Portrait of Madelaine Bernard 1888

Paul Gauguin painted this oil on canvas portrait of Madelaine Bernard in France, likely in the late 1880s. The painting depicts a young woman, dressed in modest attire, seated in a domestic setting with a painting in the background. The painting’s meaning is created through Gauguin’s bold colour choices and the subject’s pensive expression. During this period, France was undergoing rapid social change, challenging traditional norms. Gauguin, associated with the Post-Impressionist movement, often questioned academic artistic conventions. His work provided a critique of institutional art through its departure from realism. The setting and the subject’s clothing suggest the sitter is part of the bourgeoisie, the values of which Gauguin challenges through this artwork. Art historians rely on archival materials, period publications, and critical analyses to uncover these social and cultural contexts. Art gains its profoundest meaning when it's understood within the framework of its time.