El taller de Schuffenecker

Emile Schuffenecker gave Paul Gauguin years of help, meals, a bed when he had none, and the idea for the 1889 exhibition that put Gauguin's circle in front of the Paris crowds. Gauguin repaid him oddly. He painted Schuffenecker's family in the man's own studio in 1889 and made his friend the smallest, meekest figure in it, tucked into a corner in big slippers, hands clasped, glancing nervously at his wife. There is no brush in his hand. His wife stands tall and composed at the centre. On the wall hang a still life and a Japanese print, then the height of fashion in Paris. The two men fell out not long after, and never fully mended it.