Paul GAUGUIN (1848-1903)
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See also : France French sculpture Sculpture by painters Children Groups Bouquet
Chronology : 19th century 1888 1890-1899 1891 1892 1893 1895 1899-1900 1899 1902
See also : France French sculpture Sculpture by painters Children Groups Bouquet
Chronology : 19th century 1888 1890-1899 1891 1892 1893 1895 1899-1900 1899 1902
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), a pivotal Post-Impressionist and Symbolist artist, led a tumultuous life marked by radical shifts—from successful stockbroker to impoverished painter—and a relentless quest for "primitive" authenticity. Retrospective psychiatric analyses, drawing from biographies, his writings, and art, suggest traits of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), severe depression, and possible physical ailments like syphilis (though recent evidence questions this diagnosis). His work often reflects inner turmoil, existential questioning, and idealized escapism.
Personality and Mental Health Insights
Gauguin exhibited classic NPD traits: grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy, and exploitative relationships. Psychoanalyst Ronnie Mather argues Gauguin met DSM criteria for NPD, evident in his self-mythologizing (e.g., portraying himself as a "savage" outsider), abandonment of his wife and five children, and rageful conflicts (including with Van Gogh). Biographers note his deliberate self-image crafting, as one observed: "Few men worked harder at creating a self-image."
He suffered profound depression, culminating in a 1897 suicide attempt (arsenic overdose, which failed). His later years involved alcoholism, poverty, and health decline (heart issues, possible eczema or malaria misdiagnosed as syphilis). This despair fueled philosophical meditations in his art.
Self-portraits reveal psychological depth:
In these, Gauguin casts himself as martyr (Christ-like), sinner, or exotic "other," blending narcissism with self-loathing.
Art as Psychological Expression
Early works like Vision After the Sermon (1888) show religious symbolism and flattened forms, reflecting spiritual yearning amid personal crises.
The Yellow Christ (1889), with its unnatural hues and Breton setting, symbolizes suffering—Gauguin identified with the crucified figure.
Tahitian period (1891 onward) paintings idealize "primitive" life as escape from European alienation, but reveal projections: women often appear serene yet mysterious, embodying Gauguin's fantasies of harmony, sensuality, and androgyny (influenced by his grandmother's feminist writings).
Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892) depicts his young Tahitian partner Teha'amana in fear of a spirit—symbolizing guilt, exoticism, or projected anxiety.
Two Tahitian Women (1899) confronts viewers with direct gazes, evoking innocence and knowing naïveté.
His masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), painted post-suicide attempt, is a philosophical allegory of life's cycle—birth, existence, death—reflecting existential despair.
Gauguin's art channels psychological conflicts: narcissistic grandiosity in bold symbolism, depressive melancholy in themes of loss/paradise lost, and escapist primitivism masking personal failures. While not a formal diagnosis, these lenses—supported by psychoanalytic studies (e.g., Gedo on his inner world)—illuminate how his tormented psyche birthed innovative, influential work. Modern views also critique his colonial gaze and exploitation, adding ethical complexity to psychological readings.
Personality and Mental Health Insights
Gauguin exhibited classic NPD traits: grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy, and exploitative relationships. Psychoanalyst Ronnie Mather argues Gauguin met DSM criteria for NPD, evident in his self-mythologizing (e.g., portraying himself as a "savage" outsider), abandonment of his wife and five children, and rageful conflicts (including with Van Gogh). Biographers note his deliberate self-image crafting, as one observed: "Few men worked harder at creating a self-image."
He suffered profound depression, culminating in a 1897 suicide attempt (arsenic overdose, which failed). His later years involved alcoholism, poverty, and health decline (heart issues, possible eczema or malaria misdiagnosed as syphilis). This despair fueled philosophical meditations in his art.
Self-portraits reveal psychological depth:
In these, Gauguin casts himself as martyr (Christ-like), sinner, or exotic "other," blending narcissism with self-loathing.
Art as Psychological Expression
Early works like Vision After the Sermon (1888) show religious symbolism and flattened forms, reflecting spiritual yearning amid personal crises.
The Yellow Christ (1889), with its unnatural hues and Breton setting, symbolizes suffering—Gauguin identified with the crucified figure.
Tahitian period (1891 onward) paintings idealize "primitive" life as escape from European alienation, but reveal projections: women often appear serene yet mysterious, embodying Gauguin's fantasies of harmony, sensuality, and androgyny (influenced by his grandmother's feminist writings).
Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892) depicts his young Tahitian partner Teha'amana in fear of a spirit—symbolizing guilt, exoticism, or projected anxiety.
Two Tahitian Women (1899) confronts viewers with direct gazes, evoking innocence and knowing naïveté.
His masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), painted post-suicide attempt, is a philosophical allegory of life's cycle—birth, existence, death—reflecting existential despair.
Gauguin's art channels psychological conflicts: narcissistic grandiosity in bold symbolism, depressive melancholy in themes of loss/paradise lost, and escapist primitivism masking personal failures. While not a formal diagnosis, these lenses—supported by psychoanalytic studies (e.g., Gedo on his inner world)—illuminate how his tormented psyche birthed innovative, influential work. Modern views also critique his colonial gaze and exploitation, adding ethical complexity to psychological readings.
Located in the valley of the Oise river, Camille Pissarro is a leader of the Impressionist movement, keen to identify and develop new talents. He likes to paint side by side with his friends, which should be a good practice to strengthen relations but will lead to the disaster between Van Gogh and Gauguin in Arles in 1889. It is Pissarro who teaches Cézanne the outdoor painting.
Paul Gauguin is a stockbroker at the Bourse de Paris. He collects Impressionist art and begins to paint. He is welcomed from 1879 in Pissarro's home where his hobby captivates him much more than his job. He exhibits his artworks from the same year with the Impressionist group.After the 1882 financial crash that deeply affected the art market, Gauguin plans to become a full time artist. Looking for a cheaper life, he moves to Rouen. His next move is to Copenhagen with his Danish born wife Mette and their five children.
Wanting to part away from the the impressionniste touch and to develop a personal style, Gauguin looked at the bold colors in Cézanne's still lifes, of which he owned a Compotier, verre et pommes.
In 1885 soon after arriving in Copenhagen, Gauguin painted a still life with some private objects, in the style of Cézanne. This includes on the dressed table an opulent bouquet of peonies in a vase on a placemat, a ceramic plate and his beloved mandolin. A painting by Guillaumin is hanging on the wall. The off center composition may evoke Degas.
It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 110. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Gauguin's life in Copenhagen was a failure. In the same year Mette required him to leave and he returned to Paris. The nature morte aux pivoines de chine et mandoline predates by one year his keen involvement in ceramics with Chaplet.
Paul Gauguin is a stockbroker at the Bourse de Paris. He collects Impressionist art and begins to paint. He is welcomed from 1879 in Pissarro's home where his hobby captivates him much more than his job. He exhibits his artworks from the same year with the Impressionist group.After the 1882 financial crash that deeply affected the art market, Gauguin plans to become a full time artist. Looking for a cheaper life, he moves to Rouen. His next move is to Copenhagen with his Danish born wife Mette and their five children.
Wanting to part away from the the impressionniste touch and to develop a personal style, Gauguin looked at the bold colors in Cézanne's still lifes, of which he owned a Compotier, verre et pommes.
In 1885 soon after arriving in Copenhagen, Gauguin painted a still life with some private objects, in the style of Cézanne. This includes on the dressed table an opulent bouquet of peonies in a vase on a placemat, a ceramic plate and his beloved mandolin. A painting by Guillaumin is hanging on the wall. The off center composition may evoke Degas.
It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 110. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Gauguin's life in Copenhagen was a failure. In the same year Mette required him to leave and he returned to Paris. The nature morte aux pivoines de chine et mandoline predates by one year his keen involvement in ceramics with Chaplet.
Paul Gauguin's most significant collaboration was his intense, short-lived artistic partnership with Vincent van Gogh in Arles, southern France, in late 1888. This two-month period (October to December 1888) in the "Yellow House" stands out as one of the most famous—and turbulent—collaborations in art history. Gauguin also collaborated more productively with other artists in Brittany, particularly Émile Bernard and members of the Pont-Aven School, where they developed Synthetism and Cloisonnism—key innovations leading to modern art.
Collaboration with Vincent van Gogh (Arles, 1888)
Van Gogh and Gauguin first met in Paris in late 1887 through mutual contacts in the avant-garde scene (including Theo van Gogh, Vincent's brother and an art dealer who supported Gauguin financially). Van Gogh, dreaming of an artists' commune ("Studio of the South"), invited Gauguin to join him in Arles to live and work together, sharing ideas and expenses. Gauguin arrived in October 1888 after Theo arranged the move.
Gauguin spent summers in Pont-Aven, Brittany, starting in 1886, joining a loose group of artists seeking inspiration in the region's "primitive" rural life, medieval churches, and Celtic traditions. This was a more harmonious collaboration.
Gauguin's collaborations, though brief and often fraught, accelerated Post-Impressionism's shift toward abstraction, symbolism, and personal expression. His work with Van Gogh symbolizes the clash of artistic visions; with Bernard and Pont-Aven, it shows collaborative innovation. These relationships influenced Fauvism, Expressionism, and beyond.
Key artworks from these collaborations, illustrating their shared and divergent styles, include Van Gogh's Sunflowers (welcoming Gauguin), Gauguin's The Vision After the Sermon (Pont-Aven breakthrough), portraits of each other, and works from Arles showing their mutual influence through bold color and form.
Collaboration with Vincent van Gogh (Arles, 1888)
Van Gogh and Gauguin first met in Paris in late 1887 through mutual contacts in the avant-garde scene (including Theo van Gogh, Vincent's brother and an art dealer who supported Gauguin financially). Van Gogh, dreaming of an artists' commune ("Studio of the South"), invited Gauguin to join him in Arles to live and work together, sharing ideas and expenses. Gauguin arrived in October 1888 after Theo arranged the move.
- Motivation and Setup — Van Gogh hoped for mutual inspiration and productivity in a shared creative space. He decorated the house with his sunflower paintings to welcome Gauguin. Both were Post-Impressionists pushing beyond Impressionism—Van Gogh with emotional, expressive brushwork and color; Gauguin with symbolic, imaginative, and "primitive" influences.
- Artistic Exchange and Tensions — They painted side by side, often the same subjects (e.g., the Rhône River, local women, still lifes). Van Gogh worked directly from nature; Gauguin advocated painting from memory and imagination. This philosophical clash fueled debates: Van Gogh's direct observation vs. Gauguin's synthetist approach (synthesizing form, color, and emotion). They influenced each other—Van Gogh adopted bolder outlines and flatter colors in some works; Gauguin experimented with more vibrant, swirling elements.
- Productivity — The period was highly creative: Van Gogh produced masterpieces like The Bedroom (second version) and night scenes; Gauguin created works like The Alyscamps and symbolic portraits.
- Breakdown — Tensions escalated due to personality differences, financial strain, artistic disagreements, and Van Gogh's deteriorating mental health. It culminated in the infamous ear-cutting incident on December 23, 1888—after a violent argument, Van Gogh severed part of his ear and presented it to a woman. Gauguin left Arles the next day and never saw Van Gogh again.
- Legacy of the Collaboration — Despite the tragedy, it highlighted their shared goal of advancing modern art through bold color and expression. Exhibitions like "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South" (Art Institute of Chicago, 2001–2002) explore this rivalry and mutual influence.
