GAUGUIN, PAUL; [AND CHARLES MORICE] | Noa Noa. Voyage de Tahiti. Faksimile des vollstandigen Manuskriptes nebst allen darin enthalten Zeichnungen Gauguins. [Munich: R. Piper, 1926]

4to (12 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.; 311 x 238 mm). Facsimile of Gauguin's autograph manuscript with collotype reproductions of the artist's watercolors, pen-and-ink drawings, woodcuts, and photographs. Publisher's raffia binding; minor wear, some rubbing to lettering on spine and upper cover. Original dust-jacket with woodcut by Daniel de Monfried after a Gauguin design; some wear and soiling, spine renewed.

Nelson Rockefeller (bookplate)

Artist and the Book 115; Castleman, Century pp. 22-4, 82-3

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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The sumptuous facsimile of Gauguin's Tahitian journal. Copy 171 of 320 copies in the raffia binding (of a whole edition of 400). Riva Castleman has described this full color facsimile as "a remarkable event in book publishing."Gauguin's highly influential Noa Noa (a Tahitian wird meaning "fragrance") was begun in France after he artist returned in 1893 from his first stay in Tahiti. An already edited manuscript, augmented by the collaborating author Charles Morice, was taken by Gauguin with him on his second trip to Tahiti in 1895. There, he pasted prints into the manuscript and drew ink and watercolor drawings over the text. The text is based on an earlier Gauguin manuscript, L'ancien culte mahori. It is the illustrations, however, which make the book memorable. "To whatever extent Gauguin is indebted for his literary inspiration, his visual interpretation of this primitive culture in powerful rhythmic and totemic designs is distinctly his own. Althought finally published as a facsimile, Noa Noa represents an important project in book-making by this major artist" (Artist and the Book). "Noa Noa was never published as Gauguin had conceived it, but its elements influenced subsequent art and artists' books for many years" (Castleman).