Self-Portrait

1889 · Painting

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

Room83 · West Building, Main Floor

On public display.

Checked: 5 hours ago
In this state since: Aug 19, 2026
Source: The museum's own collection data

On the map Museum page

About the painting

Self-Portrait with Halo and Snake, also known as Self-Portrait, is an 1889 oil-on-wood painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, which represents his late Brittany period in the fishing village of Le Pouldu in northwestern France. No longer comfortable with Pont-Aven, Gauguin moved on to Le Pouldu with his friend and student Meijer de Haan and a small group of artists. He stayed for several months in the autumn of 1889 and the summer of 1890, where the group spent their time decorating the interior of Marie Henry's inn with every major type of art work. Gauguin painted his Self-Portrait in the dining room with its companion piece, Portrait of Jacob Meyer de Haan (1889).

Read on

The painting shows Gauguin against a red background with a halo above his head and apples hanging beside him as he holds a snake in his hand while plants or flowers appear in the foreground. The religious symbolism and the stylistic influence of Japanese wood-block prints and cloisonnism are apparent. The portrait was completed several years before Gauguin visited Tahiti and is one of more than 40 self-portraits he completed during his lifetime. The work reached the art market in 1919 when Marie Henry sold it at the Galerie Barbazanges in Paris as part of her collected works from the Le Pouldu period. American banker Chester Dale acquired the painting in 1928, gifting it upon his death in 1962 to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

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Particulars

Accession number: 1963.10.150

What it shows

Self Christian allegory

In the catalog

French Post-Impressionist Self-portrait

Sources

National Gallery of Art: the museum's own open data · fetched 4 days ago
Image: National Gallery of Art — Museum open access

Meanwhile, in the life of Paul Gauguin

The whole life

1870s–1891 · Workplace
Paris
1886–1891 · Workplace
Pont-Aven
1887 · Workplace
Martinique
1887
Panama and Martinique
In 1887–1888 Gauguin visited Panama, where he observed the construction of the Panama Canal, and traveled on with the painter Laval to Martinique. Martinique helped bring about an evolution in his art, making Japanese influences apparent.
October – December 1888
Nine Weeks with Van Gogh in Arles
In 1888, at Theo's insistence, Gauguin worked for nine weeks with Vincent van Gogh in his Yellow House in Arles. Their relationship deteriorated: on the evening of 23 December 1888, according to Gauguin's later account, Vincent came at him with a razor and then cut off his own ear; Gauguin left Arles, and they never saw each other again.
1 April 1891
Departure for Tahiti
On 1 April 1891, after a final visit to his wife and children in Copenhagen, Gauguin sailed for Tahiti, intending to escape European civilization and "everything that is artificial and conventional." He spent his first three months in Papeete, then set up a studio in a bamboo hut at Mataiea.