How does Still Life with Profile of Laval elucidate its Historical information?
Gauguin and Laval met in the summer of 1886, and the younger artist soon became Gauguin's pupil. This subservient role is indicated by Laval's fixed gaze upon the pot Gauguin made. The pot itself helps place the creation of this painting very late in 1886, after Gauguin had returned to Paris, because it was not created until at least October. Gauguin valued his ceramic experiments highly, as both artistic objects and sources of income. He wrote to his wife Mette that this particular pot was worth 100 francs. It cannot currently be located, and may have been destroyed.Vincent van Gogh had suggested a portrait exchange among the small group of artists (also including Émile Bernard) gathered at Pont-Aven in order to create a greater sense of community, a tradition known as Freundschaftsbild. By rendering them all in new artistic styles, the collective announced their abandonment of naturalism and adoption of Symbolism.
Émile Bernard naturalism Symbolism portrait Paris Vincent van Gogh Pont-Aven