| Landscape with Peacocks (Death) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Paul Gauguin |
| Year | 1892 |
| Type | Oil paint on canvas |
| Dimensions | 115 by 86 centimetres (45 in × 34 in) |
| Location | Pushkin Museum, Moscow |
Landscape with Peacocks (Death) (French - Le paysage aux paons (La mort)) is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, from 1892. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow.
By the time he painted the work, Gauguin had moved from Papeete to settle in the village of Mataiea on the south side of Tahiti. He also gave it the Tahitian title Matamoe, whose meaning is heavily debated - it has sometimes been translated as "In the old days", "Once", "Wanderers" or "Strangers", and sometimes as death, hence the subtitle in Gauguin's own French title for the work in his 1893 catalogue of his works sold at Paul Durand-Ruel. His Arii Matamoe from the same year is usually translated as "Death of the King". [1]
It returns to the same subject as the earlier Tahitian with an Axe (1891, private collection), whose male figure is almost identical to the Moscow work. [2] A. V. Petukhov, senior researcher at the Pushkin Museum, believes that this image was borrowed by Gauguin from the Parthenon frieze, photographs of which Gauguin took with him to Tahiti, [3] whereas Bengt Danielsson believes the model was Gaston Pia, a Tahitian school janitor from the village of Paea, 21 kilometres from Papeete. [4] A preparatory drawing for this figure in ink, pencil and gouache survives in the Art Institute of Chicago. [5]
The artist sent the work to Paul Durand-Ruel in 1893 and it was exhibited at the Hotel Drouot sale of Gauguin's drawings and paintings in Paris on 18 February 1895, intended to finance another trip to Tahiti, at which A. Seguin bought it for 480 francs. It was in Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1906 and on 4 May 1907 it and Conversation were bought for a total of 15,000 francs by Ivan Morozov. His collection was seized by the Soviet state after the October Revolution and from 1923 to 1948 was assigned to the State Museum of Modern Western Art before being moved to its current home.[ citation needed ]
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia. The paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.
Tahiti is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Australia. Divided into two parts, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti, the island was formed from volcanic activity; it is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs. Its population was 189,517 in 2017, making it by far the most populous island in French Polynesia and accounting for 68.7% of its total population.
Oviri is an 1894 ceramic sculpture by the French artist Paul Gauguin. In Tahitian mythology, Oviri was the goddess of mourning and is shown with long pale hair and wild eyes, smothering a wolf with her feet while clutching a cub in her arms. Art historians have presented multiple interpretations—usually that Gauguin intended it as an epithet to reinforce his self-image as a "civilised savage". Tahitian goddesses of her era had passed from folk memory by 1894, yet Gauguin romanticises the island's past as he reaches towards more ancient sources, including an Assyrian relief of a "master of animals" type, and Majapahit mummies. Other possible influences include preserved skulls from the Marquesas Islands, figures found at Borobudur, and a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in central Java.
The Tahitians are the Polynesian ethnic group indigenous to Tahiti and thirteen other Society Islands in French Polynesia. The numbers may also include the modern population in these islands of mixed Polynesian and French ancestry. Indigenous Tahitians are one of the largest Polynesian ethnic groups, behind the Māori, Samoans and Hawaiians.
Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.
When Will You Marry? is an oil painting from 1892 by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. On loan to the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland for nearly a half-century, it was sold privately by the family of Rudolf Staechelin to Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, in February 2015 for close to US$210 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a work of art. The painting was on exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, until 28 June 2015.
Fatata te Miti is an 1892 oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, located in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC.
Merahi metua no Tehamana is an 1893 painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin, currently in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting is a portrait of Paul Gauguin's wife Teha'amana during his first visit to Tahiti in 1891–1893. This marriage has always provoked controversy because it was arranged and completed in the course of a single afternoon and Gauguin claimed Teha'amana was just thirteen years old at the time.
Arii Matamoe or The Royal End is a painting on coarse cloth by the French artist Paul Gauguin, created in 1892 during the painter's first visit to Tahiti. It depicts a man's severed head on a pillow, displayed before mourners, and although it did not depict a common or contemporary Tahitian mourning ritual, may have been inspired by the death of Pōmare V in 1891 shortly after Gauguin's arrival. A curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum suggested Gauguin likely painted the canvas "to shock Parisians" upon his expected return to the city.
Aha Oe Feii? or Are You Jealous? is an oil-on-canvas painting by Paul Gauguin from 1892, based on a real-life episode during his stay on Tahiti which he later described in the diary Noa Noa: "On the shore two sisters are lying after bathing, in the graceful poses of resting animals; they speak of yesterday's love and tomorrow's conquests. The recollection causes them to quarrel, "What? Are you jealous?" Gauguin titled the painting in Tahitian language, Aha Oe Feii?, in the lower left corner of the canvas.
Eiaha Ohipa is an 1896 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in Pushkin Museum, Moscow. It was produced during his second stay in Tahiti
Frost in Louveciennes is an 1873 painting by Alfred Sisley, which has been in the Pushkin Museum since 1948. It shows the church of St Martin in the French town of Louveciennes. A chalk sketch for it is now in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.
Female Nude is an 1876 painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, also known as Nude Woman Sitting on a Couch, Anna, After Bathing and Pearl. It is housed in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow, and is an example of Renoir's many nude paintings, a recurring subject that preoccupied him throughout his life. The painting was created in the characteristic soft brush strokes of the Impressionist movement to emphasise feminine beauty.
The Queen or The King's Wife is an early 1896 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It is also known as Woman with Mango Fruits, Woman under a Mango Tree or Te arii vahine.
Landscape, Horse on the Road is an 1899 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
Still Life with Exotic Birds is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, produced in Atuona on Hiva-Oa in the Marquesas Islands, in 1902. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow. It is signed "Paul Gauguin 1902" at bottom left, with the inscription "Oiseaux morts" on the back of the stretcher.
The Edge of Fontainebleau Forest is an oil on canvas painting by Alfred Sisley, from 1885, now in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow. On the reverse are the two French titles and labels from Paul Durand-Ruel's Paris and New York. A similar landscape by the artist, In the Forest in Autumn, is now in a private collection in Switzerland.
The Large Walnut Tree, Autumn Morning, Éragny is an oil on canvas painting by Camille Pissarro, from 1897. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow.
Haystack Near Giverny is an oil on canvas painting by Claude Monet, from 1884. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow. It is a precursor to his 1890s Haystacks series.
The Bunch of Flowers or Flowers of France is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, from 1891. It is held in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It was one of the first in his series of Tahitian works.