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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Paul Gauguin being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute.
Executed in Brittany in 1889, the present painting is one of the most haunting and abstract of Gauguin's entire career. It depicts three geese splashing in a rippling lake, guarded by a Breton woman in traditional costume whose reflection is visible at the upper edge of the canvas (fig. 1). Between 1886 and 1894, Gauguin made four trips to Brittany, staying first in the picturesque artist's colony of Pont-Aven and later in the rustic fishing village of Le Pouldu. During each visit, he found artistic inspiration in the daily labors of the Breton peasants, painting them tending their flocks, doing their washing, and harvesting flax. More importantly, it was in Brittany--especially during his third and seminal sojourn in 1889-1890--that Gauguin finally broke free of earlier tradition and emerged as an intensely original modern master. With its unconventional viewpoint and brilliant swirls of anti-naturalistic color, the present painting vividly illustrates this development, recalling Gauguin's advice to his friend Emile Schuffenecker: "Don't copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction; derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it..." (quoted in R. Goldwater, Paul Gauguin, New York, 1957, p. 80).
The goose represents a recurring motif in Gauguin's work during his time in Brittany. In 1888, he made two paintings that are closely related to the present canvas: a scene of three geese frolicking in the Aven River (W. 277), and one of a Breton woman watching a goose from the edge of the water (W. 278). Although Gauguin selected a traditional viewpoint for both of these works, they nonetheless anticipate the present painting in their translation of the elements of nature into an almost abstract pattern. Gauguin also used the theme of the "goose girl" for a ceramic vase in 1888 (Gray 63), which in turn provided the inspiration for the cover of his first important set of prints, the 1889 "Volpini suite" (Guerin 1). Later the same year, Gauguin returned to the motif once again, executing two paintings of preening geese for the dining room of Marie Henry's inn at Le Pouldu (W. 383).
While Gauguin may have selected the goose in part as a simple emblem of rustic farm life in Brittany, scholars have recently proposed that the motif had more nuanced connotations as well. The conjunction of a young girl and a long-necked bird clearly evokes the Greek myth of Leda, who copulated with Zeus in the form of a swan. This association is made explicit in the Volpini lithograph, which the artist titled Leda. An inscription that appears on both the lithograph and the painting for Marie Henry -- "honni soit qui mal y pense" (shame on those who think evil) -- provides further evidence that Gauguin's geese had erotic implications. A related possibility is that the goose represents a metaphor for a plump and sensual woman, as in a well-known French fable by Jean de la Fontaine; as one scholar has written:
The goose is both woman and love. More exactly, the desirable and desiring woman... A whole semantic and specifically French cultural background maintains and justifies Gauguin's goose. She symbolizes, or rather suggests, simultaneously the restlessness, the desire, and the agitation of love... (E.M. Zafran, op. cit., pp. 94-96).
Finally, it is possible that Gauguin intended paintings like the present one as homage to his Impressionist mentor, Pissarro. During the mid-1880s, Pissarro made several fan-shaped gouaches that depict peasant women tending their geese, one of which Gauguin described in his memoirs: "There's a charming fan... A simple, half-opened gate separating two very green (Pissarro green) meadows, and passing through it a gaggle of geese nervously looking about as they ask themselves, 'Are we heading toward Seurat's or Millet's?' They all end up waddling off to Pissarro's..." (quoted in C. Ives and S.A. Stein, The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, p. 33).
(fig. 1) Breton women at Pont-Aven, circa 1900.
Executed in Brittany in 1889, the present painting is one of the most haunting and abstract of Gauguin's entire career. It depicts three geese splashing in a rippling lake, guarded by a Breton woman in traditional costume whose reflection is visible at the upper edge of the canvas (fig. 1). Between 1886 and 1894, Gauguin made four trips to Brittany, staying first in the picturesque artist's colony of Pont-Aven and later in the rustic fishing village of Le Pouldu. During each visit, he found artistic inspiration in the daily labors of the Breton peasants, painting them tending their flocks, doing their washing, and harvesting flax. More importantly, it was in Brittany--especially during his third and seminal sojourn in 1889-1890--that Gauguin finally broke free of earlier tradition and emerged as an intensely original modern master. With its unconventional viewpoint and brilliant swirls of anti-naturalistic color, the present painting vividly illustrates this development, recalling Gauguin's advice to his friend Emile Schuffenecker: "Don't copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction; derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it..." (quoted in R. Goldwater, Paul Gauguin, New York, 1957, p. 80).
The goose represents a recurring motif in Gauguin's work during his time in Brittany. In 1888, he made two paintings that are closely related to the present canvas: a scene of three geese frolicking in the Aven River (W. 277), and one of a Breton woman watching a goose from the edge of the water (W. 278). Although Gauguin selected a traditional viewpoint for both of these works, they nonetheless anticipate the present painting in their translation of the elements of nature into an almost abstract pattern. Gauguin also used the theme of the "goose girl" for a ceramic vase in 1888 (Gray 63), which in turn provided the inspiration for the cover of his first important set of prints, the 1889 "Volpini suite" (Guerin 1). Later the same year, Gauguin returned to the motif once again, executing two paintings of preening geese for the dining room of Marie Henry's inn at Le Pouldu (W. 383).
While Gauguin may have selected the goose in part as a simple emblem of rustic farm life in Brittany, scholars have recently proposed that the motif had more nuanced connotations as well. The conjunction of a young girl and a long-necked bird clearly evokes the Greek myth of Leda, who copulated with Zeus in the form of a swan. This association is made explicit in the Volpini lithograph, which the artist titled Leda. An inscription that appears on both the lithograph and the painting for Marie Henry -- "honni soit qui mal y pense" (shame on those who think evil) -- provides further evidence that Gauguin's geese had erotic implications. A related possibility is that the goose represents a metaphor for a plump and sensual woman, as in a well-known French fable by Jean de la Fontaine; as one scholar has written:
The goose is both woman and love. More exactly, the desirable and desiring woman... A whole semantic and specifically French cultural background maintains and justifies Gauguin's goose. She symbolizes, or rather suggests, simultaneously the restlessness, the desire, and the agitation of love... (E.M. Zafran, op. cit., pp. 94-96).
Finally, it is possible that Gauguin intended paintings like the present one as homage to his Impressionist mentor, Pissarro. During the mid-1880s, Pissarro made several fan-shaped gouaches that depict peasant women tending their geese, one of which Gauguin described in his memoirs: "There's a charming fan... A simple, half-opened gate separating two very green (Pissarro green) meadows, and passing through it a gaggle of geese nervously looking about as they ask themselves, 'Are we heading toward Seurat's or Millet's?' They all end up waddling off to Pissarro's..." (quoted in C. Ives and S.A. Stein, The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, p. 33).
(fig. 1) Breton women at Pont-Aven, circa 1900.