Special Paul Gauguin Loan reveals Its Secrets

The painting The Little Cat is currently on display at the Van Gogh Museum, together with comparable works from the museum collection and the outcomes of the research.

X-ray imaging conducted on the painting revealed that the threads of the fabric on the left, bottom and top sides are cusped (stretched into arched shapes). The deformation of the canvas was caused by its original attachment to the stretcher frame, but does not occur on the right-hand side. This indicates that the canvas was cut off at the right side, probably by Gauguin himself.

Gauguin greatly admired Vincent van Gogh’s still lifes, especially his sunflowers on a yellow background. Van Gogh painted his iconic work while he was awaiting the arrival of Gauguin, who came to live and work with him in the ‘Yellow House’ in Arles. Gauguin was inspired by Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and started work on his own yellow still life. Perhaps Van Gogh’s powerful still lifes made him hesitate and possibly dissatisfied with his own work. This might possibly reveal a different side of Gauguin, who is often characterised as confident and someone to whom Van Gogh looked up.

Vincent wrote to his brother Theo that Gauguin was ‘working on […] a big still life of an orange pumpkin and some apples and white linen on a yellow background and foreground.’ This quote is intriguing, as a ‘big still life’ by Gauguin is unknown. As The Little Cat was once larger and has a pumpkin on a yellow background, this painting may very well once have been part of the ‘big still life’ described in Vincent’s letter.

Van Gogh painted a portrait of Gauguin that offers a second clue about the ‘big still life’ with ‘yellow background and foreground.’ In this portrait, the viewer looks over Gauguin’s shoulder as he works on a yellow painting with a spherical object to the left. This canvas was also cropped on the right, as is The Little Cat.

The technical examination also revealed more about The Little Cat. A 19th-century beetle was discovered on the right-hand side of the painting, which must have been in the paint the work was created. Newspaper print was also discovered on the right-hand side. More than 100 years ago, the canvas was glued to another canvas to add strength. During this process, newspaper was used to protect the paint.

The Little Cat was acquired in 1906 by the forward-thinking art collector Gustave Fayet (1865–1925), and the work has remained in the family’s possession ever since. In addition to works by Gauguin, Fayet also collected many paintings by Van Gogh.

Main Image: Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), The Little Cat (Le petit chat), 1888, oil on jute, 72 x 25 cm, on loan from a private collection, France (former Gustave Fayet Collection)