Le sourire: Journal méchant, Feb. 1900 - Paul Gauguin

Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison Collection

"Le sourire: Journal méchant, Feb. 1900" by Paul Gauguin (1900) Mimeograph in brownish-black ink, with wood-block print in black ink, on cream wove paper.

Commentary

"Le sourire: Journal méchant, Feb. 1900" by Paul Gauguin (1900) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Themes to notice include woodcut. This piece is held in the source collection's Prints and D rawings collection. Paul Gauguin is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Paul Gauguin French, 1848-1903. The work is cataloged within a France cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as woodcut, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Mimeograph in brownish-black ink, with wood-block print in black ink, on cream wove paper) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (Full sheet: 37.4 × 50.9 cm (14 3/4 × 20 1/16 in.); Folded sheet: 37.4 × 25.6 cm (14 3/4 × 10 1/8 in.); Headpiece: 10.3 × 14.9 cm (4 1/16 × 5 7/8 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include woodcut. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/110829

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data