Breton Girl Spinning
Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903), Le Pouldu, 1889
oil on plaster, 135 cm x 62 cm
Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
This Breton girl was once part of a series of decorative murals. Paul Gauguin painted her in Le Pouldu in Brittany: ‘in the inn where we eat’.
Writing to his friend Van Gogh, Gauguin called the girl ‘a peasant woman spinning at the sea’s edge’. (The spindle hangs from her hand on a thread that is now almost invisible.) He described the whole painting, down to the cow in the background. Oddly enough, though, his letter doesn’t mention the angel overhead. We don’t know exactly what he meant by it. Joan of Arc was traditionally portrayed this way, because of her vision of the Archangel Michael.
- Object number
- s0513S2006
- Dimensions
- 135 cm x 62 cm, 149.5 cm x 78 cm, 9 cm
- Provenance
- Marie Henry, Le Pouldu, 1889; sold by Marie Henry to Mme Le Roch, Le Pouldu, 1911; sold by Mme Le Roch to Joseph de Cadenet, Le Pouldu, 1918; sold by Joseph de Cadenet to Mme Cochennec, Le Pouldu, 1920; sold by Mme Cochennec to Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Rattner, New York, 1925; auction New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries (Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Drawings ...), lot 118 (Jeanne d'Arc) purchased by Frederick W. Ziv, Cincinnati for USD 65.000, 14 October 1965; sold by Frederick W. Ziv to M. Erdman B.V., 2002; sold by M. Erdman B.V to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 5 april 2006.
- artist
- Paul Gauguin
- Credits
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Ongekend. Verhalen rond 10 jaar aanwinsten, 5 February-12 September 2021
Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Reality and Imagination, 3 January-20 March 2017
Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Reality and Imagination, 8 October-18 December 2016
Arles, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Van Gogh. Coleurs du Nord, couleurs du Sud, 4 April-31 August 2014, no. 20
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Paul Gauguin: Maker of Myth, 27 February-5 June 2011, no. 53
London, Tate Modern, Paul Gauguin: Maker of Myth, 30 September 2010-16 January 2011, no. 53
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Paul Gauguin. De doorbraak naar moderniteit, 19 February-6 June 2010, no. 99
Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889, 4 October 2009-18 January 2010
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh en Gauguin. Het atelier van het zuiden, 9 February-2 June 2002, no. 105
Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, The early work of Paul Gauguin : genesis of an artist, 18 March-26 April 1971, no. 21
New York, Wildenstein & Company, Loan exhibition, Gauguin: for the benefit of the Citizen's Committee for Children of New York City, 5 April-5 May 1956, no. 17
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Paul Gauguin: His Place in the Meeting of East and West, 27 March-25 April 1954, no. 16
New York, Fifty-Sixth Street Galleries, Gauguin, 1931
Barbey, M., chemin de Gauguin : genèse et rayonnement, 1985, p. 110-127