Madame Alexandre Kohler
1887/1888
Medium
oil on linen
Dimensions
overall: 46.3 x 38 cm (18 1/4 x 14 15/16 in.) framed: 61.6 x 52.7 cm (24 1/4 x 20 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.27
Art Historical Context
**Madame Alexandre Kohler** (1887/1888) is an intimate oil-on-linen portrait by Paul Gauguin, capturing the poised figure of its sitter against a softly patterned background. Measuring just 46.3 x 38 cm, this compact canvas invites close contemplation, its modest scale suiting a private commission or personal study. Gauguin, a Post-Impressionist painted this during a pivotal moment in Paris, just before his embrace of bolder Synthetist techniques in Brittany and beyond. In the late 1880s, Gauguin was transitioning from Impressionist influences—think loose brushwork and luminous light—to a mor...
About the Artist
Paul Gauguin · 1848–1903
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose bold experiments with color, form, and subject matter made him one of the most influential figures in the transition from 19th-century art to modernism. His rejection of European civilization for the perceived authenticity of 'primitive' cultures established an archetype of artistic exile that continues to resonate. Gauguin's ...