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Lot Essay
‘Disturbing and enigmatic, Oviri is a goddess derived from Gauguin's imagination' [1].
The figure of Oviri is a constant presence throughout Gauguin's work from the period and found form in all the media he used; paintings, drawings, ceramics and prints. This present sheet is an intriguing example of his working methods, showing his constant experimentation with the printing and inking of the block, enhancing the impression on the right with black ink, darkening the area surrounding the central figure so that it emerges dramatically from the background. On the reverse of the present sheet is an impression of Mahna No Varua Ino from the edition printed by Louis Roy in Paris in 1894. For reasons which are unclear Gauguin destroyed much of this edition and used the reverse of others to print several woodcuts from the period such as Le Pêcheur buvant auprès de sa Pirogue and Deux Maoris [Mongan, Kornfeld & Joachim nos. 33 and 40] in addition to the Oviri seen here. Gauguin continued his experiments with the block itself, entirely reworking it as Femme cueillant des fruits et Oviri (see lot 335) which was printed on Gauguin's second sojourn to Tahiti.
[1] E.C. Childs, S. Figura, H. Foster and E. Mosier, Gauguin: Metamorphoses, New York, 2014, p. 146.
The figure of Oviri is a constant presence throughout Gauguin's work from the period and found form in all the media he used; paintings, drawings, ceramics and prints. This present sheet is an intriguing example of his working methods, showing his constant experimentation with the printing and inking of the block, enhancing the impression on the right with black ink, darkening the area surrounding the central figure so that it emerges dramatically from the background. On the reverse of the present sheet is an impression of Mahna No Varua Ino from the edition printed by Louis Roy in Paris in 1894. For reasons which are unclear Gauguin destroyed much of this edition and used the reverse of others to print several woodcuts from the period such as Le Pêcheur buvant auprès de sa Pirogue and Deux Maoris [Mongan, Kornfeld & Joachim nos. 33 and 40] in addition to the Oviri seen here. Gauguin continued his experiments with the block itself, entirely reworking it as Femme cueillant des fruits et Oviri (see lot 335) which was printed on Gauguin's second sojourn to Tahiti.
[1] E.C. Childs, S. Figura, H. Foster and E. Mosier, Gauguin: Metamorphoses, New York, 2014, p. 146.