An artwork on Galleree from Cleveland Museum of Art.
About the artwork
Head of a Tahitian Woman1891
Paul Gauguin
Gauguin spent the first seven years of his life with his mother and great uncle in Peru. In 1855 his mother took him back to France where he attended boarding school. He joined the merchant marine when he was seventeen and began traveling around South America. When Gauguin's mother died in 1868, Gustave Arosa, an art collector and photographer, became his legal guardian. Arosa's collection included works by Corot (q.v.), Courbet (q.v.), Delacroix (q.v.), and the Barbizon painters, and it was he who would encourage Gauguin to start painting. In 1872 Arosa found a job for Gauguin at a brokerage firm, giving him financial security. The following year he married a Danish woman, Mette Gad. Gauguin had already started painting and sculpting in his spare time and first exhibited at the Salon in 1876 with a landscape.1 He was asked by Pissarro (q.v.) and Degas (q.v.) to participate in the fourth impressionist exhibition in 1879, where from then on he would exhibit regularly. Durand-Ruel began purchasing his paintings, and in turn Gauguin started to collect the works of his colleagues, such as Manet (q.v.) and Renoir (q.v.) and, in particular, Cézanne (q.v.) and Pissarro. He went to Pontoise in 1882, where he painted with Cézanne and Pissarro, who along with Degas continued to influence him at this period. In 1883 Gauguin decided to become a full-time artist. In 1884 he moved with his wife and children to Rouen and then to Copenhagen, but he failed to earn a comfortable living. He returned to Paris in 1886 and met ceramicist Ernest Chaplet (1835-1909), who introduced him to his métier. Gauguin distanced himself from impressionism and in 1888 worked in Pont-Aven with Émile Bernard (1868-1941), who had been experimenting with creating compositions using flat areas of color and dark outlines (cloissonism). Gauguin also studied Japanese prints and Indonesian art. The impact of these influences is evident in Gauguin's Vision after the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1888, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), so far removed from his earlier impressionist style. Succumbing to van Gogh's (q.v.) many requests, Gauguin agreed to travel to Arles and paint with the artist; their characters, however, proved incompatible. Theo van Gogh, who worked for Boussod Valadon & Cie, would in the meantime sell Gauguin's work. For the next two years, Gauguin traveled often around Brittany. In search of a more pure and unspoiled culture, he auctioned off his paintings in 1891 in order to finance a journey to Tahiti. Upon his arrival, he was disappointed to find many expatriates and developed areas, yet he was still able to capture in his works an uncultivated spirit. He not only made paintings but also created bold woodcuts and sculptures and was an avid writer. Gauguin returned to France in 1893, where he was given a solo exhibition by Durand-Ruel that was not particularly successful. He decided to leave Europe again in 1895, moving to Tahiti and later to Hivaoa, a more remote island in the Marquesas. Because he abandoned naturalistic colors and used formal distortions in order to achieve expressive compositions, Gauguin's work became an inspiration for many subsequent artists. 1. Possibly Wildenstein 1964, no. 12.
This drawing belongs to a group of highly finished portrait drawings of Tahitians made by Paul Gauguin shortly after his arrival in the South Seas. While getting used to this new place, Gauguin initially avoided painting, preferring first to familiarize himself with the landscape and people through observation and drawing. The meticulous quality of this graphite study suggests that it was made from life. The woman’s noble face and enigmatic expression allude to the spirituality and melancholy that Gauguin sought to conjure in his Polynesian work.
In his writings, Gauguin often referred to his drawings as "documents"—records of motifs and ideas he could use later.
graphite with stumping and graphite wash on parchment
Sheet: 30.5 x 24.4 cm (12 x 9 5/8 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection
In the serene embrace of the South Seas, a new world unfolded before the eyes of Paul Gauguin. It was here, in the vibrant heart of Tahiti, that his brush had not yet found its way to canvas. Instead, he turned to the simple elegance of a pencil and the blankness of paper, allowing himself to immerse fully in this exotic land, its lush landscapes, and its gentle people.
With each stroke, Gauguin captured the essence of those around him, breathing life into his drawings. One portrait, in particular, stands out—a study of a Tahitian woman whose noble visage and mysterious gaze seem to echo the very soul of her island. Her features, meticulously rendered in graphite, whisper stories of spirituality and longing, evoking a sense of melancholy that threaded through Gauguin’s artistic journey.
As he looked closely at her face, Gauguin may have felt a connection, a resonant bond that transcended language and culture. Each line he drew was a step closer to understanding the profound beauty of this unfamiliar land. In those moments of quiet observation, he was not just an artist but a seeker, yearning to uncover the depths of emotion hidden within the people and place around him.
This drawing, a fragment of that intimate endeavor, serves not just as a study of a woman’s face, but as a portal into the artist's longing for connection and inspiration. Through her enigmatic expression, we glimpse the first stirrings of the rich, colorful world that Gauguin would eventually bring to life on canvas, capturing the spirit of Tahiti in a way that would resonate for generations to come.
About the artist
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