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Gauguin and Laval in Martinique

Despite his deep longing for distant lands and warm colours, Vincent never travelled any further than France. His contemporaries Paul Gauguin and Charles Laval set off for Martinique in the French Antilles in 1887.

Vincent and his brother Theo first met Gauguin in Paris shortly after he returned. It was the start of an artistic friendship.

What Gauguin has to say about the tropics seems wonderful to me. There, certainly, is the future of a great renaissance of painting. (…) Not everyone is free and in a position to be able to emigrate. But what things there would be to do! I regret not being ten or twenty years younger; I’d certainly go.

Vincent van Gogh to Theo from Arles, 27 or 28 October 1888

Gauguin and the Van Gogh brothers

On Vincent’s recommendation, Theo went to visit Gauguin at his studio in Paris in December 1887. He had brought back some new paintings from Martinique.

The brothers were impressed. They thought Gauguin’s work was very modern, with its flat decorative planes, strange colours and high horizons.

View of river

Paul Gauguin, On the Banks of the River, Martinique, 1887

View of river

‘We also have a second painting by him which he exchanged for a study of mine, a dried-up river with purple mud and pools of water that reflect the pure cobalt blue of the sky, green grass’, Vincent wrote to his sister Wil about the painting On the Banks of the River at Martinique.

Paul Gauguin, Study of Martinican Women, 1887, private collection, Switzerland

Life study

Gauguin took a lot of time getting to grips with a subject. He used this life study in his view of the river, where the seated woman is seen in mirror image. Her dress is blue instead of white.

Swap

Vincent van Gogh, Still Life with Two Sunflowers, 1887, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1949

Swap

Vincent painted dead sunflowers as a colour experiment. He showed them at a group exhibition in Paris organised by the artists themselves in November 1887. Gauguin found them charming. He swapped his view of a river for two of them.

As an art dealer, Theo must have recognised immediately how audacious Gauguin’s Martinique pictures were. They were different in many ways from the art common at the time.

In early 1888 Theo showed paintings and ceramics by Gauguin at Boussot on Boulevard Montmartre, where he was the manager.

Romanticised

Paul Gauguin, The Mango Trees, Martinique, 1887

Romanticised

Gauguin composed the tranquil image of The Mango Trees, Martinique using studies. The plantation workers and women carrying baskets show the mango harvest, from picking and gathering to transporting and eating the fruit. A romanticised image, for these people actually did heavy work in the blazing sun.

Receipt from Gauguin to Theo for acquisition of 'The Mango Trees'

Acquired by Theo

Theo bought the painting of the mango harvest, which Vincent described as ‘high poetry’, for 400 francs to add to his own collection. It was hung in a prominent place above the sofa in the brothers’ apartment on Rue Lépic.

From life

Paul Gauguin, Martinican Women, 1887, private collection

From life

Gauguin first drew a study from life of the two women in the foreground in pastels. His paintings were not a direct impression of reality, as they also contained imagined elements. Vincent, on the other hand, preferred to work on the basis of his observations.

Paul Gauguin, Scene of Martinique, 1887, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

Fan

This design for a fan shows how Gauguin used his sketches in all kinds of ways. The woman eating a mango has a red headscarf here, instead of the checked madras fabric in the sketch.

…they’re high poetry, his negresses — and everything his hand makes has a sweet, heart-rending, astonishing character. People don’t understand him yet, and he suffers greatly from not selling, like other true poets.

Vincent to Émile Bernard from Arles, 22 May 1888

Inspiration from Martinique

Paul Gauguin and Charles Laval had known each other since summer 1886, when they were staying in the village of Pont-Aven in Brittany, France. They went there in search of an authentic, unspoilt world.

Just after they returned to Paris the two friends started thinking about a new place to work, somewhere idyllic, far from modern city life. In April 1887 they left for Panama from where they would travel to the Caribbean island of Martinique.

Just before leaving

Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Profile of Laval, 1886, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis

Just before leaving

In this painting Gauguin shows his friend Laval studying a still life with fruit in the style of Paul Cézanne, who was a great example to him. Gauguin made the ceramic pot himself. A few months after this portrait was painted, the two friends left for Martinique.

As far as I am concerned the further I get, the more I admire your talent and feel respect and affection for you. You have made me understand how I can improve myself. I embrace you as a courageous older brother who is an example to me.

Charles Laval to Paul Gauguin, 9 December 1887

Martinique was a French colony in 1887. The French had introduced sugar cane plantations to the island, where they had enslaved Africans working for them.

Slavery officially came to an end in Martinique in 1848, but in practice many were forced to continue working for low wages as plantation labourers and porteuses (carriers).

Paradise

Paul Gauguin, Coastal Landscape of Martinique (The Bay of Saint-Pierre, Martinique), 1887, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Paradise

Gauguin painted this sea view not far from where he and Laval lived.

