DOI Heft:
Nr. 336 (May 1925)
DOI Artikel:Cann, Louise Gebhard: Gaugin's image of himself
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19985#0122
inCERDAClOnAL
de Monfreid. As a transposition
of the inner life it may be the
genuine apotheosis of self at
which he more than once aimed.
The first impression it discloses
is of a medieval Christ. As one
contemplates it, the expression
changes to pain mixed with cru-
elty that is its reflex, a convul-
sive wickedness deep in the eyes,
from which at last flows the
exaltation of a terrorizing, half-
clad prophet, or Messiah. This
sublime mystical effect, as of a
metamorphosis, is due as much
to the intimacy of the author's
hand with the tool and his
unique ability to turn blank
matter into decorated, artisti-
cally living objects, as to the
idea he intended to communi-
cate.
We come to the 14th of Feb-
ruary, 1897, when in a letter to
M. de Monfreid, he complains,
"I have many enemies and am
destined to have many more,
even more and more." He sends
his profile dedicated, "A I'ami,
Daniel," and describes the head
as "bent m a movement of af-
"self portrait," 1897 by paul gauguin flictioi» adding laconically,
"description of painting"—as
resorted to the brasserie Gangloff of the rue de la to say, "This is what being a painter does to you!"
Gaite and cheated hunger by "absent-mindedly News of his daughter's death came. He wrote,
pouring a decanter of adulterated cognac into his " I have decidedly, somewhere, Above, an Enemy
coffee." who does not let me have a minute's peace." A
The portrait dated 1892, Tahiti, and owned by year later he tried to commit suicide by taking
the artist, Maurice Denis, is that of a man aware arsenic. He was haunted by ideas of persecution
of his isolation. In its sombre revery it is related and bad luck; his friends, with the exception of
to two other important works of this series. The de Monfried, rarely answered his letters,
yellow figure of the crucifixion and the red mask The engraver, Paul-Emile Colin, a disciple of
of an idol symbolize in the background a curiously Gauguin's at Pouldu, says that Gauguin sacrificed
personal mixture of religious superstition that the everything to the creative life, knowing that he
agony of his last days was to bring into evidence would not profit from his efforts and refers to him
always more vividly and strangely. as "Christ lodging with publicans." Dr. Victor
I pass over the many sketches Gauguin has Segalen, in his introduction to the de Monfreid
left of himself in crayon, water-color; a decorative letters, quotes Gauguin's, "I shall paint no more,
relief in plaster signed, "PGO Oviri;" a comical Painting will no longer let me live. . . ." and corn-
statue in wood, showing the sculptor in the guise ments, "It is not human sacrilege to compare this
of an idol wearing horns, the satire of an episode cry with the words of another, 'Father, take away
with Tehura, whom he had wedded after the this cup from me!' Nor was it by chance that
fashion of the Maori; to pause before a mask Paul Gauguin painted himself in grief, broken,
carved in wood, the entire block ornamented with facing us, the shoulders and lines falling under a
a symmetry and elegance equaled only by the garment of dirty blue, against a dull background,
mask of a native girl in the collection of Monsieur with the epigraph, 'Near Golgotha.'"
one twenty-two
MAY 1925
de Monfreid. As a transposition
of the inner life it may be the
genuine apotheosis of self at
which he more than once aimed.
The first impression it discloses
is of a medieval Christ. As one
contemplates it, the expression
changes to pain mixed with cru-
elty that is its reflex, a convul-
sive wickedness deep in the eyes,
from which at last flows the
exaltation of a terrorizing, half-
clad prophet, or Messiah. This
sublime mystical effect, as of a
metamorphosis, is due as much
to the intimacy of the author's
hand with the tool and his
unique ability to turn blank
matter into decorated, artisti-
cally living objects, as to the
idea he intended to communi-
cate.
We come to the 14th of Feb-
ruary, 1897, when in a letter to
M. de Monfreid, he complains,
"I have many enemies and am
destined to have many more,
even more and more." He sends
his profile dedicated, "A I'ami,
Daniel," and describes the head
as "bent m a movement of af-
"self portrait," 1897 by paul gauguin flictioi» adding laconically,
"description of painting"—as
resorted to the brasserie Gangloff of the rue de la to say, "This is what being a painter does to you!"
Gaite and cheated hunger by "absent-mindedly News of his daughter's death came. He wrote,
pouring a decanter of adulterated cognac into his " I have decidedly, somewhere, Above, an Enemy
coffee." who does not let me have a minute's peace." A
The portrait dated 1892, Tahiti, and owned by year later he tried to commit suicide by taking
the artist, Maurice Denis, is that of a man aware arsenic. He was haunted by ideas of persecution
of his isolation. In its sombre revery it is related and bad luck; his friends, with the exception of
to two other important works of this series. The de Monfried, rarely answered his letters,
yellow figure of the crucifixion and the red mask The engraver, Paul-Emile Colin, a disciple of
of an idol symbolize in the background a curiously Gauguin's at Pouldu, says that Gauguin sacrificed
personal mixture of religious superstition that the everything to the creative life, knowing that he
agony of his last days was to bring into evidence would not profit from his efforts and refers to him
always more vividly and strangely. as "Christ lodging with publicans." Dr. Victor
I pass over the many sketches Gauguin has Segalen, in his introduction to the de Monfreid
left of himself in crayon, water-color; a decorative letters, quotes Gauguin's, "I shall paint no more,
relief in plaster signed, "PGO Oviri;" a comical Painting will no longer let me live. . . ." and corn-
statue in wood, showing the sculptor in the guise ments, "It is not human sacrilege to compare this
of an idol wearing horns, the satire of an episode cry with the words of another, 'Father, take away
with Tehura, whom he had wedded after the this cup from me!' Nor was it by chance that
fashion of the Maori; to pause before a mask Paul Gauguin painted himself in grief, broken,
carved in wood, the entire block ornamented with facing us, the shoulders and lines falling under a
a symmetry and elegance equaled only by the garment of dirty blue, against a dull background,
mask of a native girl in the collection of Monsieur with the epigraph, 'Near Golgotha.'"
one twenty-two
MAY 1925