Gauguin spent summers in Pont-Aven, Brittany, starting in 1886, joining a loose group of artists seeking inspiration in the region's "primitive" rural life, medieval churches, and Celtic traditions. This was a more harmonious collaboration.
- Key Partner: Émile Bernard — In 1888, Gauguin and Bernard developed Synthetism (synthesizing ideas from nature into simplified, symbolic forms) and Cloisonnism (outlining forms with dark contours, like stained glass or Japanese prints, with flat areas of color). Bernard's Self-Portrait with Portrait of Gauguin (1888) and Gauguin's The Vision After the Sermon (1888) exemplify this: bold outlines, non-naturalistic color, flattened space, and spiritual symbolism.
- Pont-Aven School — Included artists like Paul Sérusier (whose The Talisman became a manifesto), Charles Laval, Armand Seguin, and others. Gauguin emerged as leader, encouraging rejection of realism for emotional and decorative expression. They exhibited together and shared ideas on primitivism, symbolism, and anti-academic art.
- Breakthrough — This group laid groundwork for Symbolism, Nabis, and early modernism—prioritizing imagination over observation.
Gauguin's collaborations, though brief and often fraught, accelerated Post-Impressionism's shift toward abstraction, symbolism, and personal expression. His work with Van Gogh symbolizes the clash of artistic visions; with Bernard and Pont-Aven, it shows collaborative innovation. These relationships influenced Fauvism, Expressionism, and beyond.
Key artworks from these collaborations, illustrating their shared and divergent styles, include Van Gogh's Sunflowers (welcoming Gauguin), Gauguin's The Vision After the Sermon (Pont-Aven breakthrough), portraits of each other, and works from Arles showing their mutual influence through bold color and form.
Special Report
Japonisme by Gauguin
Japonisme in Paul Gauguin's Art
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), a leading Post-Impressionist and Symbolist painter, was deeply influenced by Japonisme—the late-19th-century European craze for Japanese art, particularly ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Unlike Monet's subtle atmospheric integration or Van Gogh's intense, obsessive copies and emotional amplification, Gauguin's engagement was more eclectic and synthetic. He absorbed Japanese principles alongside other "primitive" sources (Breton folk art, Tahitian and Oceanic cultures) to pursue symbolic depth, exoticism, and decorative flatness—moving beyond Impressionism's optical realism toward expressive, mythic, and anti-naturalistic art.Gauguin encountered ukiyo-e prints in Paris during the 1880s, amid the vogue sparked by exhibitions and affordable imports. He collected them (though less prolifically than Van Gogh), admired their bold outlines, flat color areas, absence of shadows, asymmetrical compositions, and decorative patterns. These elements helped him evolve toward Cloisonnism (a style named after medieval enameling, with flat color compartments separated by bold outlines), co-developed with Émile Bernard around 1888. Japonisme reinforced his rejection of perspective, modeling, and chiaroscuro in favor of symbolic expression and "primitive" vigor.
Key Characteristics of Gauguin's Japonisme
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), a leading Post-Impressionist and Symbolist painter, was deeply influenced by Japonisme—the late-19th-century European craze for Japanese art, particularly ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Unlike Monet's subtle atmospheric integration or Van Gogh's intense, obsessive copies and emotional amplification, Gauguin's engagement was more eclectic and synthetic. He absorbed Japanese principles alongside other "primitive" sources (Breton folk art, Tahitian and Oceanic cultures) to pursue symbolic depth, exoticism, and decorative flatness—moving beyond Impressionism's optical realism toward expressive, mythic, and anti-naturalistic art.Gauguin encountered ukiyo-e prints in Paris during the 1880s, amid the vogue sparked by exhibitions and affordable imports. He collected them (though less prolifically than Van Gogh), admired their bold outlines, flat color areas, absence of shadows, asymmetrical compositions, and decorative patterns. These elements helped him evolve toward Cloisonnism (a style named after medieval enameling, with flat color compartments separated by bold outlines), co-developed with Émile Bernard around 1888. Japonisme reinforced his rejection of perspective, modeling, and chiaroscuro in favor of symbolic expression and "primitive" vigor.
Key Characteristics of Gauguin's Japonisme
- Flat color planes and bold outlines — Echoing ukiyo-e's graphic style, Gauguin used large areas of pure, non-naturalistic color bounded by strong contours, eliminating shadows for expressive impact.
- Asymmetrical and decorative compositions — Cropped views, frieze-like arrangements, and patterned backgrounds evoke the "floating world" of ukiyo-e.
- Symbolic and exotic themes — Gauguin blended Japanese flatness with his fascination for non-Western "primitivism," seeing parallels between ukiyo-e's sensuality, transience, and everyday beauty and his own visions of untouched, mythic life.
- Woodcut techniques — Unlike most contemporaries who used lithography, Gauguin adapted Japanese woodblock methods for prints, enhancing abstraction and forward-looking expression.
- Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) (1888) — A landmark of Cloisonnism and Japonisme. Breton women in prayer witness a biblical vision; the red field, bold black outlines, flat forms, and diagonal composition recall ukiyo-e prints (e.g., Hokusai or Hiroshige's dynamic cropping and vivid color). The absence of shadows and symbolic space emphasize spiritual rather than realistic depiction.
- The Yellow Christ (1889) — The simplified, outlined figure against a flat Breton landscape uses ukiyo-e-like contouring and non-realistic color (intense yellow) for emotional and symbolic power, blending folk primitivism with Japanese graphic style.
- Still Life with Head-Shaped Vase and Japanese Woodcut (1889) — Directly includes a Japanese print as a motif, signaling Gauguin's enthusiasm for ukiyo-e in 1888–1889. The flat, decorative arrangement reflects print aesthetics.
- Tahitian works (1890s onward) — In Polynesia, Gauguin's frieze-like compositions of nude figures against patterned backgrounds and flat color evoke the "floating world" sensuality of ukiyo-e—lazy eroticism, pleasure, and timeless escape laid out decoratively.
- Monet — Subtle, perceptual: Japonisme enhanced atmospheric haze, cropping, and suggestion in landscapes (e.g., Impression, Soleil Levant).
- Van Gogh — Expressive, direct: Bold copies, swirling patterns, vibrant flat color for emotional intensity (e.g., copies after Hiroshige).
- Gauguin — Symbolic, synthetic: Japonisme as one tool among many (with primitivism) for mythic, decorative abstraction—less about optical light or personal torment, more about evoking inner soul, exotic escape, and anti-Western vigor.
Special Report
1887 Martinique
Gauguin’s Martinique landscape series (primarily June–November 1887) marks a pivotal, under-appreciated turning point in his career.
It was his first sustained engagement with a tropical environment and helped shift him from Impressionism toward the flatter, more decorative, synthetic style that defined his later Brittany and Polynesian work. He later described the experience as “decisive,” saying one must look to the works from Martinique “rather than those from Brittany” to know who he truly was.
Historical Context
In April 1887, Gauguin and his younger friend Charles Laval (a Pont-Aven associate) sailed from France aboard the steamship Canada, aiming for Panama in search of cheaper living, work (tied to canal construction contacts), and exotic inspiration away from urban “civilization.” Conditions in Panama proved harsh (disease, labor, climate), so they relocated to Martinique by mid-June, renting a hut on a sugar plantation near the cultural and economic center of Saint-Pierre.
Gauguin stayed roughly four months before illness (malaria and dysentery) forced his return to France in November 1887; Laval remained longer. Despite hardships, the lush Caribbean setting provided the “tropical paradise” Gauguin sought—dense vegetation, intense light and color, and local life that felt closer to nature and more “primitive.” He produced about a dozen canvases by his own account (catalogues attribute roughly 17–18 paintings to the period, with some possible later misattributions involving Laval’s similar works), plus numerous drawings, pastels, watercolors, and studies.
Key Works in the Series
The landscapes (often integrating figures) emphasize tropical vegetation, coastal or river views, paths, and local women in traditional dress. Notable examples include:
Style and Technical InnovationsGauguin moved beyond Impressionist broken brushwork and optical effects. The strong light and overall luxuriance of Martinique encouraged a more decorative approach: broader, flatter strokes that fuse into areas of color; simplified, overlapping planes of trees and foliage creating rhythmic, tapestry-like surfaces; horizontal bands of color; reduced modeling and atmospheric perspective; and jagged or rounded edges that build upward from foreground paths or roads to hills and sky.
Influences include Cézanne (parallel hatching and structural division into zones), Japanese prints (flattening and decorative patterning), and a desire for subjective intensity over naturalistic description. Colors are rich and penetrating—varied greens, oranges, yellows, and occasional purples (e.g., river water)—with depth that seems to sink into the surface rather than reflect light. The result feels both observed and constructed, prefiguring Synthetism. Laval’s contemporaneous works show parallel radicalism (some highly abstract patterned landscapes), and stylistic proximity has led to occasional attribution debates.
Themes and Symbolism
The series presents Martinique as a fertile, exotic Eden: dense vegetation symbolizes abundance and escape from European modernity; fruit (especially mangoes) evokes fertility, temptation, and the island’s bounty (Gauguin referenced “bewitched” fruit in a letter). Local women—depicted as fully clothed workers in madras headscarves, long dresses or skirts, and beads, often of African descent—appear integrated into the landscape rather than as eroticized nudes (unlike much of his later Tahitian work). They perform daily tasks (picking fruit, conversing, near huts or water), providing human scale and couleur locale while reinforcing the “primitive” ideal.
Compositions often lack strong vanishing points, immersing the viewer in an all-over tropical density. The overall effect promotes a Western exoticist fantasy of an unspoiled paradise closer to nature, even as the artists lived near a colonial urban center and experienced real hardships.
Impact and Legacy
The Martinique works brought Gauguin his first significant recognition. The van Gogh brothers’ enthusiastic purchases and exchanges validated the new direction and helped introduce the paintings in Paris. The series accelerated Gauguin’s break from Impressionism, solidified his interest in “primitive” and non-Western subjects, and laid groundwork for the bold color, flattened forms, and symbolic content of his 1888 Brittany works and the Tahitian paintings that followed from 1891. It remains a crucial, if sometimes overshadowed, chapter linking his European experiments to his later oceanic vision.
It was his first sustained engagement with a tropical environment and helped shift him from Impressionism toward the flatter, more decorative, synthetic style that defined his later Brittany and Polynesian work. He later described the experience as “decisive,” saying one must look to the works from Martinique “rather than those from Brittany” to know who he truly was.
Historical Context
In April 1887, Gauguin and his younger friend Charles Laval (a Pont-Aven associate) sailed from France aboard the steamship Canada, aiming for Panama in search of cheaper living, work (tied to canal construction contacts), and exotic inspiration away from urban “civilization.” Conditions in Panama proved harsh (disease, labor, climate), so they relocated to Martinique by mid-June, renting a hut on a sugar plantation near the cultural and economic center of Saint-Pierre.
Gauguin stayed roughly four months before illness (malaria and dysentery) forced his return to France in November 1887; Laval remained longer. Despite hardships, the lush Caribbean setting provided the “tropical paradise” Gauguin sought—dense vegetation, intense light and color, and local life that felt closer to nature and more “primitive.” He produced about a dozen canvases by his own account (catalogues attribute roughly 17–18 paintings to the period, with some possible later misattributions involving Laval’s similar works), plus numerous drawings, pastels, watercolors, and studies.
