Mette asleep on a sofa

French artist Paul Gauguin painted this intimate scene in 1875, showing a woman reclining on a sofa in a Parisian interior. The sleeping figure is traditionally identified as Gauguin's wife, Mette Sophie Gad, a Danish woman he had married in November 1873. Some scholars suggest the model might actually be their mutual friend Marie Heegaard, though the title has persisted.

This small oil on canvas (24.5 by 32.5 cm) represents Gauguin's earliest period as a painter. In the mid-1870s, he was still working as a stockbroker, painting only in his spare time. He wouldn't commit to art full-time until the Paris stock market collapsed in 1882. This may be the first figural composition Gauguin created and his only surviving work of this kind from the mid-1870s.

The painting anticipates his later artistic interest in domestic subjects, particularly family members who would increasingly inspire him to paint, draw, and sculpt after 1880. Gauguin and Mette eventually had five children before separating, though they maintained intermittent correspondence for years. The work remains in a private collection.