XV - Works On Paper - Marty de Cambiaire (English)

Paul Gauguin
Paris 1848 – Marquesas Islands 1903
34
Two Leopards and a Sleeping Tahitian Woman, recto; Profile Self Portrait with Studies of Two
Women in Breton Costume, verso
Watercolour and pen and brown ink (recto); black chalk, or graphite (verso)
Bears numbering in pencil top right: 46
178 x 273 mm (10 5 /8 x 7 in.)
PROVENANCE
Bears stamp P.G. (L. 2078) on recto and verso,
probably by Paco Francesco Durrio; probably then
with Leicester Gallery, London, 1931; according
to verbal information from the previous owner’s
family, the drawing was purchased by Mr T. Holden
Sr. from Mrs T. Holden, Portland, U.S.A. in 1959;
the Holden collection and thence by descent.
LITERATURE
Lee van Dovski (Walter Lewandowski), Gauguin.
The Truth, London 1961 (originally published in
Germany in 1959), p.190 (illustration of the verso,
the head in profile identified as a self-portrait).
Certificate from the Wildenstein Institute stating
that Guy Wildenstein and the Comité Gauguin
intend to include this drawing in the catalogue of
the work of Paul Gauguin.
EXHIBITED
Paris, Société du Salon d’Automne, October-
November 1906, probably in one of the ‘Trois
albums avec croquis’ listed as belonging to Paco
Durrio, after no. 155; probably London, Leicester
Gallery, An Exhibition of the Durrio Collection of
Works by Paul Gauguin, May-June 1931, perhaps
no. 37. ‘Feuilles d’études de figures et d’animaux,
watercolour and pen or no.57, Esquisses et projets
de tableaux, (drawing).
This rare and fascinating watercolour by Gauguin
is particularly important for its pictorial quality,
its subject matter and its beautiful colouring.
The sheet also offers an exceptional insight into
the way in which Gauguin used his drawings
and the importance of sketchbooks to his artistic
development.
The measurements of the present sheet (178 x 273
mm) along with the type of wove paper and the
PG stamps clearly identify this drawing as part of a
re-emerging group of pages from one of Gauguin’s
most fascinating sketchbooks. Other examples
are in The Art Institute of Chicago, Seated Tahitian
Woman (recto); sketches of roosters (verso) 1 , and the
Chrysler Museum of Art, Three Studies of Heads, 2
and another was exhibited by Jean-Luc Baroni,
Tahitian Woman with two partial studies of the
Entombment of Christ and of Reclining Christ 3 . A
further study of a Tahitian Woman Seated on the
Ground related with the Nave Nave Mahana (1896,
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon) has recently appeared
on sale 4 . All these sheets are to be included in the
forthcoming volume of Gauguin, catalogue raisonné
to be published by the Wildenstein Institute. The
sketchbook from whence the sheets are taken has
yet to be given a name.
The spectacular watercolour study on the recto
and the various sketches on the verso can all
be related to works and events belonging to the
period during and after 1888. Unravelling the
connections and dating of Gauguin’s sketchbooks
is often complicated because it is clear that he
did not work through the books consistently but
rather used more than one book at a time and
often returned to pages used earlier to elaborate on
sketched ideas.
To date, five bound sketchbooks have been
identified as Gauguin’s: one in the Stockholm
Nationalmuseum, one in the National Gallery
of Art, Washington, one in the Israel Museum,
Jerusalem, and two in the Louvre 5 . Seven unbound
sketchbooks have also been identified and it is
clear that this method of keeping visual notations
was central to Gauguin’s way of working and
constitutes a key and highly creative aspect of the
artist’s output.
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