Seated Tahitian Youth - Paul Gauguin

Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne

European Art Modern Art Paintings Prints

"Seated Tahitian Youth" by Paul Gauguin (1894/1903) Watercolor and graphite on irregularly shaped cream wove Japanese paper, laid down on ivory laid paper with brown and blue fibers, laid down on cream wove paper.

Commentary

"Seated Tahitian Youth" by Paul Gauguin (1894/1903) 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 watercolor. 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 watercolor, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Watercolor and graphite on irregularly shaped cream wove Japanese paper, laid down on ivory laid paper with brown and blue fibers, laid down on cream wove paper) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (237 × 157 mm (primary support); 352 × 227 (secondary support); 451 × 312 (tertiary support)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include watercolor. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/5515

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