The Art of Paul Gauguin. National Gallery of Art

546 Pages·2016·128.72 MB·English

by  Brettell R.

To the memory of Merete Bodelsen

The Art of Paul Gauguin
Richard Brettell Françoise Cachin Claire Frèches-Thory Charles F. Stuckey
with assistance from Peter Zegers
National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Art Institute of Chicago
This exhibition is made possible by AT&T
An indemnity for this exhibition has been Designed by Michael Glass Design, Inc.,
granted by the Federal Council on the Arts Chicago
and the Humanities.
Printed by Eastern Press, New Haven,
Connecticut, on Warren Lustro Offset
Enamel Dull
Exhibition dates:
Typeset by AnzoGraphics Computer
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Typographers, Chicago, in Basilia Haas
1 May -31 July 1988
The Art Institute of Chicago Cover: cat 143, Vahine no te vi (detail), 1892,
17 September -11 December 1988 The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Cone
Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and
Grand Palais, Paris Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
10 January - 20 April 1989
Frontispiece: cat. 24, Vase Decora tedwith
Breton Scenes, winter 1886-1887, Musées
Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels
Second printing
The hardcover edition of this book is published
Copyright ©1988. Board of Trustees, National
and distributed by New York Graphic Society
Gallon' of Art. All rights reserved. This book
Books.
may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in
any form (beyond that copying permitted by New York Graphic Society Books are published
Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law by Little, Brown and Company (Inc.).
and except by reviewers for the public press),
Published simultaneously in Canada by Little,
without written permission from the pub-
Brown & Company (Canada) Limited.
lishers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
lliis book was produced by the editors office,
Data
National Gallery of Art
The Art of Paul Gauguin.
Editor-in-chief, Frances P. Smyth
Catalog of an exhibition organized by the
Senior editor, Mary Yakush
National Gallery of Art.
Editors, Barbara Anderman and Bibliography: p.
Jane Sweeney Includes index.
1. Gauguin, Paul 1848-1903—Exhibitions.
Translations by Anthony Roberts, assisted by
I. Brettell, Richard, R. II. National Gallery of
Tilomas Bowie, Pamela Kaleugher, Mimi
Art (U.S.)
Kramer, Michèle Morris, Valerie Morris,
N6853.G34A4 1988 709'.2'4 88-5232
Deborah Goodman, Gloria Groom, and
ISBN 0-89468-112-5 softcover
Maria Prather
ISBN 0-8212-1723-2 hardcover
Library of Congress Number 88-81005
(hardcover)
Contents
vi
Lenders to the Exhibition
VIII Directors' Foreword
X Acknowledgments
XIII Note to the Reader
XV Gauguin Portrayed by Himself FRANÇOISE CACHIN
and by Others
2 Chronology: June 1848 - June 1886 ISABELLE CAHN
11 The Impressionist Years CHARLES F. STUCKEY
18 Catalogue Numbers 1-16 WITH PETER ZEGERS
44 Chronology: July 1886 - April 1891 ISABELLE CAHN
52 Brittany - The Ceramics - Martinique CLAIRE FRÈCHES-THORY
62 Catalogue Numbers 17-117
205 Chronology: April 1891 - July 1893 GLORIA GROOM
210 The First Tahitian Years CHARLES F. STUCKEY
218 Catalogue Numbers 118-158 WITH PETER ZEGERS
291 Chronology: August 1893 - June 1895 GLORIA GROOM
297 The Return to France RICHARD BRETTELL
304 Catalogue Numbers 159-214 WITH PETER ZEGERS
379 Chronology: July 1895 - November 1903 GLORIA GROOM
389 The Final Years: Tahiti and Hivaoa RICHARD BRETTELL
398 Catalogue Numbers 215-280 WITH PETER ZEGERS
495 Bibliography MARLA PRATHER
508 List of Exhibitions
513 Writings by Paul Gauguin
515 Index of Titles
Lenders to the Exhibition
Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Walter H. Annenberg
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
The Art Institute of Chicago
Monsieur Jean-Pierre Bacou
Mile Roseline Bacou
The Baltimore Museum of Art
Anne Desloge Bates
Bayerische Staatsgemàldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek,
Munich
Annick and Pierre Berès Collection
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Berman
Bibliothèque dArt et dArchéologie (Fondation Jacques
Doucet), Paris
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Edward McCormick Blair
The Trustees of the British Museum, London
British Rail Pension Fund Collection, London
The Brooklyn Museum
Foundation E. G. Biihrle Collection, Zurich
Carrick Hill Collection, South Australia
