Les misères humaines

Details

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Les misères humaines
signed 'P. Gauguin' (lower right)
zincograph in red-brown, with hand-colouring in watercolour and bodycolour, 1889, on canary yellow wove paper, signed in ink lower right, Kornfeld's state Aa (of B), the unique impression, handcoloured by the artist.
11 x 8 7/8 in. (28 x 22.5 cm.)

Provenance

Collection Fayet, Paris.

Literature

E. Mongan, E. W. Kornfeld, and H. Joachim, Paul Gauguin: Catalogue raisonné of his prints, Bern, 1988, no. 11A, p. 36.

Exhibited

San Antonio, Texas, McNay Art Institute, Collector's Gallery, November-December 1976, no. W2.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven, 1986, no. G.8 (illustrated p. 56).
Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art; Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery; Montreal, Montreal Museum of Art; Memphis, Dixen Gallery and Gardens; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, Portland, Museum of Art, and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven, September 1994-January 1997, no. 7A.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Miseres humaines is the final plate from the so-called 'Volpini' album of dessins lithographique, printed by Edouard Ancart and published by Gauguin himself. It appears that one or two sets were hand-coloured by the artist, presumably as specific commissions. This example, formerly in the collection of Gustave Fayet, is almost certainly one such commission, and is the only impression known to Kornfeld.

While the other plates from the Volpini album refer to specific locales in which the artist had worked, namely Brittany, Arles and Martinique, Miseres humaines deals with a universal theme, namely the expulsion from Paradise and the subsequent misery. Presented as a contemporary couple, the looming figures fill the foreground while beyond the wall, an observer patrols.

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