest. For the history of the Herzog collection, see Lászlo Mravik, "Sacco Di Budapest": Depredation of Hungary, 1938-1949, 1998, p. 305. {9} A document in the Hungarian National Archives (K 643-1944-201, Fol. 6) states that the painting was found in 1944 by the State Security Police in the Budafok laboratory; copy in IMA Provenance file (1998.167). The seized collection may have been offered to the Eichmann Sonderkommando at its headquarters in the Hotel Majestic in Budapest; if so, the Gauguin painting was among the unwanted materials and was transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts by the State Security Police for safekeeping on 20 May 1944. {10} For a report dated 1 June 1945 by Thomas Bogyay, who accompanied Czanky to Grassau, see National Archives and Records Administration, RG260 OMGUS: Records of the Central Collecting Points ("Ardelia Hall Collection"): Munich Central Collecting Point, Restitution Research Records, Investigations by Foreign Representatives: France, Microfilm M1946, roll 134 (also available at Fold3.com, http://www.fold3.com/image/270141956, retrieved 22 July 2014). {11} For the receipt issued to Howe upon his arrival with the paintings from Grassau, see National Archives and Records Administration, RG260 OMGUS: Records of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) Section of the Preparations and Restitution Branch, Claims of Cultural Property Removed by German Forces, Bavaria Decl. No. 10840, Microfilm M1949, roll 27 (also available at Fold3.com, http://www.fold3.com/image/293111362, retrieved 22 July 2014.) See in addition Thomas Carr Howe, Jr.'s narrative of his trip to Grassau, in his Saltmines and Castles: The Discovery and Restitution of Looted European Art, Indianapolis, 1946, pp. 68-77. {12} See Deutsches Historisches Museum, database of MCCP property cards, at http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/ccp/dhm_ccp.php?seite=6&fld_1=1099%2F25&fld_3=&auswahl=6&fld_4=&fld_4a=&fld_5=&fld_6=&fld_7=&fld_8=&fld_9=&fld_10=&suchen=Suchen, retrieved July 2014 (note that this card is incompletely scanned). See also NGA, MCCP Photographic documentation, for 1099/25. The Gauguin, listed with the title, "Still Life with profile of a man," appears on an itemized list documenting the 3rd shipment to Hungary, dated 21 August 1947; see National Archives and Records Administration, RG260 OMGUS: Records of the Central Collecting Points ("Ardelia Hall Collection"): Munich Central Collecting Point, Activity Reports and Related Records, Status of Collecting Point Munich: Transport Lists: Hungary, Microfilm M1946, roll 76 (also available at Fold3.com, http://www.fold3.com/image/270067373, retrieved 22 July 2014). Upon close inspection, the stretcher bears the partially effaced remnants of the Munich no. 99/25). {13} András Herzog was sent to a labor camp in 1942 and never returned. Because he had only under-age heirs, the paintings were restituted to his former wife Maria Izabella Parravicini, divorced from András Herzog in 1939 and remarried to Count Istvan Bethlen, Jr. Police records of a smuggling prosecution in 1949 detail the facts of the restitution and the role of Dr. Oppler. See footnote 14 below. {14} The 1949 police investigation against the wife of István Herzog claimed that proper export licenses had not been procured for works in the Herzog collection, including those in possession of Maria Izabella Parravicini. While this may have been the case for a number of the Herzog pictures, Gauguin's Still Life with Profile of Laval had been granted permission for export; see copies of papers from the Hungarian National Archives (K 726-1948-732) in IMA Provenance file (1998.167). This is corroborated by the presence of an export stamp bearing the Hungarian national crest on the verso of the canvas. The police investigation materials identify Donáth as an art dealer who left Hungary for Zurich in 1948. {15} See footnote 1 above.
Gallery Labels
- In this enigmatic image, Gauguin’s fellow artist Charles Laval peers at an arrangement of objects on a rumpled cloth. The tall vessel behind the fruit is one of Gauguin’s highly original experiments with ceramics, which he began making in 1886. Its current location is unknown.
- Laval’s profile reflects Gauguin’s admiration for the off-center, cropped compositions of Edgar Degas, while the parallel brush strokes and outlining of the fruit suggest the influence of Paul Cézanne.
- This canvas was painted in Paris in late 1886, after Gauguin’s return from his first visit to the Breton village of Pont-Aven, where he befriended Laval.
Exhibition History
Exhibition Name
Venue
Dates
The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gauguin Portraits
The National Gallery of London
October 7, 2019 - January 26, 2020
The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gauguin Portraits
National Gallery of Canada
May 24, 2019 - September 8, 2019
Gauguin and Laval in Martinique
The Van Gogh Museum
October 5, 2018 - January 13, 2019
Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist
Réunion des Musées Nationaux Grand Palais
October 9, 2017 - January 21, 2018
Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist
Art Institute of Chicago
June 25, 2017 - September 10, 2017
Paul Gauguin: Maker of Myth
Tate Modern
September 30, 2010 - January 16, 2011
Gauguin and Impressionism: Paintings, Sculpture and Ceramics
Kimball Art Museum
December 18, 2005 - March 26, 2006
Gauguin and Impressionism: Paintings, Sculpture and Ceramics
Ordrupgaard Museum for Fransk Impressionisme
August 25, 2005 - November 20, 2005
Van Gogh and Gauguin: Studio of the South
The Van Gogh Museum
February 9, 2002 - June 2, 2002
Van Gogh and Gauguin: Studio of the South
Art Institute of Chicago
September 22, 2001 - January 13, 2002
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven from the Collection of Samuel Josefowitz
Indianapolis Museum of Art
March 28, 1999 - August 1, 1999
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Museum Würth
March 2, 1997 - June 1, 1997
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Museum Würth
March 1, 1997 - June 1, 1997
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
October 15, 1996 - January 14, 1997
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Portland Museum of Art
November 19, 1995 - January 14, 1996
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
San Diego Museum of Art
July 28, 1995 - October 15, 1995
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Dixon Gallery and Gardens
May 6, 1995 - July 15, 1995
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Montréal Museum of Fine Arts
February 9, 1995 - April 15, 1995
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Walters Art Museum
November 20, 1994 - January 15, 1995
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
September 8, 1994 - October 23, 1994
Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven
Art Gallery of New South Wales
May 13, 1994 - July 24, 1994
Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism
The Van Gogh Museum
April 9, 1981 - June 14, 1981
Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism
Art Gallery of Ontario
January 24, 1981 - March 22, 1981
Gauguin
Wildenstein & Company, Inc.
April 4, 1956 - May 5, 1956
The Spaeth Collection
Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute
1952 - 1952
19th Century Influences in French Painting
Guild Hall
1952 - 1952
Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
July 2, 1938 - September 25, 1938
Sonderbund Internationale Kunstausstellung
Stadtiscche Ausstellungshalle
May 25, 1912 - September 30, 1912
Still Life Painting Since 1470
Cincinnati Art Museum
Dates Unknown
Exhibition of Works by Gauguin
Dates Unknown
Still Life Painting Since 1470
Milwaukee Art Museum
Dates Unknown
Related Content
A reference to a publication that contains a preparatory sketch with a portrait of Charles Laval.
A short biography of the artist.
A selection of van Gogh's letters that mention Charles Laval (at the Van Gogh Museum).
Learn more about the life and work of Paul Gauguin.
A resource of letters that mention Charles Laval.
Two pages from a publication that includes this preparatory sketch of Charles Laval.
Learn more about Gauguin’s friend and fellow artist.
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