Jug in the form of a Head, Self-portrait (usually referred to as the Jug Self-portrait) was produced in glazed stoneware early in 1889[1] by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. This self-portrayal is especially stark and brutal, and was created in the aftermath of two traumatic events in the artist's life. In December 1888 Gauguin was staying with Vincent van Gogh in Arles when Van Gogh hacked off his left ear lobe before presenting it to a prostitute. A few days later Gauguin witnessed the beheading of a criminal in Paris. In the self-portrait, Gauguin shows his severed head, dripping with rivulets of blood, his ear cut off, and his eyes closed as if in denial.[2]
Gauguin's portrays himself with closed eyes and a severed ear. Glaze is used to suggest blood which runs down the side of his face to congeal at his neck. As with many of his self-portraits the object is infused with self-pity. The head resembles a death mask, and the way it is modelled strongly suggests that it has been decapitated, reminiscent of Prado.[3] The portrait evokes Van Gogh in a number of ways, most obviously with the removed ear and its dominant red colouring which gives it, according to writer Naomi Margolis Maurer, "a strong fictitious resemblance to the suffering van Gogh."[4]
The stoneware contains subtle green, grey and olive tones that are often not apparent in reproduction,[2] while its brutal physicality is in part achieved by its three-dimensionality. It has been noted by a number of art critics that photographic reproductions of the object largely fail to convey the impact it makes when viewed firsthand. In 1989 the critic Laurel Gasque wrote, "This macabre image, fired at a very high temperature literally and figuratively, fuses life, myth, and history into an unforgettable emblem of a ravaged man."[2]
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A number of events in Gauguin's life led to the object's creation. During December of the previous year he had visited his friend Van Gogh in Arles, and was the first to find the Dutch artist immediately after he had cut off his own ear, lying unconscious with his head covered in blood. Van Gogh greatly admired Gauguin, and desperately wanted to be treated as his equal. But Gauguin was arrogant and domineering, a fact that often frustrated the Dutchman. Earlier that day Van Gogh had confronted Gauguin with the same razor-blade used hours later to mutilate himself. Deeply lonely at the time, Van Gogh often visited the prostitutes at a brothel on Rue du Bout d'Aeles as his single emotional and sensuous point of contact with other people. His severed ear was left with one, before he staggered back to the room he was sharing with Gauguin.
According to art critic Martin Gayford, prostitutes were to van Gogh Sisters of Mercy, providing "a little taste of paradise at 2 francs a time".[5] He was around this time reading about Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. The story struck a deep chord, in particular the words "If thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done". A recent series of murders of prostitutes were playing on his mind, and added to his sense of guilt for visiting whores. He had recently read Émile Zola's novel "The Sin of Father Mouret", in which a character "as Father Mournet was finishing his prayers...calmly pulled a knife from his pocket, opened it, and chopped off the friar's ears."[6]
There is no conclusive evidence for the theory that the unpredictable Gauguin attacked his equally temperamental friend that day .[7] When Vincent's brother Theo arrived at the Arles hospital a few days later—after being informed of the event by Gauguin—he spoke of Vincent's irrationality, high fever and apparent "madness" in the days before the mutilation.[8]
From his hospital bed, Van Gogh asked for Gauguin continually over the next number of days, but the Frenchman stayed away. He told one of the policeman attending the case, "Be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him."[9] From accounts related by Gauguin to friends on his arrival back in Paris a few days later, it has been suggested that he also associated the amputation with Gethsemane.[8][10]
On December 28, two days after his return to Paris, Gauguin went to the dawn execution of the criminal Prado.[11] Van Gogh and Gauguin had talked about Prado's high profile trial. Both Prado and the equally infamous murderer Pranzini were at one time patrons at the Parisian café Le Tambourin where Van Gogh had exhibited. The execution left a deep mark on the artist and soured the artist's view of humanity.[12][13] The execution was botched; the first strike of the guillotine's blade missed Prado's neck and carved off a portion of his face. The man rose from the head-board in agony and shock and had to be forced back into position before the second attempt removed his head.[11]
Gauguin's attendance at the execution was as a result of the deep shock left by Van Gogh's self-mutilation. Writer Jerome Winer suggests that Gauguin may have felt guilty over his treatment of Van Gogh to identify with Prado.[14] According to Bradley Collins, "There is no question that Gauguin would have strongly associated Vincent with the execution".[11] Collins continues, "If Gauguin had been terrified by the sight of the near-dead Vincent curled up in his bloody sheets, he may have had the counterphobic desire to reassure himself of his courage by taking an unflinching look at Prado's execution. He may also have wanted to glory in his own innocence and another's guilt."[11]
The work is informed by Romantic and Symbolist iconography,[11] as well as motifs from Christian and classical sources;[4] it evokes Christ, John the Baptist and Orpheus, all of whom were martyred for their passion and beliefs.[12] During this period, Gauguin often portrayed himself in a manner similar to representations of Christ, in an attempt to evoke martyrdom. Gauguin was disillusioned with the materialism he saw around him, and at the time felt alienated by the art-buying public, and from members of the art scene who reacted against his domineering and self-aggrandising personality. Younger artists who had been his disciples rebelled, and to an extent he was sidelined. Of another similar self-portrait, Christ in the Garden of Olives, Gauguin wrote
The technique used to create the object was borrowed in part from the Far East, especially in the use of dripped paint on glazed stoneware which was influenced by Japanese craftsmen of the Takatori region. The idea of merging the form of a head and a jug was taken from Peruvian pottery, likely from pieces his mother had collected when he was a child.[12]
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