 This work was produced in response to the painting by Courbet that
Gauguin and Gauguin had- seen together in the Musse Fabre in
Montpellier in December 1888. Bonjour Monsieur Courbet
formed part of the Bruyas collection, and Gauguin's version,
painted several months later, bears little overt resemblance
to the original. In Courbet's version, the artist depicted himself
in the guise of a wandering Jew who meets his patron Bruyas,
accompanied by his manservant on the road to Montpellier.
Bruya doffs his hat to the artist, and the servant
stands with head respectfully lowered. In depicting himself thus,
Courbet has referred to the changing status of the artist in the
nineteenth century and has represented himself in a romantic role,
as an essentially misunderstood, creative genius, working outside
the norms of bourgeois society. It was to this aspect that Gauguin
responded in this version, and the flavour of the original has been
retained, although the composition and figures are markedly different.
From his earliest selfportraits, such as 'Gauguin at his Easel'
, Gauguin had cast himself in the role of the artistic
martyr and in 1889 this was to reach a climax in works like the
'Green Christ' and 'Christ in the Garden of Olives'.
Gauguin (Colour Library)
by Alan Bowness
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