The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown,
Massachusetts
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Courtauld Institute Galleries (Courtauld Collection),
London
Dallas Museum of Art
Des Moines Art Center
Mrs. Robert B. Eichholz
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field
Collection Fujikawa Gallery, Tokyo
Dr. and Mrs. Martin L. Gecht
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna
Hamburger Kunsthalle
Marcia Riklis Hirschfeld
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington
Indianapolis Museum of Art
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
VI
Josefowitz Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Cynthia Warrick Keniper Trust National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa/Musée des Beaux-
Mr. and Mrs. David Lloyd Kreeger Arts du Canada, Ottawa
Kunsthaus Zurich, Vereinigung Zurcher Kunstfreunde The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Museums Service Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Lande Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Private collection of Joshua I. Latner Oeffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kupferstichkabinett
Courtesy of the Lefevre Gallery, London Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan
Monsieur Marcel Lejeune The Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen
Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo William S. Paley
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, Inc.
Neil A. McConnell Philadelphia Museum of Art
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon The Phillips Collection, Washington
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Phillips Family Collection
Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens, Paris Dr. Ivo Pitanguy
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris Private collections
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans Mr. and Mrs. Alexander E. Racolin
Musée Gauguin, Tahiti Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh (Vincent van Gogh
Musée de Grenoble Foundation), Amsterdam
Musée Léon Dierx, Saint-Denis Mrs. Arthur M. Sackler
Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques, The Saint Louis Art Museum
Paris Mrs. Francisca Santos
Musée d'Orsay, Paris Mr. and Mrs. Herbert D. Schimmel
Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva Dr. h. c. Max Schmidheiny
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris Lucille Ellis Simon
Musée Saint-Denis Sam Spiegel Collection
Musées Royaux dArt et d'Histoire, Brussels Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires Rudolf Staechelin Family Foundation
Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad
Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Toledo Museum of Art
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Fondation Dina Vierny, Paris
Museum Folkwang, Essen Uno Wallman
The Museum of Modern Art, New York Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne
Národní galerie v Praze, Prague Mr. and Mrs. Edward M. M. Warburg
Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo John C. Whitehead
Nassau County Museum (Museum Services Division, The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester,
Department of Recreationand Parks), Syosset England
The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
VII
Directors' Foreword
Five years ago, there were at least three separate exhibitions devoted to Paul
Gauguin in the planning stages. The Art Institute of Chicago was discussing a
definitive exhibition of the prints of Paul Gauguin; the Musée d'Orsay had
launched a major investigation to result in an exhibition of the Pont-Aven school,
an exhibition to be dominated by the work created by Gauguin in Brittany; and
the National Gallery of Art, while planning a focused Gauguin retrospective, had
come across other plans for an exhibition of Gauguin's Tahiti works. When these
diverse and virtually simultaneous projects were discussed, it was resolved to
suspend all previous plans and to join forces in creating The Art of Paul Gauguin.
The aim of this new exhibition was to study the \vhole of Gauguin's oeuvre,
in all media, and to address his actual working methods, rather than to dwell on
the often discussed symbolism of his most famous works. We have been fortunate
to have had the generous support of AT&T since 1986, and we are pleased that, in
France, the exhibition is supported by AT&T's close corporate ally, Olivetti.
