Paul Gauguin

Emile Schuffenecker, Paris
Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin
Private Collection, Cologne
Thence by descent to the present owner

Executed on prepared artist's board. The board is stable and there do not appear to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. There is a pinhole to the centre of the left and right extreme edges. There is some frame abrasion to the extreme edges, some scattered small dents with associated tiny specks of paint loss and a few pin-sized holes in places. There are some fine lines of craquelure in places and a 3cm-long vertical surface crack to the right part of the extreme upper edge. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition. Colours: fairly accurate in the printed catalogue, though overall slightly brighter in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

This rare landscape of the coastal Breton countryside is one of the pictures that Gauguin completed in the late 1880s, when he was working in Pont Aven. Executed with punctuated strokes of gouache on a small board prepared with gesso, the composition presents an exoticised depiction of the native flora of the region, interpreted through the stylization of Gauguin’s late Symbolist aesthetic. The isolated cottage in the background is the only indication of human presence in the area. This romanticising of the natural world is indicative, perhaps, of Gauguin's desire to escape the trappings of industrialized France in the months prior to his departure for the South Pacific.

The first owner of the present work was the artist Emile Schuffenecker, who was Gauguin’s close companion and patron during his years painting in Brittany. The two men met in Paris where they were both stockbrokers, and it was Schuffenecker who encouraged and financially supported Gauguin in his early artistic pursuits. Gauguin's 1889 painting of the Schuffenecker family, now in the collection fo the Musée d'Orsay, was painted around the same time as the present composition. La Maison du Pen Du was one of those compositions that Gauguin gave to the man whom he called 'le bon Schuff', and was kept in the Schuffenecker collection along with Gauguin's The Yellow Christ, as well as compositions by Cézanne and Van Gogh. The picture then came into the possession of the Galerie Matthiesen in Berlin, and by the 1920s it was in the possession of a prominent German-Jewish family in Cologne, who has kept it in their collection over the last ninety years.