Self-Portrait Dedicated to Carriere

This self-portrait dedicated to the Symbolist painter Eugène Carrière was painted around 1888–89, making the Wikidata year of 1778 clearly erroneous. Carrière was known for his misty, monochromatic portraits, and Gauguin's dedication reflects the connections between Symbolist painters at this period. The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. holds this work, which shows Gauguin at the height of his Synthetist development, using the self-portrait as a vehicle for both self-promotion and alliance-building within the Parisian avant-garde.

The self-portrait shows Gauguin's face rendered with simplified modelling and firm contours that distinguish his Synthetist approach from the blended, misty technique of the Carrière to whom it is dedicated. The colour palette is relatively sombre — dark coat, neutral background — placing the emphasis entirely on the character and expression of the face.