Key Works in the Series
The landscapes (often integrating figures) emphasize tropical vegetation, coastal or river views, paths, and local women in traditional dress. Notable examples include:
- The Mango Trees, Martinique (also Fruit Pickers or Aux Mangos, 1887, oil on canvas, ~86 × 116 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam). Women pick fruit amid dense trees (including a papaya); Theo van Gogh bought it for 400 francs—his most expensive purchase—as an act of faith in Gauguin. Vincent called it “high poetry.”
- On the Banks of the River, Martinique (Au bord de la rivière, 1887, Van Gogh Museum). Figures by purple-tinged water and green banks; Vincent exchanged two sunflower still lifes for it.
- Martinique Landscape / Tropical Vegetation, Martinique (Végétation tropicale, 1887, oil on canvas, 117 × 89.8 cm, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh). Dense foliage, glowing colors, and structured composition; often cited as among the finest of the series.
- Coastal Landscape from Martinique / The Bay of St.-Pierre (1887, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen).
- Landscape on Martinique / Stream under the Trees (1887, Neue Pinakothek, Munich).
- Others: Chemin sous les palmiers (Path under the Palm Trees), Coming and Going, Martinique (Allées et venues, Thyssen-Bornemisza), palm-tree views, meadows, huts under trees, and figure-integrated scenes such as Tropical Conversation.
Style and Technical InnovationsGauguin moved beyond Impressionist broken brushwork and optical effects. The strong light and overall luxuriance of Martinique encouraged a more decorative approach: broader, flatter strokes that fuse into areas of color; simplified, overlapping planes of trees and foliage creating rhythmic, tapestry-like surfaces; horizontal bands of color; reduced modeling and atmospheric perspective; and jagged or rounded edges that build upward from foreground paths or roads to hills and sky.
Influences include Cézanne (parallel hatching and structural division into zones), Japanese prints (flattening and decorative patterning), and a desire for subjective intensity over naturalistic description. Colors are rich and penetrating—varied greens, oranges, yellows, and occasional purples (e.g., river water)—with depth that seems to sink into the surface rather than reflect light. The result feels both observed and constructed, prefiguring Synthetism. Laval’s contemporaneous works show parallel radicalism (some highly abstract patterned landscapes), and stylistic proximity has led to occasional attribution debates.
Themes and Symbolism
The series presents Martinique as a fertile, exotic Eden: dense vegetation symbolizes abundance and escape from European modernity; fruit (especially mangoes) evokes fertility, temptation, and the island’s bounty (Gauguin referenced “bewitched” fruit in a letter). Local women—depicted as fully clothed workers in madras headscarves, long dresses or skirts, and beads, often of African descent—appear integrated into the landscape rather than as eroticized nudes (unlike much of his later Tahitian work). They perform daily tasks (picking fruit, conversing, near huts or water), providing human scale and couleur locale while reinforcing the “primitive” ideal.
Compositions often lack strong vanishing points, immersing the viewer in an all-over tropical density. The overall effect promotes a Western exoticist fantasy of an unspoiled paradise closer to nature, even as the artists lived near a colonial urban center and experienced real hardships.
Impact and Legacy
The Martinique works brought Gauguin his first significant recognition. The van Gogh brothers’ enthusiastic purchases and exchanges validated the new direction and helped introduce the paintings in Paris. The series accelerated Gauguin’s break from Impressionism, solidified his interest in “primitive” and non-Western subjects, and laid groundwork for the bold color, flattened forms, and symbolic content of his 1888 Brittany works and the Tahitian paintings that followed from 1891. It remains a crucial, if sometimes overshadowed, chapter linking his European experiments to his later oceanic vision.
masterpiece
1888 La Vision après le Sermon
Scottish National Gallery
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1888 La Vague
2018 SOLD for $ 35M by Christie's
Around 1884 the post-Impressionists are passionate about Chevreul's theories on the decomposition of light. Paul Gauguin, ever in search of an original art, does not try the pointillism but he notes that the rainbow displays the colors in an immutable sequence.
In January 1888 the artist quietly begins his second stay in Pont-Aven. He takes the time to walk on the Wild Coast and observes that the colors of the swell in heavy weather meet his theory.
On May 8, 2018, Christie's sold as lot 6 for $ 35M La Vague, oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm painted by Gauguin in 1888. A strong wave hits a group of high rocks in the open sea. Two bathers flee the tide onto the vermilion beach.
This painting, unusual and perhaps even unique in Gauguin's art, was included in the 1891 auction set up by the artist to finance his departure for Oceania. Its title in the catalog, La Vague (arc-en-ciel), seems enigmatic but provides the key for the interpretation.
There is no sky or rain in this picture. Arc-en-ciel is here the bow-shaped iridescent spectrum on the sea, passing from pale violet to yellow when the prismatic depth of the water decreases while approaching the coast. With a surprising modernism the unreal color of the beach is the ultimate extension of that spectral decomposition.
Gauguin's Vague was purchased in that auction by a collector of Japanese prints probably attracted by the similarity of theme with The Wave by Hokusai. The comparison stops here because the view taken by Gauguin from the top of the cliff has no close-up.
Despite Gauguin's admiration for Degas, the completely off-center position of the two women is secondary in this composition. Their difference of scale in the face of the grandiose nature is however not without relation to the metaphysical questions of the artist.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
In January 1888 the artist quietly begins his second stay in Pont-Aven. He takes the time to walk on the Wild Coast and observes that the colors of the swell in heavy weather meet his theory.
On May 8, 2018, Christie's sold as lot 6 for $ 35M La Vague, oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm painted by Gauguin in 1888. A strong wave hits a group of high rocks in the open sea. Two bathers flee the tide onto the vermilion beach.
This painting, unusual and perhaps even unique in Gauguin's art, was included in the 1891 auction set up by the artist to finance his departure for Oceania. Its title in the catalog, La Vague (arc-en-ciel), seems enigmatic but provides the key for the interpretation.
There is no sky or rain in this picture. Arc-en-ciel is here the bow-shaped iridescent spectrum on the sea, passing from pale violet to yellow when the prismatic depth of the water decreases while approaching the coast. With a surprising modernism the unreal color of the beach is the ultimate extension of that spectral decomposition.
Gauguin's Vague was purchased in that auction by a collector of Japanese prints probably attracted by the similarity of theme with The Wave by Hokusai. The comparison stops here because the view taken by Gauguin from the top of the cliff has no close-up.
Despite Gauguin's admiration for Degas, the completely off-center position of the two women is secondary in this composition. Their difference of scale in the face of the grandiose nature is however not without relation to the metaphysical questions of the artist.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Japonisme Influence in Paul Gauguin's La Vague (The Wave, 1888)
(Sold at Christie's New York, May 8, 2018, as Lot 6 from the Collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller)
Paul Gauguin's La Vague (oil on canvas, 60.8 x 73.4 cm), painted in late summer/early fall 1888 during his second stay in Brittany (Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu), is a pivotal seascape that captures massive black lichen-covered rocks at Portguerrec thrusting through crashing Atlantic surf, with two young female bathers fleeing an incoming wave. This work marks Gauguin's decisive shift toward Synthetism/Cloisonnism—flat color areas bounded by bold outlines, symbolic rather than naturalistic depiction, and subjective expression—developed in collaboration with Émile Bernard and amid exchanges with Vincent van Gogh.
Japonisme—the European fascination with Japanese ukiyo-e prints—played a significant role in shaping La Vague, as highlighted in Christie's 2018 auction catalog and scholarly commentary. Gauguin's abiding interest in Japanese prints intensified his attraction to the elemental power and poetic mystery of the Breton coast, blending with his primitivist quest for raw, anti-naturalist vigor.
Specific Japonisme Elements in La Vague
Unlike more explicit integrations (e.g., including a Japanese woodcut in a still life or direct copies), La Vague synthesizes Japonisme subtly with Breton primitivism: Hokusai's dramatic wave inspires the motif and energy, but Gauguin infuses sexual undertones (fleeing bathers) and symbolic mysticism, foreshadowing his Tahitian escape from Western conventions.
Christie's described it as one of Gauguin's most original seascapes, where Japonisme helped liberate form and mix dreams with reality. Sold from the Rockefeller collection (acquired 1966), it realized a strong price, affirming its status as a key transitional work in Gauguin's evolution toward Symbolism and modern abstraction.
For comparison to Hokusai's influence:
La Vague exemplifies how Japonisme—via bold graphic style, dynamic composition, and elemental themes—empowered Gauguin to transcend Impressionist observation toward a more visionary, primitivist art.
(Sold at Christie's New York, May 8, 2018, as Lot 6 from the Collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller)
Paul Gauguin's La Vague (oil on canvas, 60.8 x 73.4 cm), painted in late summer/early fall 1888 during his second stay in Brittany (Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu), is a pivotal seascape that captures massive black lichen-covered rocks at Portguerrec thrusting through crashing Atlantic surf, with two young female bathers fleeing an incoming wave. This work marks Gauguin's decisive shift toward Synthetism/Cloisonnism—flat color areas bounded by bold outlines, symbolic rather than naturalistic depiction, and subjective expression—developed in collaboration with Émile Bernard and amid exchanges with Vincent van Gogh.
Japonisme—the European fascination with Japanese ukiyo-e prints—played a significant role in shaping La Vague, as highlighted in Christie's 2018 auction catalog and scholarly commentary. Gauguin's abiding interest in Japanese prints intensified his attraction to the elemental power and poetic mystery of the Breton coast, blending with his primitivist quest for raw, anti-naturalist vigor.
Specific Japonisme Elements in La Vague
- Title and Conceptual Echo of Hokusai — Gauguin likely drew the title "La Vague" (The Wave) directly from Katsushika Hokusai's iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa (c. 1830–1832), the emblematic image of the Japonisme wave sweeping Paris vanguard art. Hokusai's towering, claw-like wave symbolized nature's sublime force; Gauguin's crashing surf and thrusting rocks evoke similar elemental drama and transience, though reinterpreted through Breton primitivism rather than direct imitation.
- Plunging Perspective and Diagonal Composition — The vertiginous vertical drop into depth and strong diagonal axis create a dynamic, immersive plunge—hallmarks of ukiyo-e's unconventional perspectives, high or worm's-eye views, and asymmetrical cropping. Gauguin's vantage point (accessible only at low tide) yields a composition that feels snapshot-like and immediate, echoing Japanese prints' sense of captured motion and off-balance tension.
- Flat Color Areas, Bold Outlines, and Decorative Stylization — The painting employs large zones of pure, non-naturalistic color (deep blues/greens for water, vermilion accents, stark contrasts) separated by strong contours—core to Cloisonnism and directly indebted to ukiyo-e's graphic flatness, absence of shadows, and linear definition. The swirling, energetic waves and foam suggest stylized movement akin to Hokusai's frothing "claws," while the overall decorative, frieze-like quality prioritizes symbolic power over illusionistic depth.
- Broader Context of 1888 Japonisme — In letters from summer 1888 (e.g., to Émile Schuffenecker), Gauguin described starting works "tout à fait japonais" (entirely Japanese), referring to flattened greens/whites. While not exclusively about La Vague, this period saw intense Japonisme influence via Bernard, Van Gogh's shared prints, and Gauguin's own collection/study. The early owner of La Vague (after its 1891 Drouot auction) was dealer Jules Chavasse, known for his exceptional Japanese print collection—further underscoring the work's ties to Japonisme circles.
Unlike more explicit integrations (e.g., including a Japanese woodcut in a still life or direct copies), La Vague synthesizes Japonisme subtly with Breton primitivism: Hokusai's dramatic wave inspires the motif and energy, but Gauguin infuses sexual undertones (fleeing bathers) and symbolic mysticism, foreshadowing his Tahitian escape from Western conventions.
