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Bonjour, Monsieur Gauguin |
 This extraordinary work by Paul Gauguin was created in 1889, during his sojourn to northern Brittany, and his exploration of the mystical aesthetic in art. Paul Gauguin was one of the most important Post-Impressionist painters and is justly famous for the highly colored paintings of the people and places of Tahiti. The subject of this 52 x 24 inch picture is St. Joan of Arc, the legendary medieval heroine and patron saint of France. (Gauguin once described this picture to Vincent van Gogh as a depiction of a Breton peasant girl spinning wool on the seashore accompanied by her dog and her cow. His description omits any reference to the motif of the sword-bearing Archangel Michael, who appears at the top of the picture that suggests that this is a depiction of St. Joan of Arc.) The dog was originally meant to be larger, the pentimento of the larger head can be seen slightly above the dog, but was changed for a more pleasing composition. One of
Gauguin's few works in modified fresco it was created for the dining room of Marie Henry, the owner of an inn in Le
Pouldu, Brittany located at the western end or the other end of the English channel from
Flandres. This picture was covered for several years by tattered wallpaper, only to be rediscovered by Abraham
Rattner, a young American art student, in 1924. He purchased the painting, selling it to a private collector in 1965. The rarely seen piece is valued at near $2,000,000. While we
can't say for sure if this is a Bouvier, it is fun to think it is with
it's eyebrows, short tail and beard, guard-dog collar, wool, and cow in the
background how could it not be?
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| This work will be included in the new edition of the catalogue raisonné of Paul Gauguin being prepared by Daniel Wildenstein under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute. MEASUREMENTS 52 3/4 by 24 3/4in. 134 by 62.9cm. DESCRIPTION Signed with the monogram and dated En l'an 89 Fresco encased in wooden support Provenance: Marie Henry, Le Pouldu Mme Cochennec, Le Pouldu Abraham Rattner and Isadore Lévy, New York (acquired from the above in 1924 and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, October 14, 1965, lot 118) Acquired at the above sale by Television and theatrical producer Frederick Ziv Exhibited: New York, Fifty-Sixth Street Galleries, Gauguin, 1931 Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Paul Gauguin: His Place in the Meeting of the East and West, 1954, no. 16 New York, Wildenstein & Co., Gauguin, 1956, no. 17 The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Early Work of Paul Gauguin: Genesis of an Artist, 1971, no. 21 Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism, 1981, no. 63 (only exhibited in Toronto) Cincinnati, Beyond the Taft: Cincinnati collects European Modern Art, 1994, no. 37 The Art Institute of Chicago; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh and Gauguin and the Studio of the South, 2001-02, no. 105 Literature: M.F., "Un anathème d'outre-tombe prononcé par Gauguin," Comoedia, Paris, May 5, 1925, illustrated "Peintures de Gauguin," Bulletin de la vie Artistique, Paris, October 1, 1925, discussed pp. 435-36 Robert Rey, "A propos de peintures murales exécutées par Gauguin au Pouldu," Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, Paris, 1926, discussed pp. 38-39 "Fresco by Gauguin Found in Brittany Inn," The New York Herald Tribune (Paris Edition), Paris, January 23, 1927, illustrated Paul Sérusier, ABC de la Peinture, Paris, 1942, discussed p. 54 Life, New York, May 1, 1950, illustrated p. 93 John Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, New York, 1956, illustrated p. 296 John Rewald, Le Post-Impressionnisme, Paris, 1961, illustrated p. 177 Georges Wildenstein, Paul Gauguin, vol. 1, Paris, 1964, no. 329, illustrated p. 126 Victor Merlh, "LABOR. Painters at Play in Le Pouldu," Gauguin's Nirvana. Painter's at Le Pouldu 1889-90 (exhibition catalogue), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 2001, discussed, p. 90-94 Estimated value $1,800,000 to $2,200,000. |
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The Laitière Flamande | Caprice | Early Twentieth Century | Herding Trial | Gauguin | War Dogs | Lucky |
Gauguin completed this work, one of his only compositions in fresco, in 1889 for the decoration of Marie Henry's seaside inn at Le Pouldu on the coast of Brittany. Staying at the inn during 1889-90, dozens of ceramic works, woodcarvings and sculptures made by Gauguin, Meyer de Haan or Paul Sérusier covered the walls. This work by Gauguin was part of a mural in the dining room, executed by using a modified fresco technique painting directly into the plaster. Departing for Tahiti in 1890, heleft his paintings and drawings with Mme Henry as collateral for his unpaid bill. Mme Henry sold her inn to new management, and the frescoes were covered by wallpaper for nearly thirty years. A young American student and painter, Abraham
Rattner, noticed the brilliantly colored fresco beneath a torn piece of the aged and tattered wallpaper while staying there in 1924. Peeling off additional paper revealed the present composition. Rattner purchased the entire wall from the owner, Mme
Cochennec. The art historians throughout Europe identified this work as a ``lost masterpiece'' by Gauguin. The fresco was thereafter removed from the wall and sent to Paris, where it was cut to about half of its wall thickness, reinforced by a canvas backing and set into a hardwood encasement.