Paul GAUGUIN (1848-1903)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : France French sculpture Sculpture by painters Children Groups Bouquet
Chronology : 19th century 1885 1888 1890-1899 1892 1895 1902
See also : France French sculpture Sculpture by painters Children Groups Bouquet
Chronology : 19th century 1885 1888 1890-1899 1892 1895 1902
Intro
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.
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.
1885 Nature Morte
2023 SOLD for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's
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.
This oil on canvas 62 x 51 cm was fraudulently acquired in 1940 from the estate of Vollard. After decades of exhibition successively at the Louvre, Jeu de Paume and Musée d'Orsay, it was restituted to Vollard's heirs in February 2023.
It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 110. The image is shared by Wikimedia. 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.
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.
This oil on canvas 62 x 51 cm was fraudulently acquired in 1940 from the estate of Vollard. After decades of exhibition successively at the Louvre, Jeu de Paume and Musée d'Orsay, it was restituted to Vollard's heirs in February 2023.
It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 110. The image is shared by Wikimedia. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1902
1
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, 20152
for reference
Père Paillard
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
