The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 23, 2024
Head of a Tahitian Woman
1891
(French, 1848–1903)
Sheet: 30.5 x 24.4 cm (12 x 9 5/8 in.)
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
In his writings, Gauguin often referred to his drawings as "documents"—records of motifs and ideas he could use later.Description
This drawing belongs to a group of highly finished portrait drawings of Tahitians made by Paul Gauguin shortly after his arrival in the South Seas. While getting used to this new place, Gauguin initially avoided painting, preferring first to familiarize himself with the landscape and people through observation and drawing. The meticulous quality of this graphite study suggests that it was made from life. The woman’s noble face and enigmatic expression allude to the spirituality and melancholy that Gauguin sought to conjure in his Polynesian work.- ?-1929(Hugo Perls, Berlin, sold to De Hauke & Co., Inc., New York)1929(De Hauke & Co., Inc., sold to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams, Cleveland, OH)1929-1949Mr. [1880–1966] and Mrs. [1879–1980] Lewis B. Williams, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH1949 -Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Morice, Charles. Paul Gauguin. Paris: H. Floury, 1919. Reproduced: p. 149Rewald, John. Gauguin. New York: Hyperion Press, 1938. Reproduced: p. 155A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin For the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Exh. Cat. New York: Wildenstein, 1946. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 53"Rare Drawings in Gauguin Exhibition." The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 39, no. 15 (April 15, 1950): 74. Mentioned: p. 74Francis, Henry S. "A Drawing by Gauguin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 37, no. 8 (1950): 178-179. Mentioned: pp. 178-179; Reproduced: p. 174 www.jstor.orgRewald, John. Gauguin Drawings. New York: Yoseloff, 1958. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 93Brooks, Van Wyck, trans. Paul Gauguin's Intimate Journals. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958. Reproduced: p. 23The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 606 archive.orgRousseau, Theodore, Jr. Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture. Exh. Cat. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, in association with the Lakeside Press, 1959. Mentioned: p. 65, no. 82Nineteenth Century Master Drawings. Exh. Cat. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum, 1961. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 52The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 181 archive.orgGauguin. Exh. Cat. Seibu: Grand Magazin Seibu, 1969. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 52The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 181 archive.orgPickvance, Ronald. The Drawings of Paul Gauguin. London: Hamlyn, 1970. Mentioned: p. 34; Reproduced: plate 70Martini, Alberto. Paul Gauguin. Milano: Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1977. Reproduced: p. 3Wadley, Nicholas. Gauguin. London: Phaidon, 1978. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 56The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 223 archive.orgMcFee, June King, and Rogena M. Degge. Art, Culture, and Environment: A Catalyst for Teaching. New York: Kendall Hunt, 1980. Reproduced: p. 274Wilkinson, Alan G. Gauguin to Moore: Primitivism in Modern Sculpture. Exh. Cat. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 59, no. 18Prather, Marla, and Charles F. Stuckey, ed. Gauguin: A Retrospective. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1987. Reproduced: p. 174Paul Gauguin. Exh. Cat. Tokyo: National Museum of Modern Art, 1987. Reproduced: p. 92Barskai︠a︡, A. G., and M. A. Bessonova. Paul Gauguin in Soviet Museums. Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1988. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 67Huyghe, René. Gauguin. New York: Crown, 1988. Reproduced: p. 61Cachin, Françoise. Gauguin. Paris: Flammarion, 1988. Reproduced: p. 146Brettell, Richard, Françoise Cachin, Claire Frèches-Thory, and Charles F. Stuckey. Gauguin. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 1989. Mentioned: pp. 212, 224, no. 118; Reproduced: p. 224Cachin, Françoise. Gauguin: "Ce malgré moi de sauvage." Paris: Gallimard, 1989. Mentioned: p. 191; Reproduced: p. 73Clement, Russell T. Paul Gauguin: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. Mentioned: p. 189Thomson, Belinda, ed. Gauguin by Himself. London: Bulfinch Press, 1993. Mentioned: p. 307; Reproduced: p. 168Amishai-Maisels, Ziva, Marina Bessonova, Albert Kostenevic, and Maria Grazia Messina. Paul Gauguin e l'avanguardia Russa. Firenze: Artificio, 1995. Reproduced: p. 68Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: p.5, pp. 142-43, p. 291; Reproduced: p. 143Cable, Patrick Shaw. "From North Africa to the Black Sea: Nineteenth-Century French Orientalist Drawings." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 7 (2002): 104-25. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 118 www.jstor.org
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- {{cite web|title=Head of a Tahitian Woman|url=false|author=Paul Gauguin|year=1891|access-date=23 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1949.439