Portrait of Louis Roy

Portrait of Louis Roy, painted in 1891 during Gauguin's first Tahitian period or shortly before his departure, depicts a French artist in the Post-Impressionist circle — Louis Roy, who worked in the Synthetist style and was associated with Gauguin's Pont-Aven group. While the portrait was likely painted in France rather than Tahiti, its 1891 date places it at a threshold moment in Gauguin's career. Painting a fellow artist placed this work within a long tradition of artistic self-documentation; Gauguin's circle in Pont-Aven and Paris exchanged portraits as declarations of aesthetic solidarity. Roy was among the minor figures of the movement who kept the Synthetist flame alive in France during Gauguin's absences.

Oil on canvas with Gauguin's mature Synthetist approach to portraiture — the sitter's features rendered with simplified modeling rather than academic detail, the background reduced to broad color areas or flat patterning. His male portraits tend toward a directness and economy that differs from the more elaborately arranged Tahitian figure paintings.