Self-portrait

This is thought to be the last self-portrait Gauguin painted. He made it in 1903 in Atuona, on the Marquesas island of Hiva Oa, far out in the Pacific, in his final months and in poor health. His eyes were failing, which is why he shows himself in plain nickel-rimmed spectacles, the face heavy and tired above a white shirt. There has long been a doubt about it. In February 1903 Gauguin wrote that he had hardly touched a brush in three months, and one researcher argued the picture was actually made years after his death by a friend out in the islands. The Kunstmuseum Basel studied it closely and in 2025 concluded that it is genuine, though part of the face was retouched by another hand after he died. Under ultraviolet light that later work shows up around the forehead, eyes, nose and beard.