He looks rather solemn against the riotously colorful background with its energetic swathes of flat paint. He looks like what he was, a man of learning , as well as an artist. Self-Portrait Against A Japanese Background is the name that Jacob Meyer de Haan (1852-1895) gave this picture. Of the group of artists that called themselves the Nabis, taking the Hebrew word for prophet, de Haan actually was an Orthodox Jew, from a family whose wealth came from their bread and matzoh business in Amsterdam. Things you can't see in this picture: de Haan was short - only four feet eleven inches and suffered from a slight hunch bank, attributed to his tuberculosis, disabilities that exempted him from military service and left him free to pursue his art in Paris. 
There he stayed with fellow Dutchman Theo van Gogh., who introduced him to Paul Gauguin. Under Gauguin's influence, de Haan became a modernist. In return for painting lessons, de Haan helped to support Gauguin. The two went first to Brittany, where de Haan suffered from the damp weather. It was his decision to try another place in the spring of April, 1889 - Le Pouldu where the two men took rooms there at L'Hotel de la Plage.
Received wisdom has Gauguin the dominant partner in this relationship, but not necesarily. The two men were rivals for the innkeeper, Mademoiselle Marie Henry, competing artistically by decorating the walls and ceiling of her dining room with their works, but de Haan won her heart. He also Marie with her baby, Marie-Lea and, a year and half later, little Mimi sitting at table, entranced, by the shapes and colors of fruit.
Gauguin tried to persuade de Haan to join on his Tahitian adventure but he refused. When de Haan did leave Le Pouldu in October, 1890, he left all his belongings, including his paintings, at the inn but he never returned. His deep sadness at Theo van Gogh's death in January, 1891, hastened his declining health.
Received wisdom has Gauguin the dominant partner in this relationship, but not necesarily. The two men were rivals for the innkeeper, Mademoiselle Marie Henry, competing artistically by decorating the walls and ceiling of her dining room with their works, but de Haan won her heart. He also Marie with her baby, Marie-Lea and, a year and half later, little Mimi sitting at table, entranced, by the shapes and colors of fruit.
Gauguin tried to persuade de Haan to join on his Tahitian adventure but he refused. When de Haan did leave Le Pouldu in October, 1890, he left all his belongings, including his paintings, at the inn but he never returned. His deep sadness at Theo van Gogh's death in January, 1891, hastened his declining health.
In a last letter to Theo, de Haan wrote movingly, ""When I look back, when I think of that sombre, stifling environment where I hung about in my youth – of that niggardly and narrow-minded artistic circle, I feel overjoyed today thanks to my liberal ideas, to a young and vigorous present and great confidence in the future".
His admiration for Gauguin was implicit in words and made explicit in the careful modeling de Haan brought to still life painting.
What Gauguin thought of his friend de Haan is enigmatic, revealing more of Gauguin's relentless self-interest than anything else. His portraits of de Haan show a man as animal, a symbol more than an individual, with the narrow eyes and pointed ears of a fox.
Note: You can read more about de Haan, Mme Henry, and Gauguin here.
Images:
1. Self-Portrait Against A Japanese Background, c. 1889-1891, Triton Foundation, Pays-Bas, France.
2. Onions, c. 1890, Museum of Fine Arts, Quimper, France.
3. Maternity, 1889, courtesy of the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
4. Still Life With Mimi, 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
5. The Inn At Le Pouldu, 1890, Kroller-MullerMuseum, Otterloo, Netherlands.
6. Lilacs In A Glass With Apples And Lemons, c. 1889, courtesy of the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
6 comments:
What a well written story. I adore the Maternity painting.
I never liked Gauguin's behaviour, not looking after his wife and children for all those years. But he certainly had a super impact on Jacob Meyer de Haan. At least three of those de Haan paintings are terrific.
Kristin, it's a painting in which every stroke tells. In spite of its simplicity, we immediately recognize Mimi when we see her again, staring intently at the tomatoes and apples.
Hels, what's especially unfair in this story is how Gauguin's shadow has blotted out a fine artist in Meijer de Haan. Critics seem to choose one artist from a dyadic relationship - the commons examples are married couples, and the wife usually suffers the neglect. The recent exhibition of de Haan's work at the Musee d'Orsay was titled "De Haan: The Hidden Master." It's about time.
It's amazing that even in the 1920s the murals by de Haan and Gauguin in Le Pouldu were simply papered over and forgotten, as if they had no value. The Gauguin portrait of de Haan in MoMA, which comes from there, is rather cruelly caricatured, I think.
I debated about including Gauguin's pictures of de Haan and decided against it for that reason. He seems to use de Haan as a projection of his own shortcomings and jealousies. Being cast in Gauguin's shadow has been rather unfair to de Haan's work.
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