Pape moe - Paul Gauguin

Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne

European Art Modern Art Paintings Prints

"Pape moe" by Paul Gauguin (1893/94) Watercolor, with black fabricated chalk, pen and brown ink (originally purple) and touches of brush and black ink on heavily textured ivory wove paper.

Commentary

"Pape moe" by Paul Gauguin (1893/94) 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 inclu de pen and ink drawings. 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 pen and ink drawings, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Watercolor, with black fabricated chalk, pen and brown ink (originally purple) and touches of brush and black ink on heavily textured ivory wove paper) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (35.4 × 25.5 cm (13 15/16 × 10 1/16 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include pen and ink drawings. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/86308

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