‘We are both currently housed in a case à nègres [‘negro hut’] and it is a paradise compared with Panama. Below us lies the sea, edged with coconut palms, above us all kinds of fruit trees, twenty-five minutes from town’, he wrote to his wife Mette in June 1887.

The great outdoors

Laval liked to go out and explore the landscape, while Gauguin preferred to stick to well-trodden paths. Laval must have captured this view of the Pitons du Carbet on paper or canvas, as it closely resembles the view today. Gauguin also painted the landscape in Coming and Going in situ, but he later added figures from his sketchbook.

Charles LavalLandscape on Martinique, 1887 - 1888)
Paul Gauguin, Coming and Going, 1887, Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collectie, on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Wherever I go I need a period of incubation so that I may learn the essence of the plants and trees, of nature, which never wishes to be understood or yield herself.

Paul Gauguin, 'Avant et Après', 1903

Dream or reality?

Besides painting the natural environment of Martinique Gauguin and Laval also focused on the island’s black inhabitants, attracted by their picturesque appearance. They were particularly drawn to the women carrying things on their heads and washing clothes by the river.

Action and expression

Charles Laval, Women Carrying Fruit, 1887, private collection

Action and expression

In contrast to Gauguin’s tranquil pictures, the women in Laval’s work are full of action, communicating with expressive gestures.

A Path near Fort-de-France, 1899, BnF / Société de géographie (Paris). Photo : André Salles

Carriers

The women carried heavy loads in baskets on their heads from the plantations to the market in town. The women were used as a simple, cheap form of transportation.

First impressions

Gauguin mainly made sketches during the first few weeks, in order to process his first impressions. He thus created a ‘visual database’ for his paintings, which he composed very carefully.

Paul Gauguin, Sketch of Several Figures, Flowers and Animal (verso) (58), 1887, private collection
Paul Gauguin, Sketches of Figures and Foliage (recto), 1887, The Art Institute of Chicago, restricted gift of the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation
Paul Gauguin, Melon Eater, 1887, private collection
Amazement

Gauguin described to his friend Claude-Emile Schuffenecker how he continued to be amazed by the people he saw every day, and made many sketches of them.

Paul Gauguin, The Little Washerwoman, 1887, private collection
Washerwomen in Saint-Pierre, 1899, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

Paul Gauguin, Water Tub (recto), 1887, private collection

In the two artists’ sketches and paintings the women appear to be dancing and singing as they work, as if life in Martinique were one long holiday.

They were sticking to the European tradition of depicting the colonies as an exotic idyll, which is how they saw it. The harsh reality remained hidden.

Curious

The Van Gogh Museum recently bought these two watercolours by Laval, which may come from a sketchbook. Gauguin wrote to Vincent: ‘My friend Laval is back from Martinique; he brought some very curious watercolours. I’ll have you look at some that you’ll like, they’re art.’

Charles LavalTwo Basket-Bearing Women in Martinique, 1889)
Charles LavalWomen on the Seashore, 1889)
Black and white

Charles Laval, Two Riders on the Beach, 1888, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Black and white

A black and a white rider gallop along the shore together. Laval captured the speed of the horses in a masterful way in this watercolour.

In early 1888 Gauguin returned from Martinique ill. He went to Pont-Aven on the northern coast of France.

Laval later joined him there.

Studio of the South

Like Gauguin and Laval Vincent believed that painters should go to warm places to advance art. With this in mind, at the start of 1888, he left Paris for Arles in the South of France.

Vincent discussed his plan to establish a ‘Studio of the South’ in his correspondence with Gauguin. Theo promised Gauguin a financial arrangement if he would join this artists’ community.

Mark my words, there is currently a wind blowing among artists that is very favourable for me; (…) and be assured, however much Van Gogh loves me, he will not sustain me in the South for my beautiful eyes.

Paul Gauguin to Emile Schuffenecker, 16 October 1888

In September 1888 Gauguin suggested that Laval and their friend Émile Bernard go with him to Arles. The three artists corresponded with Van Gogh by letter, sketches and actual paintings.

Japanese monk

Self-portrait, 1888, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge (MA), Fogg Art Museum

Japanese monk

Vincent knew that Japanese artists exchanged their work. He suggested to Gauguin, Laval and Bernard that they do the same, and asked them to paint portraits of each other. In exchange, he sent them this portrait of himself as a Japanese monk.

Exchange

Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait with Portrait of Emile Bernard (Les misérables), 1888

Exchange

Gauguin gave Vincent a self-portrait with a portrait in the background of Bernard, the young painter Vincent had often associated with in Paris.

Self-assured

Charles Laval, Self-Portrait, 1888

Self-assured

Vincent wrote to Theo in Novembe 1888:

‘The portrait of Laval is very self-assured, very distinguished, and will be precisely one of the paintings you speak of, which one takes before the others have recognized the talent.’

