Two Tahitian Women in a Landscape - Paul Gauguin

Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne

European Art Modern Art Paintings Prints

"Two Tahitian Women in a Landscape" by Paul Gauguin (c. 1892) Monotype matrix in watercolor and gouache, with brush and green ink, over traces of graphite, on cream Japanese paper, laid down on tan wove paper (partially removed).

Commentary

"Two Tahitian Women in a Landscape" by Paul Gauguin (c. 1892) 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 (Monotype matrix in watercolor and gouache, with brush and green ink, over traces of graphite, on cream Japanese paper, laid down on tan wove paper (partially removed)) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (32.2 × 23.8 cm (12 11/16 × 9 3/8 in.)) 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/5513

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