Paul Gauguin

Sale: Georges Petit, Paris, December 1-3, 1919, lot 113
Alden Brooks, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the above on March 2, 1920)
Nunès & Fiquet, Paris (acquired from the above on April 20, 1921)
Sale: Georges Petit, Paris, May 30-31, 1927, lot 33
Galerie L Dru, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Dr. Alfred Gold, Paris (acquired circa 1934)
Etienne Bignou, Paris and New York in partnership with Reid & Lefevre, London (circa 1938)
Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill, London
F.L.D. Strengholt, Pays-Bas (circa 1948)
Erven Strengholt
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence T. Porter, Saint Andrews East, Canada (acquired in 1952 and sold: Christie's, London, July 5, 1963, lot 57)
Mrs. Matthews (purchased at the above sale)
Private Collection, Montreal (1964)
By descent from the above to the present owner

Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Gauguin et ses amis, 1934, no. 50
New York, Bignou Gallery, A Selection of 19th and 20th Century Paintings, 1939, no. 9
Amsterdam, Van Wisselingh, Peinture francaise du XIXe siècle, 1948, no. 14
Montréal, Museum of Fine Arts, Canada Collects. European Painting, 1960, no. 174, illustrated in the catalogue
Ottawa, National Gallery, Corot to Picasso, 1962

Maurice Malingue, Gauguin, le Peintre et son oeuvre, Paris, 1948, illustrated no. 121
Lee van Dovski, Gauguin, 1950, no. 119, p. 342
Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin, Paris, 1964, vol. I, no. 267, illustrated p. 99
Daniel Wildenstein, Gauguin, Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint (1873-1888), Paris, 2001, vol. II, no. 277, illustrated in colour p. 386 and in its original state p. 387

Gauguin was already thoroughly familiar with the landscape of Brittany when he painted Le Saule au bord de l’Aven in 1888.  In fact, Brittany had interested painters since the 1860s, attracted by the picturesque costumes and customs of the peasants. Looking beneath the superficial exoticism, however, Gauguin identified qualities that were to be of far more importance to him.  In a famous letter to his friend Schuffenecker, Gauguin wrote, "I love Brittany which I find savage and primitive.  When my clogs ring on the granite ground I hear the dull and powerful sound that I am looking for in painting" (Victor Merles (ed.), Correspondance de Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1984, letter 141, p. 172).

After spending several months in Martinique in the summer of 1887, where he began using a more brilliant palette in order to capture the strong light and luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, Gauguin returned to Pont-Aven in January 1888.  Responding to the rugged landscape of the area, so different from the countryside of Pontoise and Normandy where he had painted in previous years, Gauguin began to relinquish his orthodox Impressionist style in a series of canvases of great originality.

In the present work Gauguin matched the vertiginous views typical of the Brittany landscape with plunging perspectives derived from Japanese prints.  The dominating tree in the foreground undoubtedly derives from Japanese prints, particularly those of Hiroshige, which were a strong source of inspiration for the Impressionists at the time.  La Saule au bord de l’Aven can be seen as an important transition from the still existing Impressionist influence of Pissarro’s style on Gauguin and the beginning departure to a more progressive composition and use of colors that is to develop in his oeuvre during the course of 1888.