Gauguin was eventually the only artist to make it to Arles, he arrived on 23 October 1888.

While they worked together, he encouraged Vincent to work ‘from his imagination’. Vincent admired the mysterious, poetic nature of Gauguin’s work. He also enthusiastically set to work using dark contours, flat decorative colours and a high horizon.

From the imagination

Vincent wrote to Theo: ‘A reminiscence of our garden at Etten with cabbages, cypresses, dahlias and figures. (…) the things of the imagination do indeed take on a more mysterious character.’ The flat decorative female figures on the left are also typical ‘Gauguin-style’.

Memory of the Garden at Etten, 1888, The State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg
Paul GauguinThe Mango Trees, Martinique, 1887)

Gauguin did not share Vincent’s hopes for the Studio of the South. He avoided the subject and often referred to his own desire to return to exotic places. Vincent therefore came up with the idea of a ‘Studio of the Tropics’.

Gauguin was only too keen to put this plan into action - without Vincent. He left Arles after a blazing row on 23 December 1888.

Vincent was right: the future belongs to the painter of tropics which have not yet been painted, and we need something new as a subject for the stupid buying public.

Paul Gauguin to Émile Bernard, autumn 1888

…the little yellow house here in Arles will remain what it is, a halfway house between Africa and the tropics and the people of the north.

Vincent to his brother Theo, 27 or 28 October 1888

Memories of Martinique

Martinique would long continue to influence the work of Gauguin and Laval. They had discovered new subjects there, and developed an innovative style.

After they returned to Pont-Aven in Brittany, they continued to simplify the form and line in their work.

Experiments

Charles Laval, Women Bathing, 1888, Kunsthalle Bremen, Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Experiments

Laval produced this dynamic painting of women in the waves on the Brittany coast. In Martinique he had experimented with producing images with little depth using loose brushstrokes. He took this further in Pont-Aven.

No horizon

Paul Gauguin, Fishermen and Bathers in the Aven, 1888, private collection

No horizon

Gauguin’s stylistic experiments in Martinique can be seen in Fishermen and Bathers in the Avenin the abstract areas of colour in the background and the absence of any horizon.

The Paris World’s Fair of 1889 -two years after Martinique- had a lot of impact on Gauguin’s work. The exotic objects in the colonial pavilions, in particular, brought back memories for him. They inspired him to work in the decorative arts.

Café Volpini

In response to the excessive amount of French art at the World’s Fair, Gauguin, Schuffenecker and Bernard organised their own exhibition at Café Volpini, next to the Palais des Beaux-Arts. Gauguin showed a series of prints tracing the artistic phases of his career. These two refer to Martinique.

Paul GauguinThe Grasshoppers and the Ants (Souvenir of Martinique) (Les cigales et les fourmis (Souvenir de la Martinique)) from the series Volpini, 1889)
Paul GauguinMartinique, Pastorales (Pastorales, Martinique) from the series Volpini, 1889)

Artist Maurice Denis was sceptical about the exhibition:

‘This is regarded now as the art of the future; one sees people with blue faces, green suns, purple trees (…).’

Years later he had to admit that ‘this exhibition was extraordinarily significant, ushered in a new age’.

Gauguin incorporated his impressions of Martinique into ceramics and wood carvings. He believed these art forms were ‘more primitive’ and better suited to ‘exotic’ subjects.

To Gauguin there was no different between fine art and decorative arts.

Exotic combination
Paul Gauguin, Woman of Martinique, 1889, The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey
Paul Gauguin, Roses et statuette, 1889, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims

Gauguin combined a number of ‘exotic’ elements in this small figure: the colourful headscarf recalls the women of Martinique, while the bracelets and the woman’s pose – note her hand – are typically Asian. In the still-life the figure is seen beside a bunch of roses.

Studio of the Tropics

It was not until after Vincent’s death in 1890 that Gauguin actually put his plan to establish a Studio of the Tropics into action. When Theo died in 1891 he also lost his main representative in France.

Gauguin left alone for Tahiti in April -in search, once more, of an unspoilt culture.

Returned

Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Carrière, 1888 or 1889, National Gallery of Art, Washington, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Returned

Gauguin gave this self-portrait to his friend Laval as a gift. The landscape seen through the window looks like Martinique, a reference to the time they spent there together.

In 1890 Laval became engaged to Bernard’s sister Madeleine, with whom Gauguin was also in love. This brought their friendship to an end. Laval returned the portrait.

Alas, I see myself condemned to be less and less understood, and I must hold fast to following my way alone, to drag out an existence without a family like a pariah. So the solitude in the woods seems to me in the future to be a new and almost dreamed-of paradise. The savage will return to savagery.

Paul Gauguin to Vincent van Gogh from Le Pouldu, 28 June 1890

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