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ART HISTORY 4450 Post-Impressionism: Gauguin
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) •
biography: – 1849: family emigrates to Peru; father dies on voyage – 1855: returns to FR – 1865-71: joins merchant marine & navy – 1872: pursues business career (stockbroker) – 1873: marries & moves to Denmark – 1883: quits career – 1885: abandons family of five in Copenhagen – 1886: travels to Pont Aven in Brittany (FR) – 1887: travels to Panama & Martinique – 1888: meets van Gogh; travels to Arles (FR) – 1891: emigrates to Tahiti – 1901: emigrates to Marquesas Islands
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training/affiliations: – 1874 after meeting Pissarro and viewing first Impressionist exhibition, became collector and amateur painter – 1888 meets Emile Bernard w/ whom he develops art movement Synthesism
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exhibition history: – shows in every Impressionist exhibition between 1879 and 1886 – Synthetism group exhibition (1889) Café Volpini (Paris) in conjunction w/ World’s Fair – major retrospective Salon d’Automne in Paris (1906)
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Synthetism (c. 1886-1890) •
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Pont-Aven: south coast of Brittany, FR – already artists' resort when G arrived – still unspoiled; cheaper to live in than Paris exhibition history: Cafe Volpini (Paris, 1889) – neither financial nor critical success aesthetic: urge to extend Impressionism – sought new expressive powers – personal (re: subjective) observation of nature – “sensations of the heart” – "art is an abstraction" to be derived "from nature while dreaming before it"“ – synthesis of form and color derived from observation of only dominant element” goal: purity of line, color, and form forms: simplified – two-dimensional flat patterns – strong dark contours compositions: see Degas – high-angle point of views – radical dynamic angles color: intense, unnatural color – places colors side-by-side, as advocated by Impressionism & Divisionism light/shadow: no indication of light source
Gauguin Vision After the Sermon; or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1888)
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Synthetism
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The Yellow Christ (1889) – – – –
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subject: religious (NT) perspective: linear & aerial composition: stable color: obviates use of light/shadow • vibrant & complimentary • unmodulated, large areas light/shadow: evenly distributed forms: abstracted figure: recalls Byzantine aesthetic • flattened sense of volume • simplified facial features • musculature abbreviated • limbs elongated
(Left) Gauguin’s Post-Impressionist Yellow Christ (c. 1890 CE) vs. (right) Middle Byzantine Crucifixion (c. 1000 CE)
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Gauguin •
Three Puppies (1888) –
context: living in Brittany
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inspiration: children's book illustrations •
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Japanese prints introduced to him by van Gogh that same year contour: puppies bodies outlined in bold blue patternization: puppies’ coats mirrors botanic print tablecloth composition: three distinct zones • still life of fruit in the foreground • row of three blue goblets and apples diagonally bisecting the canvas, • three puppies drinking from a large pan scale: incongruous placement of these objects on dramatically upturned tabletop disorienting composition
Gauguin in Arles (October – December 1888) •
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February 1888: VG journeys to Arles – desire to create new colony of artists – temperate climate of southern FR October 1888: G arrives from Brittany G critical of VG’s rapid execution – considers VG to be sloppy and overdependent on nature – G painted slowly and deliberately • thought through each portion of compositions • reworked until achieving total pictorial harmony & symbolic content violent disagreement – VG wildly threatened Gauguin w/ razor – same night, VG cut off part of own ear – although G left Arles, two remained in communication
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GAUGUIN’s “Arles” period Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers (1888)
(Left) Van Gogh’s Arles period Night Café (1888) vs. (right) Gauguin’s Arles period At the Café (1888)
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Gauguin in Tahiti: “Primitivism” (1891-1894; 1895-1901) •
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biography: financially destitute & frustrated by lack of recognition – to escape "everything that is artificial and conventional" 1891: premise for migration – "studio of the tropics“ – revival of his muse – ostensibly to paint illustrations for most popular novel of the day – held banquet for elite of literary and artistic world 1894-95: G returns to FR – expected hero's welcome; disappointed – paintings remained unsold – G wrote autobiographical account of his life in Tahiti, Noa Noa, in final attempt to spark public's interest – returns to Tahiti less than one year later September 1895: arrives back in Polynesia – riddled w/ disease and sores, symptoms of syphilis he would soon die from – sets up house w/ another fourteen year old who served as model for several paintings 1901: driven out of Tahiti – population tired of his sexual orgies, illegitimate children, alcohol, and drugs – set sail for Marqueses Islands – G’s paintings and sculptures thrown into sea
Gauguin Tahitian “Primitivist” period
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We Hail Thee, Mary (1891) – – – –
