Paul Gauguin

Mette Gauguin, Copenhagen (on consignment from the artist circa 1893)

Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser, Munich (acquired by 1916)

Otto Nyquist, Oslo (acquired from above through A.S. Mohr & Sønner, Bergen, Norway on 29 July 1916)

Charles J. and Aline Liebman, New York (acquired by 1930)

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 7 December 1955, lot 63 (consigned by the above)

Werner and Margaret Josten, New York (acquired at the above sale and until at least 1971)

Peter W. Josten, New York (acquired by descent from the above and until at least 1984)

Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York

Acquired from the above on 22 October 1997 by the present owner

Copenhagen, Vesterbors Passage, Den Frie Udstilling, 1893, no. 149 (titled Kystlandskab. Bretagne)

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Summer Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture: Retrospective, 1930, no. 37, p. 5 (titled Breton Landscape)

New York, Wildenstein, Paul Gauguin, 1946, no. 5, p. 19, illustrated; p. 63 (titled Landscape, Brittany and dated 1889)

New York, Wildenstein, Gauguin, 1956, no. 16, p. 16; p. 36, illustrated (titled Landscape, Brittany)

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent oeuvres de Gauguin, 1960, no. 52, n.p., illustrated (titled Paysage du Pouldu)

Munich, Haus der Kunst, Paul Gauguin, 1960, no. 40, p. 9; p. 25, illustrated (titled Landschaft bei Le Pouldu)

Vienna, Österreichische Galerie im Oberen Belvedere, Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903, 1960, no. 19, p. 37; pl. 5, illustrated (titled Landschaft bei le Pouldu)

New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gauguin and the Decorative Style, 1966 (titled Landscape, Brittany: The Lone House)

Cincinnati Art Museum, The Early Work of Paul Gauguin: Genesis of An Artist, 1971, no. 22, p. 12; p. 27, illustrated (titled The Lone House (La Maison Isolée))

Theodor Thorup, “Den frie Udstilling: Paul Gauguin,” Aarhus Amtstidende, vol. 27, no. 100, 1 May 1893, p. 1

Katalog der Modernen Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser, München, Munich, 1916, pp. XXIX and XXVIII, pl. 33, illustrated (titled Bretonische Landschaft)

Pola Gauguin, My Father Paul Gauguin, 1937, New York, p. 129, illustrated (titled Landscape)

The Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Summer 1951, p. 32

René Huyghe, Le Carnet de Paul Gauguin, vol. II, Paris, 1952, pp. 168-69

John Rewald, Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin, New York, 1956, p. 285, illustrated (titled Landscape at Le Pouldu)

Raymond Nacenta, Gauguin, Paris, 1960, n.p., illustrated (titled Paysage du Pouldu)

Claude Roger-Marx, "Des chefs-d'oeuvre de Gauguin sortent des collections particulières," Le Figaro littéraire, 23 January 1960, p. 14, illustrated (titled Paysage)

Georges Boudaille, Gauguin, Paris, 1964, p. 113, illustrated in color (titled The Lonely House)

Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin, Paris, 1964, no. 364, p. 139, illustrated (titled La Maison isolée) 

Gérard Legrand, Gauguin, Paris, 1966, p. 16; p. 19, illustrated in color (titled La Maison isolée) 

Wayne Andersen, "Gauguin's Motifs from Le Pouldu: Preliminary Report," Burlington Magazine, vol. 112, no. 810, September 1970, fig. 65, p. 616, illustrated (titled La Maison isolée)

Wladyslawa Jaworska, Paul Gauguin et l'école de Pont-Aven, Neuchâtel, 1971, p. 235, illustrated in color (titled Paysage breton, la maison isolée)

G. M. Sugana, L'Opera completa di Gauguin, Milan, 1972, no. 179, p. 98; p. 97, illustrated (titled Pastora e mucca in riva al mare (La casa isolata))

Lee van Dowski, Die Wahrheit über Gauguin, Darmstadt, 1973, no. 170c, p. 263 (titled La Maison isolée)

Vojtěch Jirat-Wasiutyński, Gauguin in the Context of Symbolism, Dissertation, Princeton University, 1975, vol. 1, p. 185 (titled La Maison Isolée)

Pierre Leprohon, Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1975, pp. 168 and 381 (titled La Maison isolée and dated summer 1890)

Ziva Amishai-Maisels, "A Gauguin Sketchbook: Arles and Brittany," Israel Museum News, no. 10, April 1975, pp. 71 and 75 (note 18; titled Isolated House)

Elda Fezzi, Gauguin: The Complete Paintings, vol. I, London, 1979, no. 350, p. 88, illustrated (titled Shepherdess and Cow by the Sea)

Douglas Cooper, ed., Paul Gauguin: 45 Lettres à Vincent, Théo et Jo van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1983, pp. 273 and 275 (note 5)

Exh. Cat., Charlottenlund, Ordrupgaard, Gauguin og Van Gogh i København i 1893, 1984, no. 37, p. 84, illustrated (titled Kystlandskab. Le Pouldu. Landscape at Le Pouldu)

La Route des Peintres en Cornouaille: 1850–1950, Quimper, 1990, p. 98 (titled Maison du Pan du)

Belinda Thomson, ed., Gauguin by Himself, Boston, 1993, pl. 122, p. 158, illustrated in color (titled Landscape at Le Pouldu / Isolated House)

Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker, eds., Vincent van Gogh: The Letters, vol. V, London, 2009, no. 828, p. 163

Stefan Koldehoff and Chris Stolwijk, eds., The Thannhauser Gallery: Marketing Van Gogh, Brussels, 2017, pp. 46 and 124 (titled Landschaft mit Kühen) 

"'La Maison du Pen du, gardeuse de vache,' 1889 (WPI Ref. No. PGX3UT)." In Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1889–1903. Edited and compiled by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc. https://digitalprojects.wpi.art/gauguin/artworks/detail?set=771&date=1889-1890&a=76169-la-maison-du-pen-du-gardeuse-de-vache (accessed on 5 October 2025)

La Maison de Pen du, gardeuse de vache, painted in summer of 1889, is an evocative example of Paul Gauguin’s Pont-Aven style. Painted in Le Pouldu, a village situated several miles east of the busier town of Pont-Aven, the present work captures the bucolic landscape and seascape of this remote part of Brittany. The late 1880s and early 1890s were the most crucial and fruitful of Gauguin's career. Through several stays in Brittany, time in Paris, a trip to Martinique and his famed collaboration with Vincent van Gogh in Arles, Gauguin’s artistic practice and signature style and imagery developed into one of the most recognizable in modern art. It is from this period that La Maison de Pen du, gardeuse de vache springs, a canvas which synthesizes the impact of the tropical colors of Martinique, Van Gogh’s florid brushwork and the impact of Japanese prints (see figs. 1 and 2).

As early as the 1860s, Brittany had served as an inspiration for many artists who were drawn to the verdant landscape and traditional customs. In opposition to the Impressionists, who sought to depict the encroaching change of the industrial revolution on the cities, suburbs and countryside of France, the artists who flocked to Brittany were in search of a more traditional agrarian society, undisturbed by the rapid acceleration of modern life. Gauguin’s aims were similar in his first trip to the region. Writing to his friend Emile Schuffenecker he stated “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” (quoted in Victore Merles, ed., Correspondence de Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1984, letter 141, p. 172).

The present work takes as its subject an anonymous cowherd, set against the rolling countryside towards the sea. A boat scuds across the water at far right and an abandoned house, which featured in a number of other works by Gauguin and other artists at this time, sits atop the rocky promontory. This picture combines the striking palette that typified Gauguin’s work in Martinique and a modern compositional structure that owes much to Japanese printmaking, particularly Hiroshige. This appropriation of Japanese style would prove significant in the Nabis movement to which Gauguin's work in Brittany gave rise. The decorative treatment of the landscape and the flattening of perspectival space illustrate Gauguin's bold artistic vision. As Judy Le Paul explains: “Aware of the way Japanese artists constructed certain of their landscapes, Gauguin began to turn away from Western influences. The general rule of a centrally placed horizon… gave way to a horizon near the top of the canvas or even raised beyond its boundaries. Using a steep perspective, Gauguin narrowed the field of vision, consciously cutting up the landscape to concentrate on one detail or fragment at the expense of another” (Judy Le Paul, Gauguin and the Impressionists at Pont-Aven, New York, 1987, p. 80). In the present work Gauguin employs this technique to masterful effect building a dynamic landscape that is full of local incident and detail.

La Maison de Pen du, gardeuse de vache has a distinguished early exhibition history. It was included in the famed 1893 Die Frie Udstilling (The Free Exhibition), where Vincent van Gogh’s work was also exhibited. This Danish artist’s association was founded just two years prior and was created in the manner of the Salon des Refusés in Paris. “What a simply wonderful atmosphere,” wrote Theodor Thorup, “there is in the coastal landscape from Brittany with the white-painted house on the green point. And a picture like this is being sold for 300 Kr.! One cannot feel that there is any great sensitivity to art in Copenhagen, seeing that it is not sold yet” (Theodor Thorup, “Den frie Udstilling: Paul Gauguin,” Aarhus Amtstidende, vol. 27, no. 100, 1 May 1893, p. 1)

Nearly forty years later, the present work was one of eight Gauguins included in the 1930 Summer Retrospective at the new Museum of Modern Art in New York. In their review, the New York Times stated: “The eight paintings by Gauguin stretch with still more emphatic variations from two Breton landscapes, fresh and moving in color, to Adolph Lewisohn's “Ia Orana-Maria,” in which one may find for the looking something of the nature of his “escape” from civilization, an escape made with all the essentials of sophistication packed in with the rest of his spiritual and intellectual luggage. Artistically if not esthetically he makes here an impressive figure, his color is sumptuous on the walls of this most initiated of museums, his design is arresting without introducing the element of deformation. His “Ia Orana-Maria” is our Ave Maria….” (Elizabeth Luther Cary, “What Has Been Chosen,” The New York Times, 29 June 1930, p. 107; see fig. 5). This exhibition, held just a year after the museum opened, firmly demonstrated Gauguin’s place as one of the great doyens of Modern Art.

Charles and Aline Liebman, the lenders to the 1930 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, had a revolutionary collection, from the present painting to works by Gino Severini, Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keeffe, Diego Rivera and Constantin Brancusi. The Liebman’s sold their collection at Parke-Bernet in 1955 where La Maison de Pen du, gardeuse de vache was acquired by the composer Werner Josten and his wife Margaret (see fig. 6). It remained within their family until at least the mid-1980s, a part of their son Peter Josten's collection, who was himself a generous benefactor to museums across the United States.