Christie's described it as one of Gauguin's most original seascapes, where Japonisme helped liberate form and mix dreams with reality. Sold from the Rockefeller collection (acquired 1966), it realized a strong price, affirming its status as a key transitional work in Gauguin's evolution toward Symbolism and modern abstraction.
For comparison to Hokusai's influence:
La Vague exemplifies how Japonisme—via bold graphic style, dynamic composition, and elemental themes—empowered Gauguin to transcend Impressionist observation toward a more visionary, primitivist art.
masterpiece
1889 Le Christ Jaune
Albright-Knox
Coming rather lately to artistic creation and originally close to the Impressionnistes, Paul Gauguin looked for innovative solutions such as using pure colors within closed forms, anticipating Fauvisme.
His life became a series of social woes. This uncompromising Christian rejects the Catholic teaching and liturgy but desires to interpret the mystery of life. At the time of the Christ Jaune, 1889, he surrounds the religious symbols with themes from modern life sometimes including his own self portrait.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
His life became a series of social woes. This uncompromising Christian rejects the Catholic teaching and liturgy but desires to interpret the mystery of life. At the time of the Christ Jaune, 1889, he surrounds the religious symbols with themes from modern life sometimes including his own self portrait.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Special Report
Tahitian Art Inspiration
Paul Gauguin's Tahitian Art Inspirations
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) traveled to Tahiti in 1891 (and returned permanently in 1895) seeking an escape from what he saw as the corrupting, mechanical civilization of Europe. He pursued a romantic vision of an untouched paradise where he could reconnect with a "primitive" essence—raw, spiritual, and closer to nature—fueling his Post-Impressionist evolution toward bold color, symbolic depth, and decorative flatness. His Tahitian period produced some of his most iconic works (e.g., Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), Ia Orana Maria (1891), Manao tupapau (1892), Fatata te Miti (1892)), characterized by vivid, non-naturalistic hues, sinuous lines, and mystical themes blending everyday life with mythology.
Primary Inspirations in Tahiti
Gauguin's Tahitian style built on earlier pursuits of the "primitive":
In Tahiti, Gauguin achieved luxuriant, poetic harmony: rounded forms (influenced by Ingres/Puvis de Chavannes), orchestrated colors evoking tropical light, and symbolic narratives on existence. His works influenced Fauvism, Expressionism, and modernism (Matisse, Picasso), but modern critiques highlight colonial exoticism, power imbalances, and idealization—e.g., romanticizing a culture already altered by empire while ignoring realities like his relationships with young women.
Gauguin's Tahitian inspirations were less about accurate ethnography and more a personal synthesis: using Polynesian elements to express universal themes of innocence, spirituality, and primal vitality—creating a dreamlike vision that shaped Western perceptions of the South Pacific.
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) traveled to Tahiti in 1891 (and returned permanently in 1895) seeking an escape from what he saw as the corrupting, mechanical civilization of Europe. He pursued a romantic vision of an untouched paradise where he could reconnect with a "primitive" essence—raw, spiritual, and closer to nature—fueling his Post-Impressionist evolution toward bold color, symbolic depth, and decorative flatness. His Tahitian period produced some of his most iconic works (e.g., Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), Ia Orana Maria (1891), Manao tupapau (1892), Fatata te Miti (1892)), characterized by vivid, non-naturalistic hues, sinuous lines, and mystical themes blending everyday life with mythology.
Primary Inspirations in Tahiti
- Polynesian Culture and People: Gauguin immersed himself in Tahitian (and broader Polynesian/Māori) life, particularly in rural Mataiea away from colonial Papeete. He portrayed native women (often nude or semi-nude) as embodiments of natural sensuality, spiritual purity, and harmony with the environment—e.g., in portraits like Two Tahitian Women (1899) or his muse Teha'amana (his young Tahitian wife/partner, who inspired many figures). He used Tahitian titles and incorporated local customs, flora, fauna, and daily scenes (fishing, fruit, beaches) to evoke an idyllic, pre-colonial existence.
- Oceanic/Polynesian Art and Iconography: Gauguin emulated and adapted traditions from Polynesia, including Marquesan carvings, Maori wooden posts/storage houses, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) rongo-rongo tablets, and other Oceanic artifacts. He adopted rough-hewn, totemic styles in his sculptures and woodcuts (e.g., deliberate primitivism with bold outlines and symbolic motifs). Influences appear in background patterns, spiritual figures (e.g., ancestral or mythical beings), and hybrid iconography—blending Polynesian motifs with his own syncretic inventions rather than direct copies.
- Mythology and Spirituality: Drawing from local legends (which he researched and romanticized), Gauguin infused works with themes of creation, death, the supernatural, and harmony between humans and nature. Paintings often merge Christian elements (e.g., Ia Orana Maria reimagines the Annunciation with Tahitian figures) with Polynesian spirituality, reflecting his philosophical quest for meaning beyond Western materialism.
Gauguin's Tahitian style built on earlier pursuits of the "primitive":
- Brittany and Pont-Aven (1880s): Folk art, peasant life, and medieval sources (church windows, Epinal prints) primed him for non-Western aesthetics.
- Japanese Prints (Japonisme): Flat colors, bold outlines, and decorative composition influenced his Cloisonnism phase.
- Personal Myth and Heritage: He claimed a "savage" inner core (linked to his Peruvian mother's supposed Incan ancestry, though unproven) and saw Tahiti as a place to release it. Literary sources like Pierre Loti's Le Mariage de Loti (1880) fueled his idealized view of Polynesia.
- Primitivism as Escape: Disappointed by French colonial "corruption" in Tahiti (missionaries, Western customs), he sought authentic "Māori" traditions—yet his gaze remained exoticizing, projecting European fantasies of the erotic, untouched paradise.
In Tahiti, Gauguin achieved luxuriant, poetic harmony: rounded forms (influenced by Ingres/Puvis de Chavannes), orchestrated colors evoking tropical light, and symbolic narratives on existence. His works influenced Fauvism, Expressionism, and modernism (Matisse, Picasso), but modern critiques highlight colonial exoticism, power imbalances, and idealization—e.g., romanticizing a culture already altered by empire while ignoring realities like his relationships with young women.
Gauguin's Tahitian inspirations were less about accurate ethnography and more a personal synthesis: using Polynesian elements to express universal themes of innocence, spirituality, and primal vitality—creating a dreamlike vision that shaped Western perceptions of the South Pacific.
In Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian (and later Marquesan) works, fruit functions as a multilayered Symbolist motif rather than mere decorative or ethnographic detail. It evokes abundance, fertility, an idealized “primitive” paradise, and a reimagined Garden of Eden, while often carrying personal or cultural undertones of outsider status, nostalgia, and the tension between innocence and the Fall.
Edenic and Biblical ResonancesGauguin frequently recast Tahitian women as Polynesian Eves. He substituted local flora and fruit for the biblical apple and a lizard (or similar) for the serpent, creating a tropical version of temptation and origins that downplays (or reinterprets) original sin.
Fertility, Everyday Life, and AbundanceFruit represents the fertility of the land and of Tahitian women, as well as the simple, primordial rhythms of island life. Women carrying or holding fruit appear as symbols of nourishment, motherhood, and harmony with nature.
Pure Still Lifes and Personal SymbolismDedicated still lifes of fruit are rarer but revealing. Nature morte aux fruits et piments (Still Life with Fruit and Peppers / Still Life with Tahitian Oranges, 1892) shows rounded oranges piled in a dish alongside spicy peppers. One interpretation sees the harmonious, contained fruit as a metaphor for an organically unified community from which the “spicy” outsider (Gauguin himself) is excluded. The fruits may represent an imaginary feast rather than the artist’s actual sparse diet. Similar motifs reappear in later works, including the 1901 still life with fruits and flowers (closely related to the grapefruit/pamplemousse painting discussed previously).
Oranges (introduced to Tahiti, possibly associated with European contact) could also evoke connections between France and the islands or carry undertones of nostalgia and even subtle corruption or plague metaphors in some readings. Still lifes often paid homage to Cézanne (whose fruit paintings Gauguin prized) while adapting the genre to tropical subjects and flattened, decorative color.
Broader Context in Gauguin’s SymbolismFruit participates in Gauguin’s larger Symbolist synthesis: Christian, Polynesian, classical, and personal myths of origins, life cycles, and the critique of Western civilization. In monumental works such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), figures interacting with fruit or nature contribute to the narrative of birth, existence, and mortality. Overall, Tahitian fruit embodies the artist’s longed-for “primitive” paradise—abundant, sensual, and spiritually charged—while revealing its constructed, nostalgic, and sometimes conflicted nature.
This symbolism is not rigid or single-layered; Gauguin invited multiple readings, blending observation, memory, imagination, and invented myth.
Edenic and Biblical ResonancesGauguin frequently recast Tahitian women as Polynesian Eves. He substituted local flora and fruit for the biblical apple and a lizard (or similar) for the serpent, creating a tropical version of temptation and origins that downplays (or reinterprets) original sin.
- In works such as Te nave nave fenua (Delightful Land, 1892) and related “Tahitian Eve” images, native flowers or fruit take the place of the apple, emphasizing a pre- or alternative-to-Christian innocence.
- Gathering or holding fruit often alludes to the Tree of Knowledge. In Ruperupe (Tahiti Is a Wonderful Land. Gathering Fruit, 1899), the left side (women with flowers and fruit) symbolizes the Garden of Eden before the Fall, while a central figure picking fruit recalls temptation; the right side shifts toward earthly cycles of birth and death.
- In Te arii vahine (The King’s Wife / Woman with Mangoes, 1896), a reclining nude is accompanied by a servant gathering fruit and old men near a tree of knowledge, with a serpentine vine; Gauguin described it as a “naked queen” scene that blends Tahitian sensuality with biblical echoes while aiming for a sinless or pre-missionary morality.
Fertility, Everyday Life, and AbundanceFruit represents the fertility of the land and of Tahitian women, as well as the simple, primordial rhythms of island life. Women carrying or holding fruit appear as symbols of nourishment, motherhood, and harmony with nature.
- Eu haere ia oe (Woman Holding a Fruit / Where Are You Going?, 1893) presents a standing Tahitian woman (sometimes linked to Gauguin’s companion) with fruit as an “Eve of that eastern Paradise,” embodying natural harmony and the eternal cycle of life.
- Mangoes, abundant in Tahiti, recur as emblems of fertility and exotic appeal; they appear both in still lifes and figure paintings (e.g., Vahine no te vi).
- Gathering fruit is portrayed as a basic, life-sustaining activity that underscores Gauguin’s vision of a pre-civilized existence.
Pure Still Lifes and Personal SymbolismDedicated still lifes of fruit are rarer but revealing. Nature morte aux fruits et piments (Still Life with Fruit and Peppers / Still Life with Tahitian Oranges, 1892) shows rounded oranges piled in a dish alongside spicy peppers. One interpretation sees the harmonious, contained fruit as a metaphor for an organically unified community from which the “spicy” outsider (Gauguin himself) is excluded. The fruits may represent an imaginary feast rather than the artist’s actual sparse diet. Similar motifs reappear in later works, including the 1901 still life with fruits and flowers (closely related to the grapefruit/pamplemousse painting discussed previously).
