"In the Waves," Paul
Gauguin, 1889. Oil on canvas from the collection of the
Cleveland Museum of Art.
Gauguin's
'Nirvana':
HARTFORD, CONN. - Perpetually seeking isolated, unspoiled
locations where he could pursue his art, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
found a temporary refuge in Le Pouldu, a rustic fishing village
in Brittany. He worked there in both 1889 and 1890 and was joined
by several followers, most notably the Dutch painter Jacob Isaac
Meyer de Haan, who is the subject of a Gauguin painting in the
collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
"Gauguin's 'Nirvana': ," organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum,
reassembles more than 40 interrelated paintings, drawings,
prints, and sculpture by Gauguin, de Haan, and others from
collections around the world. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum is
the only venue for this special exhibition, where it is on view
through April 29, 2001.
Gauguin and his circle were fond of Brittany, but their favored
spot, Pont-Aven, had become too popular with tourists and other
painters. So Gauguin and his newfound confidante, disciple, and
patron, Meyer de Haan (1852-1895), lodged at an inn at Le Pouldu.
With de Haan paying the bills, the two artists worked side by
side, creating images of themselves, one another, still lifes,
and the surrounding landscapes. They also decorated the inn's
dining room with murals, paintings, and wooden sculptures,
occasionally with help from artists Paul Sérusier (1864-1927) and
Charles Filiger (1863-1928).
Like Gauguin, de Haan had abandoned a business career to immerse
himself in art, but the bond they shared was also intellectual
and philosophical. Gauguin's portraits of de Haan attest to the
friends' common interests as well as Gauguin's mixed feelings of
admiration, gratitude, envy, and rivalry toward him.
"Le Teilleuses de Lin," Meyer de Haan, 1889. Oil on canvas from
a private collection.
"Gauguin respected de Haan's intellectual gifts, but initially
underestimated his hunch-backed friend's appeal to the opposite
sex," said exhibition curator Eric M. Zafran, Curator of European
Painting and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
"Inexplicably, at least to Gauguin, their pretty innkeeper
Marie-Jeanne Henry, known locally as Marie Poupee, or Marie the
doll, rejected his advances but had an affair with de Haan.
Gauguin's fascination with de Haan's carnality as well as his
erudition is expressed in a remarkable series of paintings and
sculptures," Zafran continued.
Gauguin's portrait of de Haan (circa 1889-90) in the collection
of the Wadsworth Atheneum, inscribed "Nirvana," shows the
redheaded Dutchman with a demonic, mask-like face with pointed
eyes, ears, and beard, and holding a coiled golden snake which
forms the G of the painter's signature. In the background are two
female nudes, each referring to slightly earlier paintings by
Gauguin - "Life and Death" (Mahmoud Khalik Museum, Cairo) and "In
the Waves" (The Cleveland Museum of Art).
De Haan's stooped posture, satyr-like face, and red hair and
beard, as well as his books on the table - Thomas Carlisle's
Sartor Resartus and John Milton's Paradise Lost -
are emphasized in another portrait (in a private collection
promised to the Museum of Modern Art).
Gauguin returned to Paris in 1890. He hoped that de Haan would
accompany him to Tahiti and continue to provide financial
support, but the sickly Dutchman's family, who controlled the
purse strings, refused permission. Before Gauguin departed for
the South Pacific in April 1891, however, his memories of de Haan
and Brittany fueled the painting of "The Loss of Virginity"
(1890-91; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk). In this work, the fox,
defined by Gauguin as an Indian symbol of perversity and a clear
allusion to de Haan, possessively perches on the reclining nude's
shoulder.
Although de Haan died in 1895 at age 43, he lived on vividly in
Gauguin's imagination. He reappeared in both a woodcut made in
Tahiti, and more importantly, as a figure leering at two
Polynesian beauties in one of Gauguin's last major paintings,
"Primitive Tales" (Museum Folkwang, Essen), done in Hiv-Oa in
1902.
Paul Gauguin: From 1848 To 1889
By 1889 when the artist Paul Gauguin arrived in the small village
of Le Pouldu in Brittany, he had already led a remarkable life.
