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Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
1897–98

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 139.1 x 374.6 cm (54 3/4 x 147 1/2 in.)
Credit Line Tompkins Collection—Arthur Gordon Tompkins Fund
Accession Number36.270
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In the winter of 1897, Gauguin experienced a psychological crisis. He had left France for Tahiti six years prior, hoping to discover an unspoiled tropical paradise in the French colony, where he could live affordably and advance his art. Instead, he was frustrated by the modernity he witnessed, quarreled with French colonial authorities, struggled financially, and endured a steep mental and physical decline. At a time of heightened personal hardship, Gauguin explored fundamental questions concerning the nature and meaning of life in this monumental painting—the largest he ever attempted—an ambitious effort in decorative mural painting, no doubt made with an eye to his artistic legacy.
In his letters, Gauguin described the composition proceeding from right to left, beginning with the sleeping infant and ending with the huddled figure of “an old woman nearing death.” Near center, an androgynous standing figure reaches for a piece of fruit. A blue idol with arms symmetrically outstretched atop a pedestal, Gauguin suggested, “indicates the Beyond.” While not planned for integration within a specific architectural setting, Gauguin did intend this decorative painting to “look like a mural,” requesting it be exhibited in a simple white frame. The painting’s yellow corners—one bearing an inscription (now the work’s title) in French, and the other his signature—Gauguin felt, made the painting appear “like a fresco whose corners are spoiled with age, and which is attached to a golden wall.” His smooth paint application and choice of a coarse and heavy burlap support further emphasized the painting’s fresco-like effect.
Despite his descriptions of it, the painting resists easy interpretation and singular narrative, something critics observed when it first went on view in Paris in 1898 at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery, alongside a suite of related paintings. Thadée Natanson noted that the painting—though “obscure” and “difficult to grasp”—“invites us to meditate upon the mystery of our destiny.” Scholars have since put forth numerous literary sources that could have conceivably served as inspiration for the work. The questions posed in the title and indeed in the painting itself are perennial concerns about the human condition that continue to resonate with viewers today: origins, identity, purpose, and destiny.

Catalogue Raisonné Wildenstein 561
InscriptionsUpper left: D'ou Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous; Upper right: P. Gauguin / 1897
Provenance1898, sent by the artist in Tahiti to Georges Daniel de Monfreid (b. 1856 - d. 1929), Paris; consigned by Monfreid and his agent to Ambroise Vollard (b. 1867 - d. 1939), Paris [see note 1]; 1901, sold by Vollard to Gabriel Frizeau (b. 1870 - d. 1938), Bordeaux [see note 2]; probably 1913, sold by Frizeau to the Galérie Barbazanges, Paris; before 1920, sold by Barbazanges to J. B. Stang, Oslo [see note 3]; 1935, sold or consigned by Stang to Alfred Gold, Berlin and Paris [see note 4]; sold by Gold to the Marie Harriman Gallery, New York [see note 5]; 1936, sold by the Harriman Gallery to the MFA for $80,000. (Accession Date: April 16, 1936)

NOTES:
[1] The painting was exhibited at the Galerie Ambroise Vollard, November 17 - December 10, 1898.

[2] On Frizeau's acquisition and sale of the painting, see Claire Frêches-Thory, "Le premier acheteur d'Où venons-nous? Le collectionneur bordelais, Gabriel Frizeau (1870 - 1938) et ses rapports avec Gauguin," in Rencontres Gauguin à Tahiti: actes du colloque 20 et 21 juin 1989 (Papeete, 1989), pp. 48 - 56. The Galérie Barbazanges exhibited the painting in 1914.

[3] The Galérie Barbazanges sought to buy the painting back from Stang in 1920; see Frêches-Thory (as above, n. 2), p. 51.

[4] A letter of February 1, 1935 to the dealer Germain Seligmann, held by the Archives of American Art (Seligmann papers, box 426), states that the dealer Alfred Gold said the painting was still the property of Stang ("la grand Gauguin était toujours la proprieté de Stang") and that it would be included in the forthcoming Brussels exhibition. The writer has not been identified. Later that year, Gold lent the painting to the exhibition "L'impressionisme," Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, June 15 - September 29, 1935, cat. no. 28. Gold purchased other works from the Stang collection, and almost certainly acquired this painting directly from him. As early as 1932, Gold acted as Stang's representative in lending the painting to the Kunsthaus, Zürich (February 20 - March 20, 1932); at the end of the loan period, the painting was sent to Paris.

[5] Marie Harriman exhibited the painting at her New York gallery, April 22 - May 9, 1936. On its acquisition and exhibition, see "Gauguin Canvas is Brought Here," New York Times, April 14, 1936.

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