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Lot Essay
When Gauguin returned to France in August 1893 from his first sojourn in Tahiti, he was confident that the paintings and sculptures he had done there would be well received. While garnering some positive reviews, however, a one-man show of his work in November at Durand-Ruel was not a financial success. He was unable to persuade his wife Mette and their family to join him in Paris, and her requests for money grew more insistent. In April 1894 Gauguin left Paris with his new mistress, a teenaged native of Ceylon known as Annah la Javanaise, for his old haunts at Le Pouldu and Pont-Aven in Brittany, where he hoped that fewer distractions would enable him to paint.
Unfortunately in early May Gauguin and some his friends got into a brawl with some sailors in Concarneau, and Gauguin's leg was fractured, leaving him in great pain, for which morphine and drink provided scant relief. Unable to paint, he made watercolors and woodcuts, and considered the idea of making ceramics, as he done when he lived in Brittany before his departure for Tahiti. Although Gauguin carved numerous wood sculptures in Tahiti, he made no ceramics there; Tahiti had no pottery works and the islands even lacked suitable clay for firing.
Following the trial of his assailants, and an unsuccessful suit to reclaim some Breton paintings from his landlady in Le Pouldu, Gauguin returned to Paris in November 1894. In the following month he renewed his association with Ernest Chaplet, a master ceramicist who had guided his efforts since 1886 and allowed the artist to work in his studio. Following the introduction of Japanese ceramics into France during the Paris Exposition of 1878, Chaplet had pioneered the resurgence of artistic interest in stoneware, which in Europe had been traditionally used only for utilitarian objects such as jugs and jars.
Gauguin made only a handful of stoneware sculptures while in Paris, including the Square Vase with Tahitian Gods, the famous Oviri, his masterpiece in this medium (Gray, nos. 113 and 115, respectively), and the present work. Gray notes that two examples exist of the present work, and there are three identical versions of the Square Vase; he suggests that Gauguin may have utilized molds in making them, which reflects his likely intent to make the sale of these works a means of augmenting his income. The other example of this pot, which carries an inscription bearing Chaplet's name on the underside, appears in Gray's illustration to have a thick, light-colored glaze, whereas the present work retains the coarse and darkly expressive surface more typical of Gauguin's stoneware sculptures.
The grotesque head in the present work is related to Oviri. The word simply means "wild" or "savage" in Tahitian, and is a term that Gauguin often used when referring to himself. "I am a savage," he wrote to his friend Charles Morice, "and civilized people sense the fact." (quoted in R. Bretell and P. Zeghers, "Return to France," The Art of Paul Gauguin, exh. cat., The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1988, p. 372). The conception of Oviri in the full-length sculpture of that name is that of a Kali-like goddess of death with a wolf-cub crouching at her feet. In the present sculpture the aspect of the face is masculine and self-referential, and is related to the fetish skulls of the South Seas islands. Indeed, this face recalls, as Gray has noted, the Jar in the Form of a Grotesque Head (Gray, no. 66; coll. Musée du Louvre), that Gauguin executed before he left for Tahiti and in which caricatures himself. Both share the mocking gesture of the hand lifted to the chin with the thumb placed in the side of the mouth.
Such a gesture may reflect Gauguin's frustration at trying to promote his work in Paris. He had already resolved to return to Polynesia. In September 1894 the artist wrote to his friend Willam Moland: "All these misfortunes in succession, the difficulty of gaining my livelihood regularly in spite of my reputation...Nothing will stop me from leaving and it will be forever. How stupid an existence the European life is" (quoted in C. Gray, op. cit., p. 66). Gauguin sailed from Marseilles in July 1895, and true to his promise, never returned.
Unfortunately in early May Gauguin and some his friends got into a brawl with some sailors in Concarneau, and Gauguin's leg was fractured, leaving him in great pain, for which morphine and drink provided scant relief. Unable to paint, he made watercolors and woodcuts, and considered the idea of making ceramics, as he done when he lived in Brittany before his departure for Tahiti. Although Gauguin carved numerous wood sculptures in Tahiti, he made no ceramics there; Tahiti had no pottery works and the islands even lacked suitable clay for firing.
Following the trial of his assailants, and an unsuccessful suit to reclaim some Breton paintings from his landlady in Le Pouldu, Gauguin returned to Paris in November 1894. In the following month he renewed his association with Ernest Chaplet, a master ceramicist who had guided his efforts since 1886 and allowed the artist to work in his studio. Following the introduction of Japanese ceramics into France during the Paris Exposition of 1878, Chaplet had pioneered the resurgence of artistic interest in stoneware, which in Europe had been traditionally used only for utilitarian objects such as jugs and jars.
Gauguin made only a handful of stoneware sculptures while in Paris, including the Square Vase with Tahitian Gods, the famous Oviri, his masterpiece in this medium (Gray, nos. 113 and 115, respectively), and the present work. Gray notes that two examples exist of the present work, and there are three identical versions of the Square Vase; he suggests that Gauguin may have utilized molds in making them, which reflects his likely intent to make the sale of these works a means of augmenting his income. The other example of this pot, which carries an inscription bearing Chaplet's name on the underside, appears in Gray's illustration to have a thick, light-colored glaze, whereas the present work retains the coarse and darkly expressive surface more typical of Gauguin's stoneware sculptures.
The grotesque head in the present work is related to Oviri. The word simply means "wild" or "savage" in Tahitian, and is a term that Gauguin often used when referring to himself. "I am a savage," he wrote to his friend Charles Morice, "and civilized people sense the fact." (quoted in R. Bretell and P. Zeghers, "Return to France," The Art of Paul Gauguin, exh. cat., The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1988, p. 372). The conception of Oviri in the full-length sculpture of that name is that of a Kali-like goddess of death with a wolf-cub crouching at her feet. In the present sculpture the aspect of the face is masculine and self-referential, and is related to the fetish skulls of the South Seas islands. Indeed, this face recalls, as Gray has noted, the Jar in the Form of a Grotesque Head (Gray, no. 66; coll. Musée du Louvre), that Gauguin executed before he left for Tahiti and in which caricatures himself. Both share the mocking gesture of the hand lifted to the chin with the thumb placed in the side of the mouth.
Such a gesture may reflect Gauguin's frustration at trying to promote his work in Paris. He had already resolved to return to Polynesia. In September 1894 the artist wrote to his friend Willam Moland: "All these misfortunes in succession, the difficulty of gaining my livelihood regularly in spite of my reputation...Nothing will stop me from leaving and it will be forever. How stupid an existence the European life is" (quoted in C. Gray, op. cit., p. 66). Gauguin sailed from Marseilles in July 1895, and true to his promise, never returned.