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Women and a White Horse
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
1903
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
73.3 x 91.7 cm (28 7/8 x 36 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John T. Spaulding
Accession Number48.547
OUT ON LOAN
On display at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 3, 2024 – February 16, 2025
On display at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 3, 2024 – February 16, 2025
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
From 1901 until the end of his life, Gauguin lived on the Marquesas island of Hiva Oa. Though increasingly afflicted by ill-health, he continued to create work in multiple media, shipping artwork back to Paris to be sold on the European art market. The artist’s frequent writings around these years express his growing antagonism to both colonial authority and the institution of the Catholic Church, while he himself continued to benefit from colonial structures. In this painting—thought to be one of his last—Gauguin depicts a frieze-like arrangement of three local women and a white horse, framed by a vibrant cascade of tropical vegetation. On the hilltop above stands a single white cross—a rare visual acknowledgment by Gauguin of French missionary activity in the colonies. It marks the Catholic cemetery where the artist’s body was laid to rest not long after he completed this painting.
InscriptionsLower right: P. Gaugin 1903
ProvenanceGustave Fayet (b. 1865 - d. 1925), Igny, France [see note 1]. 1906, acquired by Carl Moll (b. 1861 - d. 1945), Vienna [see note 2]; October 31, 1908, sold by Moll to Bernheim-Jeune et Fils, Paris (stock no. 16884) [see note 3]; September 14, 1909, sold by Bernheim-Jeune to Ambroise Vollard (b. 1867 - d. 1939), Paris; 1928, still with Vollard [see note 4]. 1929, Paul Rosenberg and Co., Paris and New York; October 24, 1929, sold by Rosenberg to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance (to 1909) is based on information provided by Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin (Paris, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 270-271, cat. no. 636.
[2] The painter Carl Moll, who ran the Galerie Miethke in Vienna, wrote to Karl Ernst Osthaus on November 26, 1906 about a Gauguin landscape from 1903 that he had just acquired--almost certainly a reference to the MFA painting--as well as acquisitions he had made in Paris. Moll organized a Gauguin exhibition at the Galerie Miethke in the spring of 1907, but it cannot be determined from the checklist whether this painting was included. See Peter Kropmanns, "Peitschenhiebe statt Zuckerbrot. Zur frühen Gauguin-Rezeption in Wien," in Paul Gauguin: von der Bretagne nach Tahiti. Ein Aufbruch zur Moderne (Graz, 2000), pp. 133-135.
[3] Wildenstein (as above, n. 1) does not make it explicit that Moll was the seller; however, at least one other painting by Gauguin that had belonged to Moll (Wildenstein, cat. no. 311) was acquired by Bernheim-Jeune on this date.
[4] Vollard lent the painting to the exhibition "Paul Gauguin" (Kunsthalle, Basel, July-August, 1928), cat. no. 107.
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance (to 1909) is based on information provided by Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin (Paris, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 270-271, cat. no. 636.
[2] The painter Carl Moll, who ran the Galerie Miethke in Vienna, wrote to Karl Ernst Osthaus on November 26, 1906 about a Gauguin landscape from 1903 that he had just acquired--almost certainly a reference to the MFA painting--as well as acquisitions he had made in Paris. Moll organized a Gauguin exhibition at the Galerie Miethke in the spring of 1907, but it cannot be determined from the checklist whether this painting was included. See Peter Kropmanns, "Peitschenhiebe statt Zuckerbrot. Zur frühen Gauguin-Rezeption in Wien," in Paul Gauguin: von der Bretagne nach Tahiti. Ein Aufbruch zur Moderne (Graz, 2000), pp. 133-135.
[3] Wildenstein (as above, n. 1) does not make it explicit that Moll was the seller; however, at least one other painting by Gauguin that had belonged to Moll (Wildenstein, cat. no. 311) was acquired by Bernheim-Jeune on this date.
[4] Vollard lent the painting to the exhibition "Paul Gauguin" (Kunsthalle, Basel, July-August, 1928), cat. no. 107.