He was born in Paris, but his maternal grandmother, Flora
Tristan, who as a well-known adventurer and political activist,
was of Peruvian descent. Gauguin's father, Clovis, a liberal
journalist, was forced into exile and died on shipboard en route
to Peru with his wife, their daughter, and the two-year-old Paul.
Gauguin spent four years living in relative splendor in Peru
before his mother brought the family back to France to stay with
distant relatives in Orleans, where young Paul attended a Jesuit
seminary. He went on to a pre-naval college in Paris and became a
merchant seaman and then a second lieutenant in the Navy.
During the 1860s and 70s he sailed to South America, the North
Pole, and London. In 1872, through the assistance of his guardian
uncle, Gauguin began a career as a stockbroker. That same year he
met both his future wife Mette Gad from Denmark and Emile
Schuffenecker, also a stockbroker as well as a part-time painter,
who encouraged Gauguin to take up the same hobby. Gauguin became
increasingly devoted to painting and finally had one of this
works accepted for the Paris Salon in 1876.
But it is from 1879, when he encountered Camille Pissarro and was
invited to join the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition, that
Gauguin's artistic career truly began. Through 1886 he
participated in the next four Impressionist exhibitions; however,
he obtained little critical success. Having given up his job, and
as the father now of five children, his situation was rather
desperate. As he would continue to do throughout his life,
Gauguin sought a distant refuge, far from the modern urban world.
First, he visited the town of Pont-Aven in Brittany, and then he
and the painter Charles Laval went to Panama, in April of 1887.
They worked on the construction of the Canal and then traveled on
to Martinique. There, before contracting malaria, Gauguin,
inspired by the tropical vegetation and local people, began
painting in a looser and brighter style.
On his return to Paris in November 1887, Gauguin was introduced
to both Vincent van Gogh and his brother, the art dealer Theo,
who would become one of the first to purchase his paintings. In
October of that year Gauguin joined van Gogh at Arles, but their
relationship was stormy and by late December Gauguin had returned
to Paris. In 1889, Gauguin was an enthusiastic visitor to the
Exposition Universelle, the great world's fair, with its many
displays of eastern cultures.
Before completing the arrangements for a display of works by
himself and his friends at the fair grounds, he went back to
Brittany. By July he had met the Dutch painter Meyer de Haan and
they soon settled at the isolated inn at Le Pouldu, where Gauguin
would produce some of his most original works.
Paul Gauguin: From 1890 To 1903
By early in 1890, Meyer de Haan's family subsidy came to an end,
and he and Gauguin had to depart from Le Pouldu. In 1891 de Haan
returned to Holland where he died in 1895, while Gauguin decided
to finally pursue his dream of living in an "idyllic" uncivilized
place. After a brief and final visit with his wife and children
in Copenhagen, he departed in April of 1891 for Tahiti.
Enamored of the Polynesian people, their mythology, and the lush
tropical setting, he was extremely productive over the next few
years, but unfortunately earned hardly any money. Thus in August
of 1893 he had to return to France. The next year he went back to
Brittany, briefly visiting Le Pouldu in a vain attempt to reclaim
some of the works he had left there. In 1894 Gauguin exhibited in
Paris "Noa Noa," his highly original series of woodcuts based on
Tahitian motifs.
Then, in July of 1895, he again left France, and via Australia
and New Zealand arrived back in Tahiti. In addition to several
grand paintings, Gauguin also produced a set of woodcuts based on
many of his earlier Breton themes. Suffering from failing health,
Gauguin moved from Tahiti in 1901 to the even more isolated
Marquesas Islands, settling in Atuona on the island of Hiva-Oa.
There he painted a series of inspired works often recalling
earlier subjects. On May 8, 1903 he died at the age of 55.
Le Pouldu
When Gauguin first visited the western coastal region of Brittany
in 1886 and 1888, he stayed at the picturesque village of
Pont-Aven. It soon became too crowded with tourists and other
artists for his liking. During this time, however, he had already
discovered the more remote village of Le Pouldu, and it was here
that he decided to take up residence in the summer of 1889.
"Still Life with Pitcher and Onions," Meyer de Haan. Oil on
paper mounted on board from the collection of the Musee des
Beaux-Arts.
