"Le Femme aux Figues"

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(1894)

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"La Femme aux Figues" (1894), etching printed in dark green on Japan paper, 10 1/2" x 16 1/2"; 265x420mm, full margins. First state (of 3).  Edition of 100.  Inscribed "No.32" in pencil, lower right. Ex-collection Thorsten Laurin (Lugt supplement 2446a, lower right recto).  Published by J. Meier-Graefe, Maison Moderne, with the blind stamp upper right. From Germinal. A superb, early impression [Kornfeld 25].

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a post-Impressionist painter, sculptor, ceramist and print maker. In 1889, his art took on its final, simplified style, Synthetism, which was bolder than Impressionism. His style accomplished what no Romantic artist had achieved, a style based upon pre-Renaissance sources. Its' modeling was flat, inspired by folk art with simplified forms reduced to rhythmically curved shapes.

"La Femme aux Figues" was first published in the portfolio, Germinal. This 1st state of 3 was created in 1894 while Gauguin was in Europe after returning from Tahiti in 1893. According to the well-known Gauguin scholar, Caroline Boyle-Turner, this etching is "one of the most meaningful engravings in contemporary French art".

This Gauguin is in a 32 5/8" x 25 7/8" swan shaped frame with a yellow-green haze created with multiple washes and patinas over gold leaf. The wood fillet is olive crackle over a light yellow-orange under paint with a curved scoop that echoes the frame.  The green brier silk outer and olive denim inner mats are acid and lignin free and are protected with Acrylite-AR OP3 (UV) by CYRO ............. SOLD