Oranges (introduced to Tahiti, possibly associated with European contact) could also evoke connections between France and the islands or carry undertones of nostalgia and even subtle corruption or plague metaphors in some readings. Still lifes often paid homage to Cézanne (whose fruit paintings Gauguin prized) while adapting the genre to tropical subjects and flattened, decorative color.
Broader Context in Gauguin’s SymbolismFruit participates in Gauguin’s larger Symbolist synthesis: Christian, Polynesian, classical, and personal myths of origins, life cycles, and the critique of Western civilization. In monumental works such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), figures interacting with fruit or nature contribute to the narrative of birth, existence, and mortality. Overall, Tahitian fruit embodies the artist’s longed-for “primitive” paradise—abundant, sensual, and spiritually charged—while revealing its constructed, nostalgic, and sometimes conflicted nature.
This symbolism is not rigid or single-layered; Gauguin invited multiple readings, blending observation, memory, imagination, and invented myth.
1891 Jeune Homme à la Fleur
2015 SOLD for $ 13.6M by Christie's
Looking for the conditions of primitive life, Paul Gauguin was severely disappointed and even felt deceived when he arrived at Papeete in June 1891 : the capital of French Polynesia was already much Europeanized and populated with colonials, in his own words the very thing which he had desired to flee. He relocated at Mataeia, a tiny seaside village 65 km away.
His creativity was blocked for a while. By the end of the year he had nevertheless filled a sketchbook and painted about 20 Polynesian subjects.
A young handsome man was named Jotefa by the artist whom he led as a boy servant for picking the best wood for his sculptures. He is the jeune homme à la fleur, represented in bust length in a three quarter view. He has a white blossom on his ear as a symbol of the mysteries and the purity of local life.
This oil on canvas 45 x 34 cm was owned by Matisse from 1900 to 1915, the key period for his artistic development. It was sold for $ 13.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 6A. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
His creativity was blocked for a while. By the end of the year he had nevertheless filled a sketchbook and painted about 20 Polynesian subjects.
A young handsome man was named Jotefa by the artist whom he led as a boy servant for picking the best wood for his sculptures. He is the jeune homme à la fleur, represented in bust length in a three quarter view. He has a white blossom on his ear as a symbol of the mysteries and the purity of local life.
This oil on canvas 45 x 34 cm was owned by Matisse from 1900 to 1915, the key period for his artistic development. It was sold for $ 13.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 6A. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1892 Te Poipoi
2007 SOLD for $ 39M by Sotheby's
The answer to Gauguin's primitivist question is not in Europe. Pont-Aven, at the far end of Brittany, is still too close to the vitiated civilization of the big cities. In 1891 he made some money by selling a few paintings and left for Tahiti.
The colonial atmosphere of Papeete is nothing authentic. Gauguin finally finds in the village of Mataiea the living conditions which he can consider as an unsoiled civilization. He admires the innocent nudity.
Gauguin paints a lot in Mataiea. He is very inspired by the beautiful colors of these shaded landscapes and by the amber skins of the women. He selfishly sees the sexual life as the central theme of his ethnico-mystical exploration. His very young mistress certainly helps this European in exile to understand the exotic traditions.
Te Poipoi, oil on canvas 68 x 92 cm painted in 1892 in the early fall, was sold for $ 39M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 18. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Te Poipoi means The morning. The very bright colors painted in solid style anticipate the fauvism. Two women, one crouching in the foreground and the other standing further away, do their ablutions in the blue water. The landscape is made complex by the reflections of trees and foliage.
Nafea Faa Ipoipo?, meaning When shall you get married?, is a genre scene from the same series, showing a woman protecting or presenting a girl. This oil on canvas 101 x 77 cm was sold in private sale in February 2015 to the sister of the Emir of Qatar. The price of $ 300M announced at that time would have claimed a record. After a legal action between the seller and the broker, the price of $ 210M was disclosed in 2019.
The colonial atmosphere of Papeete is nothing authentic. Gauguin finally finds in the village of Mataiea the living conditions which he can consider as an unsoiled civilization. He admires the innocent nudity.
Gauguin paints a lot in Mataiea. He is very inspired by the beautiful colors of these shaded landscapes and by the amber skins of the women. He selfishly sees the sexual life as the central theme of his ethnico-mystical exploration. His very young mistress certainly helps this European in exile to understand the exotic traditions.
Te Poipoi, oil on canvas 68 x 92 cm painted in 1892 in the early fall, was sold for $ 39M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 18. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Te Poipoi means The morning. The very bright colors painted in solid style anticipate the fauvism. Two women, one crouching in the foreground and the other standing further away, do their ablutions in the blue water. The landscape is made complex by the reflections of trees and foliage.
Nafea Faa Ipoipo?, meaning When shall you get married?, is a genre scene from the same series, showing a woman protecting or presenting a girl. This oil on canvas 101 x 77 cm was sold in private sale in February 2015 to the sister of the Emir of Qatar. The price of $ 300M announced at that time would have claimed a record. After a legal action between the seller and the broker, the price of $ 210M was disclosed in 2019.
1892 Te Hare
2017 SOLD for £ 20.3M by Christie's
Paul Gauguin reaches his paradise in October 1891 in Mataiea, a village in the countryside 45 km away from Papeete. He takes care not to disturb the tranquility of the place. The inhabitants who are maintaining their ancestral customs welcome this foreigner. Without a competitor, without a false friend, without the need to prove his genius to his neighbors who now ignore his craft, Gauguin gets imbued with the exotic atmosphere and colors.
In 1892 in Mataiea, he meets his dream of developing a new art based on a subtle blend between the observation of landscapes and people and an exaggerated imagination of colors that will soon influence Matisse. His ideal landscape is not a topographical reality. His characters and horses are fixed for eternity in a static occupation.
Te Hare (la maison), oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm, is one of these peaceful scenes. This house is the hut that the painter rents in the village. Or not : it does not matter. It is dominated by a tall hibiscus tree. The extreme colors of tree and hills express the tropical moisture.
The rejection of Europe by Gauguin is extremely violent but not final. He returns to France with the intention of showing how his art has evolved. The exhibition of his Tahitian masterpieces by Durand-Ruel in 1894 horrifies Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. In the sale organized in 1895 at Drouot to finance the last exile of Gauguin, Te Hare is acquired by Daniel Halévy, encouraged by the last master who still understood and encouraged the artist, Edgar Degas.
Te Hare was sold in November 7, 1991 by Ader Picard Tajan for FF 52Mand for £ 20.3M by Christie's on February 28, 2017, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Painted in the same year, Le Vallon, 42 x 67 cm, was sold for £ 6.4M by Christie's on June 21, 2011.
In 1892 in Mataiea, he meets his dream of developing a new art based on a subtle blend between the observation of landscapes and people and an exaggerated imagination of colors that will soon influence Matisse. His ideal landscape is not a topographical reality. His characters and horses are fixed for eternity in a static occupation.
Te Hare (la maison), oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm, is one of these peaceful scenes. This house is the hut that the painter rents in the village. Or not : it does not matter. It is dominated by a tall hibiscus tree. The extreme colors of tree and hills express the tropical moisture.
The rejection of Europe by Gauguin is extremely violent but not final. He returns to France with the intention of showing how his art has evolved. The exhibition of his Tahitian masterpieces by Durand-Ruel in 1894 horrifies Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. In the sale organized in 1895 at Drouot to finance the last exile of Gauguin, Te Hare is acquired by Daniel Halévy, encouraged by the last master who still understood and encouraged the artist, Edgar Degas.
Te Hare was sold in November 7, 1991 by Ader Picard Tajan for FF 52Mand for £ 20.3M by Christie's on February 28, 2017, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Painted in the same year, Le Vallon, 42 x 67 cm, was sold for £ 6.4M by Christie's on June 21, 2011.
Christie’s Announces £12m Gauguin, Matisse for March in London https://t.co/C91maVwpfp pic.twitter.com/z1lTJOJtU4
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) February 7, 2017
1892 Nature Morte aux Fruits et Piments
2007 SOLD for $ 12.4M by Christie's
Only two pure still lifes were painted by Gauguin during his stay in Tahiti. One of them is not located. The other opus, a Nature morte aux fruits et piments, was sold for $ 12.4M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 15.
It is dated '92 by the artist. The elongated format 32 x 66 cm was also used for a few vertical landscapes. It must be correlated with a period in that year when the artist was not in shortage of canvases.
Gauguin owned and kept in France a Nature morte au compotier by Cézanne. Nevertheless, that Gauguin still life is not in the complicated style of Cézanne. It expresses the quiet serenity of life in the Polynesian countryside.
Gauguin painted by memory and imagination. The fruits in the dish are probably Tahitian oranges. They are surrounded by hot red and green peppers. Both are not a memory from his food : he refused gifts from the natives in Mataiea who were innocent of trading money and he relied for his diet upon tinned goods sold by the local Chinese merchant.
It is dated '92 by the artist. The elongated format 32 x 66 cm was also used for a few vertical landscapes. It must be correlated with a period in that year when the artist was not in shortage of canvases.
Gauguin owned and kept in France a Nature morte au compotier by Cézanne. Nevertheless, that Gauguin still life is not in the complicated style of Cézanne. It expresses the quiet serenity of life in the Polynesian countryside.
Gauguin painted by memory and imagination. The fruits in the dish are probably Tahitian oranges. They are surrounded by hot red and green peppers. Both are not a memory from his food : he refused gifts from the natives in Mataiea who were innocent of trading money and he relied for his diet upon tinned goods sold by the local Chinese merchant.
< 1893 Jeune Tahitienne
2011 SOLD for $ 11.3M by Sotheby's
Gauguin is uncomfortable in Europe in 1891. He is too much beside his time. Painter, printmaker, sculptor, he uses all these techniques in search of a metaphysical truth that will never be attainable.
He is not really beside but actually ahead of his time with his paintings showing bold compositions and bright colors and his iconoclastic themes. He also embodies the new taste for primitivism, like the somehow naive philosophers of the eighteenth century who attempted empathy with the "noble savages".
Arriving in Tahiti, he believes finding there the freedom of thought, and also the sexual liberty. The young Tahitian women inspire him.
A wooden sculpture sold for $ 11.3M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2011, lot 8, dates from that period of euphoria which ends when he leaves Tahiti in June 1893.
It is the head of a young Tahitian woman with a serene expression, 24 cm high. The artist made for this piece a pair of ear ornaments in boxwood and a necklace of coral and shells in native style with five rows which all remained in place on the statue.
As Modigliani will do after him, Gauguin was able to express in a bust his view of the ideal woman. Back in France in 1894, he present this work to the daughter of a critic who was not hostile to his art.
He is not really beside but actually ahead of his time with his paintings showing bold compositions and bright colors and his iconoclastic themes. He also embodies the new taste for primitivism, like the somehow naive philosophers of the eighteenth century who attempted empathy with the "noble savages".
Arriving in Tahiti, he believes finding there the freedom of thought, and also the sexual liberty. The young Tahitian women inspire him.
A wooden sculpture sold for $ 11.3M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2011, lot 8, dates from that period of euphoria which ends when he leaves Tahiti in June 1893.
It is the head of a young Tahitian woman with a serene expression, 24 cm high. The artist made for this piece a pair of ear ornaments in boxwood and a necklace of coral and shells in native style with five rows which all remained in place on the statue.
As Modigliani will do after him, Gauguin was able to express in a bust his view of the ideal woman. Back in France in 1894, he present this work to the daughter of a critic who was not hostile to his art.