Le Pouldu was only a tiny hamlet where the residents made their
living primarily by harvesting seaweed. The inhospitable coast
was distinguished by the famed black rocks, covered by seaweed
and mussels, which supposedly had curative powers. Gauguin first
stayed in one of the few local hotels.
With an introduction from Theo van Gogh, he was joined there by
Dutch painter Meyer de Haan. De Haan provided the funds for their
stay in exchange for becoming Gauguin's student. By October of
1889, they had found lodging at the recently built inn owned by
the energetic and attractive young woman Marie Henry, or Marie
Poupée. She and de Haan were to have an intimate relationship.
However, what was most important about this time in the artists'
lives was that Gauguin and de Haan during the next 14 months,
joined on occasion by several other painters, entered into an
astonishingly creative period. Far away from Paris, they replaced
the earlier Impressionist precepts of transcribing reality with a
new symbolic approach. Their subjects, often derived from fantasy
and dreams, became more fantastic and their forms and colors mote
abstract and imaginative.
Benefiting from the isolation of Le Pouldu, Gauguin experimented
not only with painting, but also with ceramics, sculpture, and
fresco. He and de Haan, following the example of Monet and
Renoir, often painted the same subjects, especially landscapes
and still lifes, and sometimes the pupil was as original as the
master. With his knowledge of literature, religion, and
philosophy, de Haan fueled Gauguin's powerful imagination with
ideas for new and provocative subjects.
Jacob Meyer De Haan: 1852 - 1895
The painter Meyer de Haan, who only sometimes employed his given
name Jacob, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Amsterdam.
Their business was primarily the manufacture of bread and matzo,
but the young Meyer, who was a hunchback, was more interested in
art and music. In exchange for his share of the business, he was
given a stipend to pursue a painting career.
He studied with the academic master Petrus Grieve and became a
skilled painter of portraits and genre subjects in a dark Dutch
manner. His major canvas, worked on from 1878-88, was a depiction
of the liberal Seventeenth Century Jewish thinker Uriel Acosta
before the tribunal. Although painted in a traditional
Rembrandtesque style, its subject was controversial, and de Haan
decided to leave Holland for the most liberal atmosphere of
Paris.
He arrived there in the fall of 1888, and through the art dealer
Theo van Gogh was introduced to members of the avant-garde. He
undoubtedly saw the exhibition of works by Gauguin and his
colleagues in the Volpini Café at the Exposition Universelle in
the summer of 1889 and decided to follow this new style. De Haan
and Gauguin probably first met in Pont-Aven and were soon working
together as master and pupil there and then at Le Pouldu.
Through Gauguin's tutelage de Haan was liberated, and his
landscapes and especially his still lifes became vibrant, bold
compositions in the manner of Cézanne. Following Gauguin, de Haan
also adopted a new flamboyant style of dress and with his large
head and hands, red hair, and pointed ears was a frequent subject
in the works of Gauguin and other painters.
His own self-portraits, however, are quite different from the
exaggerated, demonic ones of his colleagues. De Haan's Jewish
background, as well as his knowledge of esoteric and classical
literature, was of great interest to Gauguin. He incorporated
books and objects relating to religion and philosophical ideas
into his symbolic portraits of de Haan, who remained his friend,
despite their supposed rivalry for the affections of their
innkeeper, Marie Henry.
When he left Le Pouldu in late 1890, Meyer de Haan not only
abandoned most of his works but also Marie Henry, who gave birth
to their daughter in June of 1891. He returned to Holland and,
ill, apparently produced no more art before his death on October
25, 1895.
The Inn At Le Pouldu
Gauguin and de Haan, joined later at times by Paul Sérusier and
Charles Filiger, found their chief lodging in Le Pouldu at the
inn called the Buvette de la Plage, which was owned by the young
Marie Henry. There the painters had their meals, slept, and also
made a temporary studio. Their greatest activity, however, in the
winter of 1889 became the decorating of the inn's dining room.
Meyer de Haan's portrait of Marie Henry with her daughter, known
as "Maternity," was the centerpiece of one wall. On another
flanking the fireplace were Gauguin's portraits of himself and de
Haan. On the large west wall of the dining room, the painters
were most creative.
