Paul Gauguin

Emile Compard, Paris (acquired in 1927 from a friend of Félix Fénéon)
Sale: Palais Galliera, Paris, 23rd November 1965, lot 185
M. Milhaud, France
Private Collection, The Netherlands

Georges Wildenstein, Paul Gauguin, Catalogue critique, Paris, 1964, vol. I, no. 279 bis, illustrated p. 104

The canvas is not lined. There are 3 small dots of retouching towards the centre of the upper edge and a 3 by 2mm. area of old retouching in the lower right quadrant, all visible under ultra-violet light. This work is in good condition. Colours: overall fairly accurate, although slightly warmer and softer in the original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Gauguin began his career as a painter at a time when the academism of the past was quickly being overturned in favour of revolutionary new styles, notably Impressionism. A great friend of Pissarro, Gauguin's first works were very much in the vein of this new Impressionist style, with a large emphasis placed on how to render light and shadow through colour. However, when Gauguin arrived at the Auberge Gloanac in Pont-Aven, Brittany for a stay in 1888, his art began to evolve drastically. Brittany was far behind the important urban revolution that was taking place in much of Europe, and still retained a primitive, provincial and spiritual religious piety that greatly appealed to the artist. As he stated in a letter to Schuffenecker in 1888: "I love Brittany, I find wild, primitive things there and when my footfalls ring on this granite earth, I hear the sound of something flat, muted and powerful that I've been looking for in my painting" (quoted in Françoise Cachin, Gauguin, "Ce malgré moi de sauvage" , Paris, 1989, p. 37).

Surrounded by new friends such as Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier and Emile Bernard, and new influences such as Japanese prints, medieval stained-glass windows, and the etchings in farmer's almanacs, Gauguin's art began rapidly evolving towards the Synthetism that he is known for above all else. He began to depict nature as a series of swaths of warm, pure colours surrounded by thick contour lines. Compositions flattened, perspective all but disappeared, and forms were greatly simplified.

This work, painted early in the artist's time in Brittany, shows an important transition for the artist. Here we find elements of the older, Impressionist style, notably in the vibrant, energetic brushstrokes that gives the painting a sense of depth and life, alongside elements of Gauguin's newly developed synthetism, notably in the flat space lacking a structured perspective and the large swaths of colours surrounded by contour lines that describe the figures, notably the two cows. This technique, reproduced in other important works of the time, shows the artist on a threshold of artistic innovation, which would continue to develop in strength.