(1886) 1893-1895 Vase of Flowers
2018 SOLD for $ 19.4M by Christie's
A Vase of Flowers by Gauguin, dated '86, was sold by Christie's on May 2, 2006 for $ 4.5M despite a lower estimate of $ 7M. This oil on canvas 61 x 74 cm has however some interesting features for understanding Gauguin's creativity : the inverted perspective directly inspired by Cézanne's still lifes, the insertion of an image within the image without a consistency of scale, the juxtaposition of elements from several cultures.
The 2006 catalog clearly explained that this work could not have been painted before Gauguin's first departure for Tahiti, in 1891 : the bright red flowers looking like poinsettias which dominate this bouquet are Polynesian.
An inconsistency is a handicap for a work on the art market. This still life returned to the same auction room on May 8, 2018 in the dispersion of the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection. The catalog included a complex but coherent scenario. It was sold for $ 19.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M, lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Here is a probable sequence of the transformations of this artwork :
Gauguin started this painting in 1886. He sought to exploit the best in the avant-garde pictorial techniques and wanted to imitate the Still Life with the Fruit Dish by Cézanne, which he owned. In the following year, on his return from Martinique, he added a very small figure of a West Indian woman standing on a column along the right edge of the image.
In 1893 the return from Polynesia goes very badly. Gauguin is forgotten except by a few friends, and the state of his finances is catastrophic. At one point during this tragic stay in France, which lasted until 1895, he wanted to bring together on a painting his most recent conceptions of still life. Times are hard. Rather than using a new canvas, he paints over his original work.
Gauguin was a fervent admirer of Van Gogh's sunflowers. At Arles in 1888. he had painted a portrait of Van Gogh in front of his easel, busy painting these specific flowers.
The inclusion of the poinsettias is perhaps inspired by the very bright colors of Van Gogh's sunflowers. Originally the back wall was dark : traces of blue pigment have been found under the yellow layer. Several shades of yellow had been used by Van Gogh for the background of his Arles sunflowers. The tablecloth also was too dull for his new Polynesian sensibility : he redid it in orange and pink. The incongruous Martinican figure and the obsolete date remained intact.
The 2006 catalog clearly explained that this work could not have been painted before Gauguin's first departure for Tahiti, in 1891 : the bright red flowers looking like poinsettias which dominate this bouquet are Polynesian.
An inconsistency is a handicap for a work on the art market. This still life returned to the same auction room on May 8, 2018 in the dispersion of the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection. The catalog included a complex but coherent scenario. It was sold for $ 19.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M, lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Here is a probable sequence of the transformations of this artwork :
Gauguin started this painting in 1886. He sought to exploit the best in the avant-garde pictorial techniques and wanted to imitate the Still Life with the Fruit Dish by Cézanne, which he owned. In the following year, on his return from Martinique, he added a very small figure of a West Indian woman standing on a column along the right edge of the image.
In 1893 the return from Polynesia goes very badly. Gauguin is forgotten except by a few friends, and the state of his finances is catastrophic. At one point during this tragic stay in France, which lasted until 1895, he wanted to bring together on a painting his most recent conceptions of still life. Times are hard. Rather than using a new canvas, he paints over his original work.
Gauguin was a fervent admirer of Van Gogh's sunflowers. At Arles in 1888. he had painted a portrait of Van Gogh in front of his easel, busy painting these specific flowers.
The inclusion of the poinsettias is perhaps inspired by the very bright colors of Van Gogh's sunflowers. Originally the back wall was dark : traces of blue pigment have been found under the yellow layer. Several shades of yellow had been used by Van Gogh for the background of his Arles sunflowers. The tablecloth also was too dull for his new Polynesian sensibility : he redid it in orange and pink. The incongruous Martinican figure and the obsolete date remained intact.
1895 Nature Morte aux Mangos
2015 SOLD for £ 11.6M by Sotheby's
Paul Gauguin looked in Polynesia for another civilization, close to nature, resolutely nonviolent, far from European intellectual excesses. He intended to return soon in Europe with a renewed creativity and style.
He found what he expected but his own living conditions were precarious. He pulled away from Papeete too dependent for his concern upon the French administration. In the countryside, he did not accept barter in a village community which had no monetary use. Close to misery, he could not acquire canvases and carved more than he himself had desired. This first stay had lasted two years, from 1891 to 1893.
The second stay began in 1895. He organized it better in order for it to be more sustainable and he worked more conveniently on his mystical themes animated by the figures of the Polynesians.
A still life of mangoes, oil on canvas 30 x 47 cm, was sold for £ 11.6M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015, lot 11.
Undated, this painting was done during the first visit or, more likely, at the beginning of the second in 1895 or 1896. The extensive correspondence left by Gauguin leaves no doubt as to his intention: he practiced still life to keep cool between two mystic quests.
The angular composition is bold like a Cézanne, but the use of strong colors, deliberately exaggerated to reach the splendor while refusing to copy the nature, is similar as in Gauguin's landscapes. The displaying of mangos is a new challenge by the artist to the European civilization. It is not new in his art since he had already chosen this theme during his stay in Martinique in 1887.
He found what he expected but his own living conditions were precarious. He pulled away from Papeete too dependent for his concern upon the French administration. In the countryside, he did not accept barter in a village community which had no monetary use. Close to misery, he could not acquire canvases and carved more than he himself had desired. This first stay had lasted two years, from 1891 to 1893.
The second stay began in 1895. He organized it better in order for it to be more sustainable and he worked more conveniently on his mystical themes animated by the figures of the Polynesians.
A still life of mangoes, oil on canvas 30 x 47 cm, was sold for £ 11.6M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015, lot 11.
Undated, this painting was done during the first visit or, more likely, at the beginning of the second in 1895 or 1896. The extensive correspondence left by Gauguin leaves no doubt as to his intention: he practiced still life to keep cool between two mystic quests.
The angular composition is bold like a Cézanne, but the use of strong colors, deliberately exaggerated to reach the splendor while refusing to copy the nature, is similar as in Gauguin's landscapes. The displaying of mangos is a new challenge by the artist to the European civilization. It is not new in his art since he had already chosen this theme during his stay in Martinique in 1887.
#AuctionUpdate: £11.6m for #Gauguin’s still-life of mangoes painted in 1890s Tahiti, bought 10 yrs ago for £3.6m pic.twitter.com/nO12gTCxCT
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 24, 2015masterpiece
1897-1898 D'où venons-nous Que sommes-nous Où allons-nous
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Coming rather lately to artistic creation and originally close to the Impressionnistes, Paul Gauguin looked for innovative solutions such as using pure colors within closed forms, anticipating Fauvisme.
His life became a series of social woes. This uncompromising Christian rejects the Catholic teaching and liturgy but desires to interpret the mystery of life. At the time of the Christ Jaune, 1889, he surrounds the religious symbols with themes from modern life including his own self portrait.
His voluntary exile in Polynesia brings him a synthesis of Christianity and animism. From then Gauguin's art is no more exclusively Christian.
Paul Gauguin returned to Tahiti in 1895 after spending two years in France. Nothing goes well. He is sick and crippled with debt. His wife broke up permanently. Their only daughter Aline, whom he has not seen since 1891, dies in 1897 at the age of 20. Disgusted with European civilization, he seeks new roots. He will write a little later that he wanted to commit suicide. His Polynesian art shifts from daily life to mystic.
He is fiercely committed to the work which he considers as the most important in his career : D'où venons-nous Que sommes-nous Où allons nous, without question mark as if he wanted to persuade himself that he brings the answers. This immense masterpiece, 140 x 375 cm, to read from right to left, stages the three ages of life played by Tahitian characters
Painted in Tahiti in 1897-1898, D'où venons-nous Qui sommes-nous Où allons-nous, which is conceived by the artist as his ultimate masterpiece, does not refer to Western religions. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (D’où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?, 1897–98) is Paul Gauguin’s largest and most ambitious painting—a monumental philosophical manifesto he considered his masterpiece.
Basic Facts
Composition and How to Read It
The work is structured as a continuous frieze or mural-like narrative meant to be read from right to left (reversing Western left-to-right convention, like an ancient scroll or fresco). Gauguin himself explained the major groups in letters:
The tropical landscape (sea, mountains, lush vegetation) frames the figures without European elements, reinforcing Gauguin’s idealized vision of a “primitive” paradise.
Style and TechniqueGauguin employed his mature Post-Impressionist/Symbolist style: flat areas of intense, non-naturalistic color (rich blues, yellows, oranges, greens), bold outlines, simplified forms, and decorative patterning. The rough canvas and deliberate lack of fine finish enhance the mural-like, timeless quality. Figures are monumental and somewhat hieratic, drawing on influences from Egyptian, Buddhist, Japanese, and Polynesian art as well as Western religious painting.
Symbolism and Themes
The painting synthesizes Gauguin’s lifelong concerns:
Historical Context and Legacy
Created as a summation of Gauguin’s Tahitian imagery and a response to his despair, the painting was intended for a European audience and his artistic legacy. It traveled through private collections before arriving in Boston. Today it is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of Symbolism and Post-Impressionism—a visual meditation on the human condition that still resonates with its open-ended questions about existence.
In short, the painting is both a personal testament and a universal philosophical frieze: a colorful, mysterious procession of life that invites contemplation rather than definitive resolution.
His life became a series of social woes. This uncompromising Christian rejects the Catholic teaching and liturgy but desires to interpret the mystery of life. At the time of the Christ Jaune, 1889, he surrounds the religious symbols with themes from modern life including his own self portrait.
His voluntary exile in Polynesia brings him a synthesis of Christianity and animism. From then Gauguin's art is no more exclusively Christian.
Paul Gauguin returned to Tahiti in 1895 after spending two years in France. Nothing goes well. He is sick and crippled with debt. His wife broke up permanently. Their only daughter Aline, whom he has not seen since 1891, dies in 1897 at the age of 20. Disgusted with European civilization, he seeks new roots. He will write a little later that he wanted to commit suicide. His Polynesian art shifts from daily life to mystic.
He is fiercely committed to the work which he considers as the most important in his career : D'où venons-nous Que sommes-nous Où allons nous, without question mark as if he wanted to persuade himself that he brings the answers. This immense masterpiece, 140 x 375 cm, to read from right to left, stages the three ages of life played by Tahitian characters
Painted in Tahiti in 1897-1898, D'où venons-nous Qui sommes-nous Où allons-nous, which is conceived by the artist as his ultimate masterpiece, does not refer to Western religions. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (D’où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?, 1897–98) is Paul Gauguin’s largest and most ambitious painting—a monumental philosophical manifesto he considered his masterpiece.
Basic Facts
- Medium and size: Oil on coarse jute/canvas, approximately 139.1 × 374.6 cm (about 4.5 × 12.3 feet).
- Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acquired 1936).
- Inscriptions: The title appears in the upper left; “P. Gauguin / 1897” in the upper right. The yellow corners mimic an aged fresco on a golden wall.
Composition and How to Read It
The work is structured as a continuous frieze or mural-like narrative meant to be read from right to left (reversing Western left-to-right convention, like an ancient scroll or fresco). Gauguin himself explained the major groups in letters:
- Right side (“Where do we come from?”): A sleeping infant surrounded by three crouching women represents birth, origins, and the beginning of life. Nearby animals (cats, a white goat/dog) and youthful figures evoke innocence, purity, and communal nurturing.
