User:Acdumire/Still Life with Profile of Laval

Still Life with Profile of Laval is an oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, located in the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Description
Still Life with Profile of Laval depicts Gauguin's friend and fellow artist, Charles Laval, looking at a still life. Laval is shown in full profile, his face abruptly cropped. The cropped, asymmetrical composition probably reflects Gauguin's admiration for Edgar Degas. The short, parallel brushstrokes and dark outlines reflect the style of Paul Cezanne.

Historical information
Gauguin met Laval during his first visit to the village of Pont-Aven in 1886, and the painting was created later in the same year, after Gauguin's return to Paris. 1886 was also the year in which Gauguin began experimenting with sculpture, and the tall, dark object on the left side of the picture is one of his ceramic sculptures. The current location of the sculpture is not known.