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This combination portrait/still life shows Gauguin's ability to take the best of various artists he admired. For example, the abrupt way Laval's face is cut off is a tribute to Edgar Degas' off-centered, oddly-cropped compositions, while setup of the still life and the parallel brush strokes in the fruit harken to Paul Cézanne's work. In addition to those other much-admired artists, Gauguin inserted himself into the composition in the form of the ceramic "monstrosity" he created, a strange interruption which Laval examines quizzically. He deliberately quotes the two most renowned artists in the genres of modern life and still life, then refuses to resolve them harmoniously. Instead, Gauguin leaves them disrupted, even incoherent in this, his first in a series of paintings on the challenges of creativity. Laval, the viewer's surrogate, tries to guess his next move.
still life Edgar Degas Paul Cézanne's Edgar Degas' portrait Paul Cézanne