- Center (“What are we?”): Daily existence and the human condition in maturity. Key elements include two figures in purple conversing (perhaps confiding thoughts about destiny), an oversized crouching figure raising an arm in astonishment, and—most prominently—an androgynous standing figure reaching up to pick fruit from a tree. This central action echoes the Garden of Eden / Tree of Knowledge (Eve/Adam motif), symbolizing desire, knowledge, choice, sin, or simply the active engagement with life. Two cats near a child and other figures reinforce themes of instinct, contemplation, and everyday activity.
- Left side (“Where are we going?”): An old woman crouching near death, resigned and accepting her fate, “completes the story.” At her feet is a strange white bird holding a lizard in its claws, which Gauguin explicitly said represents “the futility of words” (or the uselessness of vain speech).
The tropical landscape (sea, mountains, lush vegetation) frames the figures without European elements, reinforcing Gauguin’s idealized vision of a “primitive” paradise.
Style and TechniqueGauguin employed his mature Post-Impressionist/Symbolist style: flat areas of intense, non-naturalistic color (rich blues, yellows, oranges, greens), bold outlines, simplified forms, and decorative patterning. The rough canvas and deliberate lack of fine finish enhance the mural-like, timeless quality. Figures are monumental and somewhat hieratic, drawing on influences from Egyptian, Buddhist, Japanese, and Polynesian art as well as Western religious painting.
Symbolism and Themes
The painting synthesizes Gauguin’s lifelong concerns:
- The cycle of life: Birth → maturity/sin/knowledge → death, approached largely through a feminine lens (many female or androgynous figures).
- Existential questions: Universal inquiries into human origins, identity, purpose, and destiny, rooted partly in a Catholic catechism Gauguin recalled from childhood (questions posed by Bishop Dupanloup).
- Paradise and the Fall: Tahiti as an earthly Eden, with the fruit-picker as a Polynesian Eve/Adam figure. Fruit continues the symbolism explored in other Tahitian works (abundance, fertility, temptation).
- Spirituality and the beyond: The blue idol and overall atmosphere point to a non-Christian, syncretic sense of the sacred.
- Futility and mystery: The white bird underscores the limits of language and rational explanation; the work poses questions without providing neat answers.
Historical Context and Legacy
Created as a summation of Gauguin’s Tahitian imagery and a response to his despair, the painting was intended for a European audience and his artistic legacy. It traveled through private collections before arriving in Boston. Today it is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of Symbolism and Post-Impressionism—a visual meditation on the human condition that still resonates with its open-ended questions about existence.
In short, the painting is both a personal testament and a universal philosophical frieze: a colorful, mysterious procession of life that invites contemplation rather than definitive resolution.
1899 Maternité
2022 SOLD for $ 106M by Christie's
Far from his European family, Paul Gauguin manages to rebuild a family in Punaauia, a village near Papeete, with a vahine named Pahura, far too young by European standards. The birth of a boy in April 1899 is a moment of great joy.
Gauguin paints maternity scenes, with warm colors. Femmes sur le bord de la mer, later known as Maternité (I), shows a seated young mother breastfeeding her newborn. She is surrounded by two standing women who bring fruit and flowers, symbols of abundance and beauty. Fishermen and a dog complete the atmosphere. This oil on canvas 94 x 72 cm is kept at the Hermitage Museum in Saint-Petersburg.
Maternité (II), limited to the group of women, is therefore a more direct interpretation of the theme of fertility. This oil on burlap 95 x 61 cm was sold for $ 39M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2004, lot 15, and for $ 106M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 11. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
With Gauguin the mystical interpretation, both religious and anticlerical, is always underlying. For example, a Nativité painted in 1902 stages a larger Polynesian group simulating the Crèche. The head of the baby is adorned with a radiant halo. This oil on canvas 44 x 62 cm was sold for $ 5.9M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2015.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection ‘Maternité II’ by Paul Gauguin set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $105.73 million, a little over 3x the artist’s previous auction record
Gauguin paints maternity scenes, with warm colors. Femmes sur le bord de la mer, later known as Maternité (I), shows a seated young mother breastfeeding her newborn. She is surrounded by two standing women who bring fruit and flowers, symbols of abundance and beauty. Fishermen and a dog complete the atmosphere. This oil on canvas 94 x 72 cm is kept at the Hermitage Museum in Saint-Petersburg.
Maternité (II), limited to the group of women, is therefore a more direct interpretation of the theme of fertility. This oil on burlap 95 x 61 cm was sold for $ 39M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2004, lot 15, and for $ 106M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 11. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
With Gauguin the mystical interpretation, both religious and anticlerical, is always underlying. For example, a Nativité painted in 1902 stages a larger Polynesian group simulating the Crèche. The head of the baby is adorned with a radiant halo. This oil on canvas 44 x 62 cm was sold for $ 5.9M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2015.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection ‘Maternité II’ by Paul Gauguin set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $105.73 million, a little over 3x the artist’s previous auction record
- The painting "Maternité II" by Paul Gauguin, sold for $105.73 million in 2022, reflects his 1899 Tahitian period where he blended Western art traditions with Polynesian influences, a fusion later validated by studies like those in the 1988 National Gallery of Art catalog showing his use of Borobudur frieze motifs.
- This auction record, part of the Paul G. Allen Collection, highlights a shift in art valuation, with Christie’s 2022 sales exceeding $1 billion, a trend supported by economic data from the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report showing a 20% annual increase in high-value art transactions since 2018.
- Gauguin’s depiction of Tahitian motherhood challenges colonial art narratives by reimagining Christian iconography, a perspective backed by art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews’ research on his intentional subversion of European norms during his Polynesian exile.
masterpiece
1901 Trois Pommes
Goulandris Foundation
The painting commonly referred to as "Trois pommes" (or more fully "Still Life With Apples" / "Nature morte aux pommes") by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was a landmark auction sale in Paris.
The 1957 Sale
On June 14, 1957, at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris (a major venue for important sales at the time), this late still life—painted around 1901 during Gauguin’s final years in the Marquesas Islands—sold for 104,000,000 old French francs.
Auctioneer and Context
Maurice Rheims (1910–2003), the prominent French auctioneer, art historian, and writer, presided over or was closely associated with many high-profile sales at Parisian venues like the Hôtel Drouot and Galerie Charpentier during this period. He was a key figure in the mid-20th-century European art market, known for modernizing and internationalizing auctions in France. While some records highlight the Galerie Charpentier as the venue, Rheims’s involvement in major Paris sales of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from that era aligns with your recollection of him conducting or overseeing the event.
Additional Details on the Painting
This 1957 result was a breakthrough moment for Post-Impressionist prices, similar to how the 1965 Rembrandt Titus portrait (which you mentioned earlier) marked a milestone for Old Masters. Gauguin auction records have since climbed far higher—e.g., Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or even hundreds of millions in later decades—but in its day, the “Trois pommes” sale was sensational.
These mid-20th-century Paris sales often had a dramatic, theatrical quality under auctioneers like Rheims, which is why they linger in collectors’ memories.
Ownership and Provenance Since 1957
The painting entered the private collection of Basil Goulandris (and later associated with Basil & Elise Goulandris) and has remained there or within the Goulandris family/foundation ever since. It has not reappeared at public auction in the decades following the 1957 sale.
The painting remains in private hands within the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation or associated collection in Greece. It has not been sold publicly again, consistent with many high-profile works from important private foundations that are occasionally lent for exhibitions but rarely enter the open market. No major resale, deaccession, or ownership transfer has been publicly documented since 1957.
Context and Significance
This still life is one of Gauguin’s rarer late works from his final years in the Pacific (1901–1903), reflecting his continued engagement with simple, symbolic arrangements and color experimentation even amid personal hardship. Its 1957 price was groundbreaking at the time but has since been far surpassed by other Gauguin works (e.g., major Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or hundreds of millions in later decades). The dramatic bidding story contributed to its place in art-market lore, alongside other mid-20th-century record sales.Note that Gauguin painted several still lifes involving apples or fruit across his career (e.g., 1889–1890 examples in museums or other private collections), but the "Trois pommes" / Biddle-Goulandris one is specifically the 1901 late-period work from the 1957 sale.
The relevant Wikimedia page is the Commons file for the painting (also known as Nature morte aux pamplemousses / Still Life with Grapefruits, previously titled Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs or similar variants referring to apples/flowers):
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PaulGauguin-1901-Still_Life_with_Grapefruits.png
commons.wikimedia.org
This matches the landmark 14 June 1957 sale at Galerie Charpentier in Paris (lot 21 from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection), where it fetched a record ~104 million francs (~$297,000) to Basil Goulandris (amid bidding against Stavros Niarchos). It is now in the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation collection in Athens.
The title discrepancy arises from historical misidentification of the fruit depicted.
The painting sold at the landmark Galerie Charpentier auction on 14 June 1957 (from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection, lot 21, for a then-record ~104 million francs / ~$297,000 to Basil Goulandris) is the same work. Contemporary reports, including the New Yorker account, referred to it simply as Gauguin’s “Still-Life with Apples.”
For many years it was known under variants such as Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs(“Still Life with Apples and Flowers”) or similar “apples” titles. This is explicitly noted by the current owner (Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation): “It is believed that Gauguin painted Still life with grapefruits, which for many years was entitled Still life with apples and flowers...”
Later scholarly consensus (reflected in the Wildenstein catalogue raisonné as W.631 and modern references) correctly identified the fruit as pamplemousses (grapefruits/pomelos), leading to the standardized title Nature morte aux pamplemousses (Still Life with Grapefruits), dated c. 1901–1902. Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata (Q52268439) list both titles: Nature morte aux pamplemousses, ou Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs.
“Trois pommes” (Three Apples) does not appear as a documented title for this specific work; it was likely a shorthand, approximation, or slight misremembering of the older “apples” designation in secondary accounts of the famous 1957 sale. Other Gauguin still lifes do feature apples more prominently (e.g., Nature morte aux pommes of 1890 or 1895), which may have contributed to the confusion.
The 1957 Sale
On June 14, 1957, at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris (a major venue for important sales at the time), this late still life—painted around 1901 during Gauguin’s final years in the Marquesas Islands—sold for 104,000,000 old French francs.
- This equated to approximately $297,000 at the official exchange rate, or about $255,000 at the prevailing free-market rate.
- It was part of the collection of the late Mrs. Margaret Thompson Biddle (an American collector).
- The buyer was Basil Goulandris, a Greek shipping magnate (with intense competition from another Greek shipowner, Stavros Niarchos, which drove the price up dramatically).
Auctioneer and Context
Maurice Rheims (1910–2003), the prominent French auctioneer, art historian, and writer, presided over or was closely associated with many high-profile sales at Parisian venues like the Hôtel Drouot and Galerie Charpentier during this period. He was a key figure in the mid-20th-century European art market, known for modernizing and internationalizing auctions in France. While some records highlight the Galerie Charpentier as the venue, Rheims’s involvement in major Paris sales of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from that era aligns with your recollection of him conducting or overseeing the event.
Additional Details on the Painting
- Gauguin’s late still lifes from his Pacific period are relatively rare compared to his iconic Tahitian figure scenes. This one features a simple arrangement of apples (sometimes described with grapes or other elements in variant titles/references), reflecting his continued experimentation with color, form, and symbolic simplicity even in isolation and poor health.
- The bidding war between wealthy collectors underscored the growing international demand for Gauguin in the 1950s, as his reputation as a pioneer of modern art (with influences on Fauvism, Expressionism, etc.) solidified.
