Although grouped with all the other self-portraits for their common subject matter, the Self-portrait near Golgotha (1896), the last of Gauguin’s messianic depictions, departs from the previous ones in that the physicality of the artist is more evident. His savage nature, which originated in maliciousness and developed into grotesquerie, reached its climax in the form of primitive brutality. The sharply broken nose that dominated the previous figures and classified them as grotesque is now absent, or at least its sharpness is attenuated. Grotesquerie and maliciousness are now replaced by a different manifestation of his savagery, namely bestiality. His chin gained roundness, as opposed to its previous elongated shape. The eyebrows became less arched, a symbol of his diminished malice. The muscular neck and the coarse cheekbones give the appearance of animality. His mouth, which in the Self-portrait with Halo expressed Gauguin’s arrogance, now seems motionless and expressionless. Unlike the animated figures of the preceding self-portraits executed in Brittany, this one, with its increased physicality, resembles more a dumbfounded lump of matter. On the whole, the eloquent facial features which colored the previous self-portraits are now totally inexpressive. A primeval brutality pervades this depiction: all elements of the face evoke the sturdiness of their primordial material and lack in refinement of their shapes.
Gauguin’s augmented concern with physicality can be partly explained by the chronology of the paintings: the Self-portrait near Golgotha was painted after his first trip to Tahiti, while the others were executed in Brittany. In a letter to Schuffenecker he overtly expressed his desire to estrange himself from civilization and to search the inspiration for his art in the occultism and mystery of the less civilized Bretton community:
I love Brittany, for I find there the savage, the primitive when my wooden shoes reverberate on the granite soil, I hear the muffled, heavy and powerful note I’m seeking in painting.( qtd. Cachin, 405)
In expressing his preference for the pastoral and mystifying Brittany over the hectic Paris, Gauguin was simply proclaiming his eccentricity and his identity crisis. All the self-portraits that belong to this period represent a search for his identity, which turns out to be less divine and more savage with every new self-portrait. However, it was not the trip to Brittany, but the one to Tahiti which brought about the ultimate revelation. An important biographical element is revealed by Segalen’s account of Gauguin, according to which,”from the moment he arrived in the islands, twelve years before his death, Gauguin dreamed of death: his own death, not some imaginary one.”(qtd. Cachin, 405) Fear of death is a reasonable explanation for Gauguin’s inexpressive depiction of himself in Self-portrait near Golgotha, for death signifies the return to brutal primordial condition in which the human is transformed again into matter . His trip to Tahiti represented the climax of his self-discovery: he understood the essence of the human condition, that the origin and the terminus of human life are one and the same: matter. Therefore, in the Self-portrait near Golgotha Gauguin does not transcend the earthly realm by means of his divine art, as symbolist doctrine presupposes, but rather returns to the very core of substance, hence the conspicuous brutality of this self-portrait.