Inspired by the subjects and techniques they had seen at the
Exposition Universelle in Paris earlier in the year, both de Haan
and Gauguin painted large-scale compositions directly on the
plaster walls. When Marie Henry sold the inn in 1893, she took
away with her all the movable paintings and sculpture, and these
were later sold by her heirs. The wall paintings left behind were
covered by wallpaper and only rediscovered in 1924. At that time
they were removed and have also now been widely dispersed. The
Wadsworth was able to reunite a number of the original works from
the inn at Le Pouldu and give some sense of its distinctive aura.
Paul Sérusier: 1864 - 1927
Born into a Parisian business family, Sérusier was only allowed
by his father to pursue art in 1886. He then entered the Academie
Julien and made rapid progress, exhibiting his work at the Paris
Salon for the first time 1888. In the summer of that same year,
Sérusier went to Brittany and in Pont-Aven met Gauguin, who
agreed to give him a single lesson. This literally changed
Sérusier's life, as he produced a remarkable little abstract
painting on board of a forest view.
When he returned to Paris and showed it to his young colleagues,
on whom it had a profound effect, it became known as "The
Talisman." These artists formed a semi-secret group, which they
called the "Nabis," after the Hebrew word for prophets, and they
became devoted to a flat, decorative type of painting often with
religious overtones.
Sérusier returned to Brittany in 1889 and again in 1890, spending
time with Gauguin and Meyer de Haan in Le Pouldu, and may have
done some works in the inn's interior. His several views of the
region exhibited here reveal how he adapted their subjects of
lonely farm girls, broad expanses of fields, and paths demarcated
by gates. Sérusier, however, was able to invest all these with
his own distinctive air of melancholic spirituality. He
eventually settled in Brittany and devoted much of his art to
theatrical and religious themes.
The Volpini Prints
After his return to Paris from the time spent with Vincent van
Gogh in Arles, Gauguin, encouraged by the dealer Theo van Gogh,
produced a series of prints devoted to themes drawn primarily
from his experiences in Martinique, Brittany, and Arles. Created
on zinc plates, these zincographs were then printed in a limited
number on vivid canary yellow paper.
"Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin," Paul Gauguin, 1889. Oil on canvas
from the collection of UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art
and Cultural Center.
A complete set of them was shown at the exhibition of so-called
Impressionist and Synthetist artists which Gauguin instigated but
which his friend Schuffenecker actually organized at the Café
belonging to Signor Volpini on the grounds of the Exposition
Universelle in the summer of 1889.
For the printed catalogue of this exhibition, Gauguin sent to
Schuffenecker a drawing of women at the Black Rocks. This image
combining the female from the paintings "In the Waves" and "Life
and Death" (much as they are seen in the background of "Nirvana")
was adapted as a linecut for the catalogue's title page.
"Seen together, these startling works and others will illuminate
the significance of Gauguin's encounter with Meyer de Haan, which
resulted in their collaboration on the inn's décor and
side-by-side studies of still lifes and landscapes. They will
also offer the new insight into the Wadsworth Atheneum's
masterpiece," said Zafran. "Most interesting is that 'Nirvana'
was left by Gauguin in the keeping of Spanish sculptor Paco
Durrio, later a good friend of the young Picasso who was
obviously influenced by the 'modern' and primitive qualities of
Gauguin."
Lenders to the exhibition include private collections in Brazil,
Switzerland, and the United States; the National Gallery of Art,
Washington; the Museum of Modern Art; the Cleveland Museum of
Art; the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va.; UCLA at Armand Hammer
Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Indianapolis
Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; Yale University Art
Gallery; National Gallery of Ottawa, Canada; Musee des
Beaux-Arts, Quimper, France; and Museum Folkwang Essen, Germany.
A 160-page catalogue with more than 75 color images and 20 black
and white illustrations has been published by the Wadsworth
Atheneum in association with Yale University Press. It features
essays by Zafran; Charles Stuckey, senior curator at the Kimbell
Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Tex.; Ogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, a
professor of art history at the University of Toronto; Victor
Merlhes, an authority on Gauguin's letters; and a technical study
of "Nirvana: Portrait of Meyer de Haan" by Stephen Kornhauser,
chief curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is at 600 Main Street.
Hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm, and on the first
Thursday of most months until 8 pm. For information, 860/278-2670
or www.wadsworthatheneum.org.
