Portrait of Claude-Antoine-Charles Favre

This 1877 portrait of Claude-Antoine-Charles Favre is one of Gauguin's earliest documented figurative works, painted during his years as a stockbroker-amateur under the influence of the Impressionist circle gathering around Pissarro. Formal portraiture was a practical genre for an aspiring amateur painter seeking social recognition, and Gauguin used it to sharpen his figure drawing and tonal modelling. Now in a private collection, the work represents the cultivated bourgeois milieu Gauguin inhabited before his decisive break with conventional Parisian life. The sitter's identity connects the painting to Gauguin's social networks in the 1870s professional and artistic world.

The portrait employs conventional three-quarter composition with careful tonal gradation in the face and hands. Brushwork in the clothing is broader and less refined than the facial rendering, suggesting Gauguin's uneven early technique and his primary interest in capturing likeness over decorative surface.