This 1957 result was a breakthrough moment for Post-Impressionist prices, similar to how the 1965 Rembrandt Titus portrait (which you mentioned earlier) marked a milestone for Old Masters. Gauguin auction records have since climbed far higher—e.g., Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or even hundreds of millions in later decades—but in its day, the “Trois pommes” sale was sensational.
These mid-20th-century Paris sales often had a dramatic, theatrical quality under auctioneers like Rheims, which is why they linger in collectors’ memories.
Ownership and Provenance Since 1957
The painting entered the private collection of Basil Goulandris (and later associated with Basil & Elise Goulandris) and has remained there or within the Goulandris family/foundation ever since. It has not reappeared at public auction in the decades following the 1957 sale.
- It has been catalogued and exhibited under varying titles reflecting evolving scholarship: early references called it a still life with apples; later analysis identified the central fruits as grapefruits (pamplemousses), painted on a leather trunk in Gauguin’s studio during a period of illness when he was largely confined and drawing on Cézanne-inspired still-life traditions.
- The work has been lent to exhibitions, including at institutions linked to the Goulandris holdings, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Andros (part of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Greece).
- It forms part of the broader Goulandris collection of Impressionist and modern masters, much of which has been housed in or associated with their foundation’s museums in Greece (e.g., Athens and Andros). The family’s collecting activities continued prominently after Basil’s acquisition, with the 1957 Gauguin marking his notable debut as a major international buyer.
The painting remains in private hands within the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation or associated collection in Greece. It has not been sold publicly again, consistent with many high-profile works from important private foundations that are occasionally lent for exhibitions but rarely enter the open market. No major resale, deaccession, or ownership transfer has been publicly documented since 1957.
Context and Significance
This still life is one of Gauguin’s rarer late works from his final years in the Pacific (1901–1903), reflecting his continued engagement with simple, symbolic arrangements and color experimentation even amid personal hardship. Its 1957 price was groundbreaking at the time but has since been far surpassed by other Gauguin works (e.g., major Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or hundreds of millions in later decades). The dramatic bidding story contributed to its place in art-market lore, alongside other mid-20th-century record sales.Note that Gauguin painted several still lifes involving apples or fruit across his career (e.g., 1889–1890 examples in museums or other private collections), but the "Trois pommes" / Biddle-Goulandris one is specifically the 1901 late-period work from the 1957 sale.
The relevant Wikimedia page is the Commons file for the painting (also known as Nature morte aux pamplemousses / Still Life with Grapefruits, previously titled Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs or similar variants referring to apples/flowers):
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PaulGauguin-1901-Still_Life_with_Grapefruits.png
commons.wikimedia.org
This matches the landmark 14 June 1957 sale at Galerie Charpentier in Paris (lot 21 from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection), where it fetched a record ~104 million francs (~$297,000) to Basil Goulandris (amid bidding against Stavros Niarchos). It is now in the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation collection in Athens.
The title discrepancy arises from historical misidentification of the fruit depicted.
The painting sold at the landmark Galerie Charpentier auction on 14 June 1957 (from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection, lot 21, for a then-record ~104 million francs / ~$297,000 to Basil Goulandris) is the same work. Contemporary reports, including the New Yorker account, referred to it simply as Gauguin’s “Still-Life with Apples.”
For many years it was known under variants such as Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs(“Still Life with Apples and Flowers”) or similar “apples” titles. This is explicitly noted by the current owner (Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation): “It is believed that Gauguin painted Still life with grapefruits, which for many years was entitled Still life with apples and flowers...”
Later scholarly consensus (reflected in the Wildenstein catalogue raisonné as W.631 and modern references) correctly identified the fruit as pamplemousses (grapefruits/pomelos), leading to the standardized title Nature morte aux pamplemousses (Still Life with Grapefruits), dated c. 1901–1902. Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata (Q52268439) list both titles: Nature morte aux pamplemousses, ou Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs.
“Trois pommes” (Three Apples) does not appear as a documented title for this specific work; it was likely a shorthand, approximation, or slight misremembering of the older “apples” designation in secondary accounts of the famous 1957 sale. Other Gauguin still lifes do feature apples more prominently (e.g., Nature morte aux pommes of 1890 or 1895), which may have contributed to the confusion.
Special Report
Colors
Paul Gauguin’s color symbolism forms a cornerstone of his shift from Impressionism toward Symbolism and Synthetism (also linked to Cloisonnism). Unlike optical or scientific color approaches (e.g., Neo-Impressionism or Van Gogh’s more systematic use of complementary contrasts), Gauguin treated color as an autonomous, enigmatic, and expressive force capable of conveying emotion, spirituality, memory, and ideas independently of naturalistic appearance.
Core principles
Gauguin explicitly rejected the idea that color must describe external reality. Key statements include:
Synthetism synthesized observed reality with memory, imagination, and the dominant idea or feeling of the subject. Color planes and lines were fused with the emotional or spiritual content rather than built from optical analysis.
Symbolic associations of colors
Gauguin’s palette was selective and purposeful (he largely avoided black and dark earths like umber; preferred pure or lightly mixed hues). Associations were not rigid codes but fluid, context-dependent, and often personal or culturally hybrid:
In practice, Gauguin’s symbolism is rarely a simple one-to-one code. Colors gain meaning through context, cultural hybridity, personal biography (his identification with the “savage” or the suffering artist), and formal relationships within the composition. The result is a highly influential model for later modernists (Fauves, Expressionists, and beyond) who treated color as autonomous and expressive rather than descriptive.
Core principles
Gauguin explicitly rejected the idea that color must describe external reality. Key statements include:
- “Color being enigmatic in itself… we cannot use it any other way than enigmatically.”
- Color, “like music, is a matter of vibrations,” reaches “what is most general and therefore most indefinable in nature: its inner power.”
- He preferred “color suggestive of forms” and composition as “parable” rather than narrative realism.
- “Pure color! Everything must be sacrificed to it.” Intensity of color indicates its nature.
Synthetism synthesized observed reality with memory, imagination, and the dominant idea or feeling of the subject. Color planes and lines were fused with the emotional or spiritual content rather than built from optical analysis.
Symbolic associations of colors
Gauguin’s palette was selective and purposeful (he largely avoided black and dark earths like umber; preferred pure or lightly mixed hues). Associations were not rigid codes but fluid, context-dependent, and often personal or culturally hybrid:
- Yellow: Divine light, spirituality, the sacred, solar energy, or visionary intensity. Most famous in The Yellow Christ (1889), where the non-naturalistic yellow of Christ’s body suggests transcendence, Breton piety, and a personal identification with a suffering, misunderstood messiah. Yellow also appears in self-portraits with halo and in Tahitian works for radiant or sacred effects.
- Red / vermilion / orange: Passion, blood, vitality, the “savage,” imagination, or visionary intensity. In Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1888), the pure vermilion ground marks the scene as imaginary rather than literal. In Tahiti, vermilion evoked “savage life,” death, and regeneration.
- Blue: Mystery, spirituality, the infinite, or contemplative depth. Deep blues and ultramarines often structure backgrounds or clothing in religious/visionary scenes.
- Green: Nature, fertility, or sometimes melancholy/pain (e.g., cooler greens in certain Breton religious works).
- Complementary juxtapositions (blue/orange, red/green, yellow/violet/purple): Used not primarily for optical vibration (as in Van Gogh) but to heighten emotional excitement, decorative harmony, or symbolic tension. In Tahitian paintings he often mixed less white and fewer complementaries for greater purity and intensity.
- Brittany (Pont-Aven / Le Pouldu, late 1880s): Emergence of Synthetism/Cloisonnism. Vision after the Sermon is the manifesto piece—flat red ground, simplified forms, bold outlines fuse everyday Breton women with a biblical vision. The Yellow Christ and related works blend Christian iconography with local landscape and folk piety through arbitrary color.
- Arles interlude with Van Gogh (1888): Mutual influence and tension. Both sought expressive color beyond Impressionism, but Gauguin pushed further toward memory, synthesis, and anti-naturalism while Van Gogh retained stronger ties to observed light and complementary systems.
- Tahiti and the Marquesas (1891–1903): Colors become denser, more exotic, and hybrid. Lush tropical hues (oranges, yellows, deep blues, greens) express an idealized “primitive” harmony with nature and a personal mythology mixing Polynesian, Christian, Buddhist, and Egyptian references. In major works such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), color helps structure a philosophical frieze of human existence against a blue-green landscape with bold orange-toned figures.
In practice, Gauguin’s symbolism is rarely a simple one-to-one code. Colors gain meaning through context, cultural hybridity, personal biography (his identification with the “savage” or the suffering artist), and formal relationships within the composition. The result is a highly influential model for later modernists (Fauves, Expressionists, and beyond) who treated color as autonomous and expressive rather than descriptive.
1902
Thérèse
2015 SOLD for $ 31M by Christie's
Gauguin's resentment against the establishment was taking the form of insulting provocations. He left Tahiti where he was not any more finding an inspiration to his art and arrived in the Marquesas in September 1901. He soon retrieved the targets of his vituperation : the Catholic clergy and the gendarmes of the French Republic.
Gauguin blamed the Catholics for their hypocritical opposition to sexual freedom and rejoiced about the weaknesses of the prelates. He purchased a piece of land to the local bishop to build his home which he decorated as a temple to pornography under the complacently inscribed name Maison du Jouir (House of orgasm). He bought a young vahine, achieving to generate the total exasperation of the missionaries.
This exiled artist has humor. The best exhibition place in the Maison du Jouir is the door, visible from outside. Around August 1902, Gauguin installs two statues made by him in rosewood in native style. The man, Père Paillard (Father Debauchery), is a caricature of the bishop as a horned devil. The woman, Thérèse, is inspired by the gossip that the servant of the bishop was also his mistress.
On this phallic shaped statue 66 cm high, Thérèse is a nice woman, naked except for a loincloth. With her oversized head increasing her expressive feature, she is a transposition of primitive art to a Western subject. Although the intention of the artist was purely local, appealing beside him the laughers of Atuona, this artwork anticipates the interpretation of African and Oceanian figures by the artists of the twentieth century.
Thérèse was sold for $ 31M from a lower estimate of $ 18M for sale by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 5A. Its pendant Père Paillard is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Gauguin blamed the Catholics for their hypocritical opposition to sexual freedom and rejoiced about the weaknesses of the prelates. He purchased a piece of land to the local bishop to build his home which he decorated as a temple to pornography under the complacently inscribed name Maison du Jouir (House of orgasm). He bought a young vahine, achieving to generate the total exasperation of the missionaries.
This exiled artist has humor. The best exhibition place in the Maison du Jouir is the door, visible from outside. Around August 1902, Gauguin installs two statues made by him in rosewood in native style. The man, Père Paillard (Father Debauchery), is a caricature of the bishop as a horned devil. The woman, Thérèse, is inspired by the gossip that the servant of the bishop was also his mistress.
On this phallic shaped statue 66 cm high, Thérèse is a nice woman, naked except for a loincloth. With her oversized head increasing her expressive feature, she is a transposition of primitive art to a Western subject. Although the intention of the artist was purely local, appealing beside him the laughers of Atuona, this artwork anticipates the interpretation of African and Oceanian figures by the artists of the twentieth century.
Thérèse was sold for $ 31M from a lower estimate of $ 18M for sale by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 5A. Its pendant Père Paillard is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Paul Gauguin's Thérèse sells for $30,965,000 a #worldauctionrecord for a sculpture by the artist. pic.twitter.com/NuEf8SG0Ex
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2015for reference
Père Paillard
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