The resulting exhibition is a collaboration among three museums whose
combined collections of that artist's work, as the nucleus of the show7, are already
comprehensive. From the select and important masterpieces of painting and
sculpture in the National Gallery, Washington, to the rich holdings of prints and
drawings at The Art Institute of Chicago, to the immense, almost encyclopedic
reserves of the Musée d'Orsay, all aspects of Gauguin's oeuvre are represented in
abundance.
Our conservators and curators have examined the paintings in the three
collections using all the techniques available to the modern scientist. Con-
servators, students, and teachers at the Art Institute have worked to "recreate"
certain of the puzzling transfer drawings by Gauguin so that his idiosyncratic
techniques can be understood by example. All three institutions' libraries and
documentation centers have assembled rare books, articles, archival material,
photographs, and manuscripts to provide a sound scholarly basis for our observa-
tions.
Building on this foundation, our exhibition's curators have traveled
throughout the world to examine Gauguin's works and have, in so doing, attempted
to rethink the canon of often-reproduced paintings so familiar to students of
modern art. Although they have made every effort to search out important paint-
ings, they have not neglected the poi bowls, ornamental ceramic vessels, door-
frames, printed pieces of tissue paper, transfer watercolors, irregularly shaped
drawings, or manuscript drafts of texts. As a result, The Art of Paul Gauguin
celebrates an artistic achievement of considerable complexity.
There is another motivation behind the title. We have chosen "the art" not
merely in preference to "the painting" of Paul Gauguin, but also to underscore our
opposition to an exhibition centering on the artist's life. Although the catalogue
contains a thoroughly documented chronology, the exhibition stresses his produc-
tion as an artist rather than the exotic, troubled, and fascinating life that has
attained almost mythological proportions and is better left to biography and film.
The ultimate aim of the exhibition is to inaugurate a new era in the public
and scholarly appreciation of Gauguin's art. Many of the works of art included
have been reinterpreted, redated, and retitled. Each of the authors has sought not
only to summarize the existing literature, but also to reassess the object and its
VIII
context. In many cases, new questions are raised, the answers for which will come
only in the future.
The exhibition has been made possible by a combination of private and
public support. At AT&T, we would like in particular to thank Marilyn Laurie,
senior vice president, public relations; R. Z. Manna, corporate advertising man-
ager; and Jacquelyn R. Byrne, district manager, corporate advertising. At Olivetti,
the help of Paolo Viti is warmly appreciated. For the support of the documentary
film that accompanies the exhibition, we are grateful again to AT&T, and to the
Florence Gould Foundation. An indemnity granted by the Federal Council on the
Arts and the Humanities represents a major contribution from the public sector.
Our other collaborators and colleagues are so numerous that we have
given them a separate section of acknowledgments. The lion's share of credit for
the exhibition must go to the curators of our three institutions who have put it
together: Françoise Cachin and Claire Frèches-Thory in Paris; Richard Brettell in
Chicago, now director of the Dallas Museum of Art; and Charles F. Stuckey in
Washington, and more recently in Chicago, have selected the objects and have
been responsible for writing the catalogue.
It is, of course, to our lenders, listed on pages VI-VII, to whom we owe our
deepest gratitude. In particular we would like to thank our sister institutions in
the Soviet Union, the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad and the Pushkin
State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. It has long been known that the Soviet
collections of Gauguin's paintings are the greatest in the world, yet no major
exhibition since 1906 of Gauguin's work has included a single painting from these
collections. It is, therefore, with immense gratitude that we thank our Soviet col-
leagues for their generous loans, without which The Art of Paul Gauguin would
scarcely have been conceivable. We are happy to think that they too will be
celebrating the work of Gauguin after this exhibition concludes.
J. Carter Brown
National Gallery of Art, Washington
James N. Wood
The Art Institute of Chicago
Olivier Chevrillon
Musées de France
IX