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theme: Madonna & Child allegory: Paradise meaning: invited to leave industrial & bourgeois society figures: indigenous Polynesians • inserted into Western theme • non-classical physiognomies perspective: planar & aerial composition: dynamic color: vibrant range of full spectrum light/shadow: role assumed by color decorativeness: • patterned clothing • flora & fruit
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Gauguin’s Tahitian “Primitivist” period Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892)
(Left) GAUGUIN’s Primitivist Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892) vs. VELAZQUEZ’s Spanish Baroque Venus at the Mirror (c. 1625)
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Tahiti “Primitivist” period
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Self Portrait (1893-94) –
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significance: prior to return to FR • instead of returning to family, chooses to live w/ fourteen yearold sent to him as present • penniless; young mistress impregnated in1893 gaze: askance form: outlined by thick, dark contour composition: dynamic color: vibrant; full range of spectrum light: ray dramatically divides composition shadow: assumed by role of color patternization: decorative motifs
Gauguin’s “Primitivist” period Day of the God; or “Mahana no Atua” (1894)
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Gauguin’s Tahitian “Primitivist” period The King’s Wife (1896)
(Left) GAUGUIN’s Tahitian “Primitivist” period The King’s Wife (1896) vs. (right) GIORGIONE’s Venetian Renaissance Venus Asleep (c. 1500)
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Gauguin’s Tahitian “Primitivist” period Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897) •
context: biographical – completed in Marquesas Islands shortly after failed suicide attempt (arsenic) – wrote in correspondence of his journey into mountains
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significance: G's ultimate masterpiece/“testament”
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setting: paradise of tropical beauty – little river running through woods among brilliant blue sea – misty mountains of another island rising beyond
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composition: conflated into three (3) narratives – center What are we? • does not refer to Garden/Eden • rather, humanity's innocent, natural desire to live and search for meaning – two women talking about destiny – man puzzled, half-aggressive – youth plucking fruit of experience – idol emblem of our need for spiritual – women curled up into shell – right Where do we come from? • baby and three young women • animals (e.g., goat, cat, and kittens) – left Where are we going? • beautiful young woman broods • old woman prepares to die • white bird G's symbol of afterlife or unknown
Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897)
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IMAGE INDEX •
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GAUGUIN, Paul. Self-Portrait (c. 1893-94), Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 15 in., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. GAUGUIN, Paul. Self-portrait with Halo (1889), Oil on wood, 31 3/8 x 20 3/8 in., National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. GAUGUIN, Paul. The Vision After the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1888), Oil on canvas, 28 ¾ x 36 ¼ in., National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. GAUGUIN, Paul. The Yellow Christ (1889), Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 28 7/8 in., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. (Left) GAUGUIN’s “Synthetist” period The Yellow Christ (1889); and (right) Middle Byzantine The Crucifixion (11th century AD). GAUGUIN, Paul. Still Life with Three Puppies (1888), Oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. GAUGUIN, Paul. Portrait of the Artist GAUGUIN, Paul. Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers (1888), Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 36 1/2 in., Private collection.
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(Left) VAN GOGH’s Night Café (1888), Oil on canvas, 70 x 89 cm., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; and (right) GAUGUIN’s At the Café (1888), Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 28 in., Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. GAUGUIN, Paul. Self-portrait. GAUGUIN. We Hail Thee Mary (1891), Oil on canvas, 44 ¾ x 34 ½ in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. GAUGUIN. Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892), Oil on burlap mounted on canvas, 28 ½ x 36 3/8 in., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. (Left) GAUGUIN’s Post-Impressionist Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892); and (right)VELAZQUEZ’s Spanish Baroque Venus at the Mirror (c. 1625). GAUGUIN, Paul. Self Portrait (1893-94), Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 15 in., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. GAUGUIN, Paul. Day of the God; or “Mahana no Atua” (1894), Oil on canvas, 26 7/8 x 36 in., The Art Institute of Chicago.
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GAUGUIN, Paul. The King's Wife (“Te arii vahine”) (1896), Oil on canvas, The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia. (Left) GAUGUIN’s Tahitian “Primitivist” period The King’s Wife (1896); and (right) GIORGIONE’s Venetian Renaissance Venus Asleep (c. 1500) GAUGUIN, Paul. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), Oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 147 ½ in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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