"Noa noa (Fragrant)" by Paul Gauguin (1894/95)
Wood-block print in black ink, with red, orange, blue, mauve, light green, and green watercolor on parchment.
Commentary
Commentary
"Noa noa (Fragrant)" by Paul Gauguin (1894/95) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together.
Its painted surface guides your eye through color, brushwork, and contrast rather than through narrative alone.
Themes to notice include Post-Impressionism, 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.
It is associated with the Post-Impressionism period.
How to look at this work:
It is cataloged as woodcut, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object.
Its medium (Wood-block print in black ink, with red, orange, blue, mauve, light green, and green watercolor on parchment) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances.
Its listed dimensions (Image: 14.5 × 11.8 cm (5 3/4 × 4 11/16 in.); Sheet: 14.7 × 12 cm (5 13/16 × 4 3/4 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person.
Subject cues from the catalog include Post-Impressionism, woodcut.
Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/63085
Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data
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Commentary
Commentary