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Lot Essay
The present work, a portrait of the artist's wife, was painted shortly after their marriage in November 1874. It is the first painting that is recognised by their son to be faithful to Mette's silhouette and light hair and is amongst the few made of her, as it seems that the young woman was not keen to pose for her husband very often. Indeed, for that reason and perhaps because she had just given birth, most of the portraits Gauguin made of her during that period usually depicted her in her sleep (see D. Wildenstein, Gauguin, Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint (1873-1888), vol. I, Paris, 2001, p. 24).
Mette was from a bourgeois Danish family and was known to have a very strong personality. The originality of her character, as well as the fact that she was responsible, strong willed and independent, clearly attracted Gauguin from the very beginning. She reminded the artist of the qualities he admired in both his grandmother and mother and which corresponded closely to his feminine ideal.
When Gauguin painted this work the couple's first child, Emil, had just been born and, as a result, they had moved from their appartment in the Place St. Georges to 54 rue de Chaillot near the Etoile, which is where the present scene was executed. The quality of the light, the nudity of the walls and the canvas left on the ground would suggest that the artist had perhaps established his studio there.
Gauguin gave this painting, as well as five other works, to a jeweller in Rouen (who like him had a Danish wife) before he left for Denmark in November 1884. It was almost ten years before he painted another work of his wife.
Mette was from a bourgeois Danish family and was known to have a very strong personality. The originality of her character, as well as the fact that she was responsible, strong willed and independent, clearly attracted Gauguin from the very beginning. She reminded the artist of the qualities he admired in both his grandmother and mother and which corresponded closely to his feminine ideal.
When Gauguin painted this work the couple's first child, Emil, had just been born and, as a result, they had moved from their appartment in the Place St. Georges to 54 rue de Chaillot near the Etoile, which is where the present scene was executed. The quality of the light, the nudity of the walls and the canvas left on the ground would suggest that the artist had perhaps established his studio there.
Gauguin gave this painting, as well as five other works, to a jeweller in Rouen (who like him had a Danish wife) before he left for Denmark in November 1884. It was almost ten years before he painted another work of his wife.