Paul Gauguin

Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (1905-07)

Paul Jamot, Paris

Major Richard A. Peto, Isle of Wight

Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London

Paris, Le Portique, Gauguin, 1931, (possibly) no. 13

Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, La vie ardente de Gauguin, 1936, no. 83

Paris, Charpentier, Gauguin, 1960, no. 161

Munich, Haus der Kunst, Gauguin, 1960, no. 74

London, Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., The French Impressionists and some  of their Contemporaries, 1963, no. 69

Kathleen Morand, "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions, Paris," Burlington Magazine, March 1960, London, discussed p. 128

Daniel Wildenstein, Gauguin, vol. 1, Paris, 1964, no. 608, illustrated p. 258 (refers to the signature as being uncharacteristic of the artist: "La signature en caractères typographiques est tout à fait inhabituelle chez Gauguin")

Good condition. Canvas is trimmed and mounted onto board, possibly by the artist himself. There is some residual glue from the mounting at the edges. There is a fine network of craquelure throughout the composition, but the surface is stable. The bottom edge of the composition may have previously been folded about 1/2 inch from the bottom, resulting in minimal thin abrasion. Under ultra-violet light, there is no florescence. There is some old retouchings along the lower edge and possibly at the other three edges. Overall, the painting appears to be in good, stable condition.
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Gauguin's still-lifes evoke the sensuous beauty and visual splendor of the tropics.  The artist painted this expertly modeled composition of exotic fruits and flora during his second and final stay in Tahiti, where he would remain until his death.  The painting is one in a series of floral compositions from 1901, some of which include plants grown from seeds imported from Europe.  Here, though, the flowers appear to be indigenous New Guinea impatiens and the delectable fruits are those found throughout the island.  As Daniel Wildenstein pointed out, the large gourd on the left is a feature in another composition, now in the collection of the Hermitage (W. 629).  

 

While Mona Mona Savoureux offers a visual taste of Gauguin's sensual experience in Tahiti, it also evidences his lingering preoccupation with the art of Paul Cézanne back in France.  In his still lifes Gauguin was ever-conscious of Cézanne's innovative manipulation of spatial perspective, and even those canvases he painted in Tahiti bear the distinctive undertones of the older Frenchman's influence.   But the present work is perhaps one of Gauguin's most original interpretations of the genre, largely free of the shifting perspectives, methodical arrangements and geometric modeling that were so important to Cézanne.  Gauguin's primary focus here is the boundless cluster of colorful fruit that seems to spill off the canvas -- an image that was emblematic of the overwhelming beauty that he experienced in the South Pacific.  As Kathleen Morand pointed out in her review of the Charpentier exhibition in 1960, the present work evidences Gauguin's own style in full-maturation.  She writes, "Nature morte Mona Mona [...] embodies perfectly the very personal vision achieved....if one knew nothing at all of Gauguin's life, the walls of Galerie Charpentier would still speak eloquently of a man who had broken his bonds and dared to express the original and colourful personality which had long been suppressed.  The hanging therefore has the advantage of emancipating us from the myth and bringing us face to face with the achievement" (K. Morand, op. cit, p. 128).