.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Paul Gauguin catalogue critique, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.
Paul Gauguin travelled back to Tahiti in September 1895, leaving Paris and society behind him, this time for good. He had been to the island before and wanted to again leave everything behind for a better life. In the first years, he found what he was hoping for: a modestly comfortable life and an acceptable place in the colonial Tahitian society. He was also enjoying some success with international sales of his artworks through his Parisian dealers, who even sent him specific orders from their clients, including requests for his drawings.
The present lot was executed at the beginning of his return to Tahiti. While the verso, with studies of a panther and a boy eating a fruit, gives us a rare glimpse into the artist’s life and work, the drawing on the recto can be related to the large painting Nave Nave Mahana painted in 1896 (Wildenstein 548, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon). It depicts one of Gauguin’s favourite subjects, the Tahitian female figure. With the emphasis of her outlines, the drawing also shows how the artist explored sculptural ideas and ideas for his popular woodcuts.
Paul Gauguin travelled back to Tahiti in September 1895, leaving Paris and society behind him, this time for good. He had been to the island before and wanted to again leave everything behind for a better life. In the first years, he found what he was hoping for: a modestly comfortable life and an acceptable place in the colonial Tahitian society. He was also enjoying some success with international sales of his artworks through his Parisian dealers, who even sent him specific orders from their clients, including requests for his drawings.
The present lot was executed at the beginning of his return to Tahiti. While the verso, with studies of a panther and a boy eating a fruit, gives us a rare glimpse into the artist’s life and work, the drawing on the recto can be related to the large painting Nave Nave Mahana painted in 1896 (Wildenstein 548, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon). It depicts one of Gauguin’s favourite subjects, the Tahitian female figure. With the emphasis of her outlines, the drawing also shows how the artist explored sculptural ideas and ideas for his popular woodcuts.