Gauguin painted this unusual image in Paris in late 1886, after his first visit to Pont-Aven, where he befriended the artist Charles Laval.

Laval's profile, abruptly cut on the right, reflects Gauguin's admiration for the off center, cropped compositions of Edgar Degas. The parallel brush strokes and outlined forms of the fruit suggest the influence of Paul Cézanne.

The tall dark form is a ceramic by Gauguin and typifies his highly original experiments with new media. He was especially fond of this pot, whose current location is unknown.

Paul Gauguin's unique approach to art, evident in Still Life with Profile of Laval, was a process of constant searching and imaginative exploration. This painting is much more than a conventional still life of inanimate objects arranged on a table. Peering into the enigmatic space is the profile of his fellow painter Charles Laval, whom Gauguin met in the summer of 1886 in the quaint village of Pont-Aven, an artists' colony in northwestern France. Is the rectangle at the center a view to another space, or is it a reflection in a windowpane or mirror? Adding to the mystique of this composition is the strangely shaped vessel near its center. Gauguin had begun to make ceramics in 1886, and this object is one of the highly original results of his experiments.

Gauguin's bold ideas and charismatic personality made him the leading member of the international School of Pont-Aven. Criticized in their own time, today these artists are respected for liberating color from the constraints of naturalism and for emphasizing the decorative element in their work. The IMA is home to the nation's leading collection of paintings and prints by the School of Pont-Aven, acquired in 1998 from the collection of Samuel Josefowitz.

For most I will be a puzzle, for a few I will be a poet.
-Paul Gauguin, 1888