DOI article:
Danielewicz, Iwona: The Collection of Gabriela Zapolska
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0130
especially strong in the drawing and the shape of the ocean waves. The ardst
entided this work Les Deux Pauuresses, and thus it appeared in the list of the
artisds works left in the Boussod & Valadon Gallery in Paris in 1890. At that
tirae he was planning his first Tahitian voyage and thus was saving money. The
bookkeeping accounts of the gallery do not mention any purchase of the work.
Zapolska must have known the original title of the work sińce in the catalogue
of her collection she called it Sad Girls. Gauguin also madę a pastel sketch for
the painting, which Władysław Slewiński purchased in 1895 at an auction of
the painter’s works/4 Zapolska visited Brittany over the course of two years
but never met Slewiński, or in any case never mentioned him.
Zapolska’s collection also contained two sculptures by Gauguin. The
catalogue for the Lwów exhibiton in 1906 mentioned the bas-relief Idols from
Tahiti, while four years later in Cracow the sculpture entided Idolatry was
exhibited. Nothing morę about these works is known. Idols from Tahiti became
the property of Zapolska’s ex-husband Stanisław Janowski after her death.
A review of the Lwów exhibition written by Wojciech Dąbrowski contains the
information that Zapolska exhibited three bas-reliefs in woodG I believe that
she madę two works by Gauguin accessible to the public and, with the
exception of the work by Lacombe, there were no other sculptures. There
remain no documents which could permit us to identify these works. On the
basis of Gauguin’s known sculpture from 1889-1895 one could attempt to
specify what it looked like. He madę bas-reliefs in wood mainly during his stay
in Brittany, prior to his first trip to Tahiti and then only sporadically after his
return to France, in 1893-95. After a joint exhibition in the Cafe Volpini in
1889 as well as after the Exposition Universelle, Gauguin began to look
intensively for new forms of expression. The Exposition turned his attention
to Polynesian and Cambodian sculpture, not well known in Europę. In that
same year, after returning to Brittany, he began creating sculptures with Far
Eastern themes, and they were mainly bas-reliefs. The decoration in the dining
room in the country house of Marie Henry in Le Pouldu dates from this period,
when the ardst was breakmg from Impressionism, from the realistic way of
thinkmg. In 1889 he produced his famous bas-relief Soyez amoureuses et vous
serez heureuses (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), inspired by Hawaiian art, but
also by polychrome Japanese bas-relief which Gauguin knew from reproductions
in the journal Le Japon artistiąuedń Before he left for Tahiti he was already
producing sculptural works with “Tahitian” motifs. It cannot be ruled out
that the bas-reliefs in Zapolska’s collection belonged to this earlier period
immediateły preceding the artisds departure. Gray maintains that the famous
work Soyes amoureuses had decorations on both sides. The second side of the 54 55 56
54 Oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm, in the Stuart Crawford collections in London until 1997. Cf. also
The Art of Paul Gauguin, op. cit., p. 164. It was exactly this drawing that Tadeusz Makowski
described in his diary; cf Jaworska, “Gauguin - Slewiński - Makowski”, op. cit.
55 Dąbrowski, op. cit.
56 The Art ofPaul Gauguin, op. cit., cat. 110.
124
entided this work Les Deux Pauuresses, and thus it appeared in the list of the
artisds works left in the Boussod & Valadon Gallery in Paris in 1890. At that
tirae he was planning his first Tahitian voyage and thus was saving money. The
bookkeeping accounts of the gallery do not mention any purchase of the work.
Zapolska must have known the original title of the work sińce in the catalogue
of her collection she called it Sad Girls. Gauguin also madę a pastel sketch for
the painting, which Władysław Slewiński purchased in 1895 at an auction of
the painter’s works/4 Zapolska visited Brittany over the course of two years
but never met Slewiński, or in any case never mentioned him.
Zapolska’s collection also contained two sculptures by Gauguin. The
catalogue for the Lwów exhibiton in 1906 mentioned the bas-relief Idols from
Tahiti, while four years later in Cracow the sculpture entided Idolatry was
exhibited. Nothing morę about these works is known. Idols from Tahiti became
the property of Zapolska’s ex-husband Stanisław Janowski after her death.
A review of the Lwów exhibition written by Wojciech Dąbrowski contains the
information that Zapolska exhibited three bas-reliefs in woodG I believe that
she madę two works by Gauguin accessible to the public and, with the
exception of the work by Lacombe, there were no other sculptures. There
remain no documents which could permit us to identify these works. On the
basis of Gauguin’s known sculpture from 1889-1895 one could attempt to
specify what it looked like. He madę bas-reliefs in wood mainly during his stay
in Brittany, prior to his first trip to Tahiti and then only sporadically after his
return to France, in 1893-95. After a joint exhibition in the Cafe Volpini in
1889 as well as after the Exposition Universelle, Gauguin began to look
intensively for new forms of expression. The Exposition turned his attention
to Polynesian and Cambodian sculpture, not well known in Europę. In that
same year, after returning to Brittany, he began creating sculptures with Far
Eastern themes, and they were mainly bas-reliefs. The decoration in the dining
room in the country house of Marie Henry in Le Pouldu dates from this period,
when the ardst was breakmg from Impressionism, from the realistic way of
thinkmg. In 1889 he produced his famous bas-relief Soyez amoureuses et vous
serez heureuses (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), inspired by Hawaiian art, but
also by polychrome Japanese bas-relief which Gauguin knew from reproductions
in the journal Le Japon artistiąuedń Before he left for Tahiti he was already
producing sculptural works with “Tahitian” motifs. It cannot be ruled out
that the bas-reliefs in Zapolska’s collection belonged to this earlier period
immediateły preceding the artisds departure. Gray maintains that the famous
work Soyes amoureuses had decorations on both sides. The second side of the 54 55 56
54 Oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm, in the Stuart Crawford collections in London until 1997. Cf. also
The Art of Paul Gauguin, op. cit., p. 164. It was exactly this drawing that Tadeusz Makowski
described in his diary; cf Jaworska, “Gauguin - Slewiński - Makowski”, op. cit.
55 Dąbrowski, op. cit.
56 The Art ofPaul Gauguin, op. cit., cat. 110.
124