Lot Essay
The series of watercolour monotypes of 1894 of Tahitian images were created by Gauguin on his return to France, following his first Tahitian voyage. During a period of confinement following an accident he recaptured the soft and idyllic atmosphere of the island with these experimental works in watercolour.
Richard Field notes that for the most part Gauguin's method was simply to draw a design on a sheet of paper and press this against a sheet of soft Japan which would absorb the wet colours and diffuse them across the paper to create a pale and dream-like image. With some of the so-called 'monotypes' he appears simply to have laid a thin sheet on top of the watercolour to allow the colours to be seen through the misty veil of the paper.
Many of the 1894 monotypes come in pairs, and the present work (unrecorded in Field) is closely related to Scène Tahitienne (Tahitian Landscape with a Dog) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, Bequest of Mme. Veuve Thadée Natanson (R.F. 30256; Field 4), as well as to another now lost monotype Tahitian Landscape (Field 34).
The prototype for these works is the Tahitian Landscape of 1892 in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (Gauguin, F. Cachin et al., 1989, Paris, no. 136). They may also have been made in loose connection to the Noa Noa manuscript which the artist was preparing at the time.
Gauguin mounted an exhibition of monotypes and woodcuts in his studio in December 1894. Several of the monotypes of this date are dedicated to his closest friends and fellow artists including Roderick O'Conner, Robert Bevan, Edgar Degas, Aristide Maillol, Alexis Rouart and others.
Richard Field notes that for the most part Gauguin's method was simply to draw a design on a sheet of paper and press this against a sheet of soft Japan which would absorb the wet colours and diffuse them across the paper to create a pale and dream-like image. With some of the so-called 'monotypes' he appears simply to have laid a thin sheet on top of the watercolour to allow the colours to be seen through the misty veil of the paper.
Many of the 1894 monotypes come in pairs, and the present work (unrecorded in Field) is closely related to Scène Tahitienne (Tahitian Landscape with a Dog) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, Bequest of Mme. Veuve Thadée Natanson (R.F. 30256; Field 4), as well as to another now lost monotype Tahitian Landscape (Field 34).
The prototype for these works is the Tahitian Landscape of 1892 in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (Gauguin, F. Cachin et al., 1989, Paris, no. 136). They may also have been made in loose connection to the Noa Noa manuscript which the artist was preparing at the time.
Gauguin mounted an exhibition of monotypes and woodcuts in his studio in December 1894. Several of the monotypes of this date are dedicated to his closest friends and fellow artists including Roderick O'Conner, Robert Bevan, Edgar Degas, Aristide Maillol, Alexis Rouart and others.