Selbstbildnis mit Hut

Gauguin painted this in 1893, freshly back in Paris after two years in Tahiti and eager to present himself as a man remade by the tropics. Behind his head hangs one of his own Tahitian canvases, Manao Tupapau, or Spirit of the Dead Watching, shown here in mirror image because he was working from its reflection. He gives himself a heavy coat and a firm, guarded stare, the look of an artist selling a story about where he had been. The Paris art world was mostly unconvinced, and the exhibition he mounted that year sold poorly. Within two years he sailed back to the Pacific for good.