Portrait of Mette Gauguin
Portrait of Mette

This bust of Mette, Paul Gauguin’s Danish wife, is one of only two marble sculptures he ever made. The other is of their son Emil. Both were created early on in Gauguin’s artistic career. The finely ruffled collar and gap between collar and neck demonstrate a level of technique surprising in someone with no formal sculptural training. He was likely helped by a professional sculptor, Jules-Ernest Bouillot, his landlord at the time.

It is quiet and somewhat conventional compared with his later three-dimensional work, especially the roughly carved and expressive wood sculptures inspired by his time in Tahiti.
Only two marble sculptures by Gauguin are known, this portrait head of his Danish wife Mette and one of his son, Emile, carved in the same year.

At the time the Gauguin family was living in an apartment in the Rue des Fourneaux, in Paris, which belonged to a sculptor named Bouillot. Considering Gauguin’s inexperience as a sculptor in marble, and the highly accomplished naturalism of this work, it seems likely that Bouillot assisted Gauguin in the carving, but to what extent is not known."

Mette Gauguin, Cophenhagen; Pola Gauguin, Copenhagen; Leicester Galleries, London by 1924; Purchased by Samuel Courtauld, London, March 1925; Courtauld Gift, 1932

Masterpieces of Impressionism from The Courtauld Gallery, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 10/09/2019-15/12/2019; Aichi Prefectural Museum, Nagoya, Japan, 03/01/2020-15/03/2020; Kobe City Museum, Kobe, Japan, 28/03/2020-21/06/2020

The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, 20/02/2019-17/06/2019

Collecting Gauguin: Samuel Courtauld in the 20's, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 20/06/2013-08/09/2013 ...More

Inscription: signed & carved : below the collar : : P. Gauguin