拍品专文
This work will be included in the forthcoming Paul Gauguin catalogue critique currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.
Portraits of children are rare in Gauguin's oeuvre; there are only fifteen recorded pictures in which Gauguin portrayed his own children, the most intimate of which were painted in the early 1880s. The most magical works from this period show the young children sleeping. Gauguin was said to be visibly touched by the sight of his children 'disarmed by sleep and lost in their dreams' (Sylvie Crussard in Wildenstein, Gauguin, Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint, vol. I, 2001, p. 86). La petit rêve (fig. 1, Wildenstein, 2001, no. 75), a painting of his daughter, Aline (b. 1877), aged three and a half, bears great similarity in its sentimental feeling to the present work even down to the child's short haircut, which was not always typical for European children at this time, boy or girl, but according to Crussard, Aline had her hair cut boyishly short due to some problems with her hair.
His son Clovis (b. 1879) on the other hand is known in Gauguin's portraits for his long flowing golden locks, as he is depicted in Clovis endormi (fig. 2, Wildenstein, 2001, no. 151) slumbering next to a large antique Norwegian tankard. Though the identity of the child in the present work is not confirmed, one could note here the familial resemblance in the profile of the two sleeping infants. Undoubtedly, these portraits are packed with a deeply personal significance, and represent the most intimate and involved period of Gauguin's life as a father.
Portraits of children are rare in Gauguin's oeuvre; there are only fifteen recorded pictures in which Gauguin portrayed his own children, the most intimate of which were painted in the early 1880s. The most magical works from this period show the young children sleeping. Gauguin was said to be visibly touched by the sight of his children 'disarmed by sleep and lost in their dreams' (Sylvie Crussard in Wildenstein, Gauguin, Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint, vol. I, 2001, p. 86). La petit rêve (fig. 1, Wildenstein, 2001, no. 75), a painting of his daughter, Aline (b. 1877), aged three and a half, bears great similarity in its sentimental feeling to the present work even down to the child's short haircut, which was not always typical for European children at this time, boy or girl, but according to Crussard, Aline had her hair cut boyishly short due to some problems with her hair.
His son Clovis (b. 1879) on the other hand is known in Gauguin's portraits for his long flowing golden locks, as he is depicted in Clovis endormi (fig. 2, Wildenstein, 2001, no. 151) slumbering next to a large antique Norwegian tankard. Though the identity of the child in the present work is not confirmed, one could note here the familial resemblance in the profile of the two sleeping infants. Undoubtedly, these portraits are packed with a deeply personal significance, and represent the most intimate and involved period of Gauguin's life as a father.