Woman in Front of a Still Life by Cezanne

Paul Gauguin · 1890

Medium

Oil on linen canvas

Original size

65.3 × 54.9 cm (25 11/16 × 21 5/8 in.); Framed: 82.9 × 73.4 × 10.5 cm (32 5/8 × 28 7/8 × 4 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Post-Impressionism

Painted in 1890, this quietly layered canvas places a Breton woman before one of Gauguin's most prized possessions — a still life by Paul Cézanne — turning a portrait into a meditation on artistic influence and admiration. By the time Gauguin completed this work, he had already begun pulling away from Impressionism toward the bold outlines and flattened forms that would define his mature style. Here, that shift is visible in the figure's solid, almost sculptural presence against the luminous background. The palette is rich but controlled, with deep ochres and muted greens grounding the composition in a warmth that feels intimate rather than decorative. The Cézanne still life depicted behind the sitter was a painting Gauguin actually owned and cherished — he reportedly said he would part with it only as a last resort, and he eventually carried it with him to Tahiti as a kind of talisman of what painting could be. Held today in the Art Institute of Chicago, the original remains inaccessible to most. This hand-painted oil reproduction on linen canvas honours the weight and texture of the original, bringing the same interplay of figure and art-within-art into your home with the depth that only oil paint can achieve.