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Lot Essay
Ondine (II), a vibrant work in pastel and gouache, reflects a significant moment in Gauguin's career. Related to the oil painting (Wildenstein 336) of the same title now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ondine (II) was likely begun as a preparatory drawing for the oil, and was subsequently revisited by the artist, who completed it as a work of art in its own right.
In Ondine (II), Gauguin sought to develop a personal decorative aesthetic through velvety, vibrant pastel tones and compositional abstraction of space and form. In Ondine (II), Gauguin is able to "achieve rich color effects" through his use of pastel and gouache in a new and innovative elongated format (V. Jirat-Wasiutynski, Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin, Cambridge, 2000, p. 150). While the treatment of the media is indicative of Gauguin's specific aesthetic aims, the subject of this work, the female nude, signifies a moment in Gauguin's career in which he sought to explore the symbolic potency of the female form.
Gauguin painted his first nude in 1880, Etude de nu, Suzanne Cousant (Wildenstein 39; Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen), and did not return to the subject again until 1887, just shortly before he painted the present work. The dramatic depiction of Ondine is indicative of Gauguin's growing affinity towards Symbolism and signals a shift from depicting traditional spatial relationships in painting to exploring the potential of abstract imagery and deliberately cropped planes. Gauguin likely cropped the present work to its present state to create greater spatial tension as the female nude falls into the breaking surf of a wave. The contoured outline of the upper torso and head of the woman delineates her sensuous figure from the vivid green of the ocean. Though the left arm is cropped, both arms are distinctly extended away from her body in an agitated gesture as she falls toward the waves. Her right hand, dramatically raised to her mouth, stifles a cry. With "her sexuality offered to the waves", the female, no longer the object of the male voyeur, flings herself into a dramatic embrace with nature (ibid., p. 142).
Throughout the 1880s, Gauguin's treatment of pastel reflected the Impressionist's use of cross-hatching and striking color contrasts to capture the dynamic effect of light. After witnessing Degas' profound treatment of the pastel medium at an early 1889 exhibition in Montmartre, Gauguin's interest in pastel was revitalized. This renewed attraction to the velvety and rich aesthetic quality of pastel is fundamental to the creation of Ondine (II) and especially evident in the intense cross-hatching in the right forearm of the figure. Executed on yellow wove paper, Ondine was reworked from an initial drawing with numerous applications of pastel and gouache to achieve a heavily layered satin, vibrant surface. Gauguin's artistic vigor contributed much to the visual potency of the image, "By juxtaposing electric reds and blues, contrasting warm light and cool shadow, he transformed the silhouette into a vibrant figure" (ibid., p. 153).
In Ondine (II), Gauguin sought to develop a personal decorative aesthetic through velvety, vibrant pastel tones and compositional abstraction of space and form. In Ondine (II), Gauguin is able to "achieve rich color effects" through his use of pastel and gouache in a new and innovative elongated format (V. Jirat-Wasiutynski, Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin, Cambridge, 2000, p. 150). While the treatment of the media is indicative of Gauguin's specific aesthetic aims, the subject of this work, the female nude, signifies a moment in Gauguin's career in which he sought to explore the symbolic potency of the female form.
Gauguin painted his first nude in 1880, Etude de nu, Suzanne Cousant (Wildenstein 39; Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen), and did not return to the subject again until 1887, just shortly before he painted the present work. The dramatic depiction of Ondine is indicative of Gauguin's growing affinity towards Symbolism and signals a shift from depicting traditional spatial relationships in painting to exploring the potential of abstract imagery and deliberately cropped planes. Gauguin likely cropped the present work to its present state to create greater spatial tension as the female nude falls into the breaking surf of a wave. The contoured outline of the upper torso and head of the woman delineates her sensuous figure from the vivid green of the ocean. Though the left arm is cropped, both arms are distinctly extended away from her body in an agitated gesture as she falls toward the waves. Her right hand, dramatically raised to her mouth, stifles a cry. With "her sexuality offered to the waves", the female, no longer the object of the male voyeur, flings herself into a dramatic embrace with nature (ibid., p. 142).
Throughout the 1880s, Gauguin's treatment of pastel reflected the Impressionist's use of cross-hatching and striking color contrasts to capture the dynamic effect of light. After witnessing Degas' profound treatment of the pastel medium at an early 1889 exhibition in Montmartre, Gauguin's interest in pastel was revitalized. This renewed attraction to the velvety and rich aesthetic quality of pastel is fundamental to the creation of Ondine (II) and especially evident in the intense cross-hatching in the right forearm of the figure. Executed on yellow wove paper, Ondine was reworked from an initial drawing with numerous applications of pastel and gouache to achieve a heavily layered satin, vibrant surface. Gauguin's artistic vigor contributed much to the visual potency of the image, "By juxtaposing electric reds and blues, contrasting warm light and cool shadow, he transformed the silhouette into a vibrant figure" (ibid., p. 153).