Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) , La petite Parisienne

Sale 9088

Impressionist and 19th Century Art (Evening Sale)

New York

|

12 May 1999

Browse Sale

Lot 12

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

La petite Parisienne

Price realised

USD 288,500

Estimate

USD 250,000 - USD 350,000

Follow lot

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Gauguin, P.
La petite Parisienne
tropical laurel (Terminalia), stained red and black
Height: 9 in. (24.1 cm.)
Carved circa 1880

Provenance

Mette Gauguin, Copenhagen.
Karl Ernst Osthaus, Essen.
Graphisches Kabinett (Gnter Franke), Munich.
Mr. and Mrs. Edward M.M. Warburg, New York (acquired from the above, 1931).
Acquired from the above by the present owner.
Contact us
Contact Client Service

info@christies.com

New York +1 212 636 2000

London +44 (0)20 7839 9060

infoasia@christies.com

Asia +852 2760 1766
Literature and exhibited

Literature

H. Trianon, "Sixime exposition de peinture par un groupe d'artistes, 35 boulevard des Capucines," Le Contitutionnel, 24 April 1881.
J.-K. Huysmans, L'art moderne, Paris, 1908, p. 267.
C. Morice, Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1919, p. 62.
J.-K. Huysmans, Oeuvres Completes VI, Paris, 1929, pp. 265-266.
Art Lover Library, New York, 1930, vol. III, pp. 24-25 (illustrated).
C. Gray, Sculpture and Ceramics of Paul Gauguin, Baltimore, 1963, pp. 2-3, 112-113, no. 4-I (illustrated, p. 112).
M. Bodelsen, "Gauguin Studies," Burlington Magazine, vol. CIX, April 1967, pp. 225-226.
T. Reff, Degas: The Artist's Mind, New York, 1976, pp. 261-264 (terracotta version illustrated, p. 261).
C. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Princeton, 1976, pp. 80-81 (illustrated, pl. 35).
F.E. Wissman, "The Sixth Exhibition 1881, Realists among the Impressionists," The New Paintings, Impressionism, 1874-1886, exh. cat., Geneva, 1986, pp. 342-343 (illustrated in color, p. 343).

Exhibited

Paris, 35 boulevard des Capucines, La 6me Exposition de Peinture par Mlle. Mary Cassatt, MM. Degas, Forain, MM. Gauguin, Guillaumin, Mme Berthe Morisot, MM. Pissarro, Raffalli, Rouart, Tillot, Eug. Vidal, Vignon, Zandomeneghi [Les Impressionistes], April-May 1881, no. 39 (as Dame en Promenande).
Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Opening Exhibition, February-March 1934, no. 42.
New York, Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), Sculpture by Painters, October-November 1939, no. 15 (as Standing Woman).
Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, Sculpture by Painters, January 1940, no. 12.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, summer 1953.
New York, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin, for the Benefit of The Citizens' Committe for Children of New York City, Inc., April-May 1956, no. 59 (as Standing Woman, La Parisienne; incorrectly dated circa 1892).
New York, The Jewish Museum, 10th Anniversary Collectors' Exhibition, May-June 1957.
Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, summer 1957.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward M.M. Warburg, June-August 1958.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gauguin, March-May 1959, p. 72, no. 116.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Works from the Collection of Mr. Edward M.M. Warburg, summer 1959.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Fogg Art Museum, summer 1961.
Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan, Museum of Art, The Crisis of Impressionism 1878-1882, November 1979-January 1980, p. 112, no. 23 (illustrated, p. 113).
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Chicago, The Art Institute, and Paris, Grand Palais, The Art of Paul Gauguin, May 1988-April 1989, pp. 25-26, no. 6 (illustrated in color, p. 25).
Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Gauguin, June-November 1998, no. 8 (illustrated; as Dame en promenade).

Lot Essay

In 1877, assisted by Bouillot, Gauguin made what is considered his first sculpture -- a marble bust of Gauguin's wife, Mette. A few years later, he turned his attention to wood, the material that would characterize his sculpture for the rest of his career.

Gauguin was soon drawn to the less refined, more modern work of Degas and began to change his subject matter from formal portraiture to Parisian cabaret and street characters. La petite Parisienne makes reference to Degas and in particular to a charcoal and pastel drawing, Project for Portraits in a Frieze (fig. 1), which he would have known from the 1979 Impressionist exhibition. Christopher Gray describes another aspect of the work:

"Though the statuette has all the elegance of a Parisienne, which the artist intended to express, there is also another quality appearing that was to play an important part in Gauguin's later sculpture and ceramics. As a painter, Gauguin was developing a profound feeling for what he regarded as the essential materials of the painter's craft, color and line, which he tended to liberate from the too severe strictures of naturalistic representation in order to allow them to have an esthetic (sic.) expressiveness of their own. In the same manner, when Gauguin worked in wood and potter's clay, he expressed the craftsman's innate love and respect for the qualities of his material. In his work in wood he began to react esthetically to both the quality of the chisel cut and the fiberous (sic.) grain of the wood, allowing both to play their part in the expression of the figure (C. Gray, op. cit., p. 3).

Gauguin exhibited La petite Parisienne in the 1881 Impressionist exhibition, shown under the title Dame en promenade. The contemporary critic J.K. Huysmans described the work as "gothically modern". Ultimately Huysmans was one of the few critics sympathetic to the artist's breakthrough, who, like Degas and Seurat, perceived the innovative nature of this work. It is also noteworthy that the rigid pose of the present work influenced Seurat's upright figure drawings made the following year.

(fig. 1) Edgar Degas, Portraits in Frieze for Decoration of an Apartment, circa 1879.
Location Unknown.

(fig. 2) Camille Pissarro, Sketch of Gauguin carving, circa 1880-1883.
The National Gallery, Stockholm.
Recommended features
- Let’s talk about Noguchi — a conversation between Christie’s Michael Jefferson and Dakin Hart of the Noguchi Foundation
  
  The senior curator of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum on Noguchi’s work in relation to light, physics and Futurism
- Boucheron: a collector’s guide
  
  The jeweller Frédéric Boucheron opened his first shop in the arcades of the Palais Royal, Paris; more than 160 years later, the maison he founded is a world leader

Lot 12

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

La petite Parisienne

Recommended features

Let’s talk about Noguchi — a conversation between Christie’s Michael Jefferson and Dakin Hart of the Noguchi Foundation

Boucheron: a collector’s guide