Le sourire: Journal sérieux, Nov. 1899 - Paul Gauguin

Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison Collection

"Le sourire: Journal sérieux, Nov. 1899" by Paul Gauguin (1899) Mimeograph in brownish-black ink, with wood-block prints in black ink on cream wove paper.

Commentary

"Le sourire: Journal sérieux, Nov. 1899" by Paul Gauguin (1899) 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 Drawings 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 prints in black ink on cream wove paper) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (Printed monogram: Diam.: 3.2 cm (1 5/16 in.); Full sheet: 39.7 × 51.3 cm (15 11/16 × 20 1/4 in.); Folded sheet: 39.7 × 25.6 cm (15 11/16 × 10 1/8 in.); Title block: 2.4 × 9.4 cm (1 × 3 3/4 in.); Headpiece: 10.5 × 18.7 cm (4 3/16 × 7 3/8 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/110840

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