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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Paul Gauguin catalogue critique, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.
Field dates this work circa 1902 by relating the verso work Nativité to several traced monotypes with the same theme belonging to that period. He was unable to relate Tête de marquesan to any painting executed during the second voyage. Although the paper used for the present work, a machine-made wove, differs from the Japan used for the other gouache monotypes which Field had examined, the present work with its thick encrustation of pigment, white heightening and use of gum Arabic, clearly belongs to the group by virtue of technical association.
It is impossible to be certain of the exact process which Gauguin used for his watercolour and gouache monotypes. While it is generally accepted that in the execution of the watercolour monotypes, the colours were transferred from one sheet of paper to another, the use of heavy impasto in the gouache monotypes suggests that the matrix support was of a stiffer and stronger material. The blue contour lines (cernes), if not transferred in this way, may have been traced from a previous work or applied by hand. In the Nativité, these lines seem to act almost as registration marks for the later transfer of colour. In Tête de marquesan, however, some of the lines have been added after the colour was transferred in order to give further definition to the subject.
The watercolour monotypes of 1894 and the watercolour and gouache monotypes of the Second Tahitian Voyage not only contrast with the traced monotypes of 1899 – 1903 in their absence of sharp contour but can also be seen as a reaction to the insensitive printing by Louis Roy of Gauguin’s woodcuts, whose hard blocks of primary colours were a great disappointment to the artist. Field believes these monotypes to be recapitulations of older themes rather than creations of new images, but self-sufficient nonetheless. In these later works, the artist subordinates his interest in the subject matter to his experimentation with washes and textures and seems to be striving to achieve compositions of pure colour in which the subject, almost incidental, floats barely defined.
Field dates this work circa 1902 by relating the verso work Nativité to several traced monotypes with the same theme belonging to that period. He was unable to relate Tête de marquesan to any painting executed during the second voyage. Although the paper used for the present work, a machine-made wove, differs from the Japan used for the other gouache monotypes which Field had examined, the present work with its thick encrustation of pigment, white heightening and use of gum Arabic, clearly belongs to the group by virtue of technical association.
It is impossible to be certain of the exact process which Gauguin used for his watercolour and gouache monotypes. While it is generally accepted that in the execution of the watercolour monotypes, the colours were transferred from one sheet of paper to another, the use of heavy impasto in the gouache monotypes suggests that the matrix support was of a stiffer and stronger material. The blue contour lines (cernes), if not transferred in this way, may have been traced from a previous work or applied by hand. In the Nativité, these lines seem to act almost as registration marks for the later transfer of colour. In Tête de marquesan, however, some of the lines have been added after the colour was transferred in order to give further definition to the subject.
The watercolour monotypes of 1894 and the watercolour and gouache monotypes of the Second Tahitian Voyage not only contrast with the traced monotypes of 1899 – 1903 in their absence of sharp contour but can also be seen as a reaction to the insensitive printing by Louis Roy of Gauguin’s woodcuts, whose hard blocks of primary colours were a great disappointment to the artist. Field believes these monotypes to be recapitulations of older themes rather than creations of new images, but self-sufficient nonetheless. In these later works, the artist subordinates his interest in the subject matter to his experimentation with washes and textures and seems to be striving to achieve compositions of pure colour in which the subject, almost incidental, floats barely defined.