Tii à la coquille
Gauguin took his chisels with him to Oceania. Disappointed that authentic art objects were no longer to be found, he practised on utensils made from guava wood before tackling this piece of ironwood in September 1892. His "savage trinkets" were misunderstood and would not sell, and in 1900 he gave them to his friend the painter Daniel de Monfreid who acted as his correspondent in France: "About the sculptures, I would like the whole lot, minimal really, not to be split up or to go to people who might not like them; and I would be very pleased if you would accept – not as a present but as a token of friendship – all the wooden sculptures from Tahiti." In 1901, the packing case of Gauguin's sculptures arrived in the east Pyrenees. Matisse saw them there in 1903. They were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne in 1906 and radiated fresh energy to artists thirsting for something new.
Was Gauguin trying to create a mythology for people who had lost their own? The Maori sculptures that appear in his paintings in 1892 are his own invention because there were no monumental works left on the island.
The Idol with a Shell depicts a god, sitting in the lotus position, with a mouth full of cannibalistic teeth (made from a pharyngeal tooth of a parrot fish) and tattooed legs. The pectoral and belt are made from mother-of-pearl. Two figures are repeated on the right and left of the main figure. The arms end in flat, rake-like fingers, the half-bent legs suggest the sexual gestures of the tamure dance. The fish hook ears are elements of Maori decoration. Heads of tikis (secondary gods marking the boundaries of a sacred place) with flat skulls decorate the base of the shield.
With the unfamiliar technique of sculpture, Gauguin ventured even further into his "unwittingly savage" nature than in his painting.
- collection Mme Daniel de Monfreid, donné par Gauguin
- jusqu'en 1951, dans la collection Mme Huc de Monfreid, Agnès de Monfreid (fille du deuxième mariage de l'artiste épouse le médecin Huc en 1917 (?) meurt en 1968)
- 1951, donation sous réserve d'usufruit de Mme Huc de Monfreid
- attribué au musée du Louvre
- 1968, entrée matérielle au musée du Louvre (département des objets d'art)
- jusqu'en 1986, musée du Louvre galerie du Jeu de Paume
- 1986, affecté au musée d'Orsay, Paris
- [sans titre] - galerie Durand-Ruel - France, Paris, 1893
- Salon d'automne - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1906
- Georges-Daniel de Monfreid et son ami Paul Gauguin - galerie Charpentier - France, Paris, 1938
- Collection de G. D. de Monfreid - musée national d'art moderne - France, Paris, 1951
- La sculpture française au XIXe siècle - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1986
- Gauguin - National Gallery of Art - Etats-Unis, Washington, 1988
- Gauguin - The Art Institute of Chicago - Etats-Unis, Chicago, 1988
- Gauguin - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - 1989
- Gauguin-Tahiti : L'atelier des tropiques - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 2003-2004
- Gauguin-Tahiti : L'atelier des tropiques - Museum of Fine Arts - Etats-Unis, Boston, 2004
- Gauguin l'Alchimiste - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 2017-2018
-
Gray, Christopher, Sculpture and Ceramics by Paul Gauguin, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1963, n°99
-
(dir.) Cogeval, Guy, Le Musée d'Orsay à 360 degrés, Paris, Skira ; Flammarion ; Musée d'Orsay, 2013, p. 218, texte de Anne Pingeot
-
Horner, Nadège, Répertoire sommaire des sculptures polychromes de la 2e moitié du XIXe siècle conservées dans les collections publiques françaises ; En couleurs, la sculpture polychrome en France, 1850-1910, Paris, Hazan - Musée d'Orsay, 2018, p.203
-
Denis, Maurice (pref), Georges-Daniel de Monfreid et son ami Paul Gauguin, cat. exp. (Paris, galerie Charpentier, du 19 au 31 octobre 1938), Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1938, n° 167
-
La collection G-D. de Monfreid par Jean Cassou, cat. exp. (Paris, musée national d'art moderne, du 25 avril au 27 mai 1951), Paris, musée national d’art moderne, 1951, n° 13
-
Frèches-Thory, Claire ; Heilbrun, Françoise ; Pingeot, Anne ; Cahn, Isabelle ; Shackelford, George T.M. ; Peltier, Philippe, Gauguin-Tahiti : L'atelier des tropiques, cat. exp. (Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, du 30/09/2003 au 19/01/2004 ; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, du 29/02/2004 au 20/06/2004), Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 2003, n° 76
-
Bernardi, Claire ; Ferlier-Bouat, Ophélie, Gauguin, l'Alchimiste, cat. exp. (Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, du 25/06/2017 au 10/09/2017 ; Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, du 11/10/2017 au 22/01/2018), s.n., 2017, n°193, p.184-189, 311-312
-
Groom, Gloria ; Gamboni, Dario ; Stratis, Harriet K. ; Ferlier-Bouat, Ophélie ; Bernardi, Claire ; Perelman, Allison, Gauguin : artist as alchemist, cat. exp. (Chicago, Art intitute of Chicago, 25/06/2017 - 10/09/2017 ; Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 11/10/2017 - 22/01/2018), Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 2017, n°180, p.241
-
Pingeot, Anne ; Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette ; Margerie, Laure de, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des sculptures, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, p.163
-
Hirota, Haruko, La sculpture de Paul Gauguin dans son contexte : 1877 - 1906 et le catalogue raisonné informatisé de l'oeuvre sculpté, Thèse de doctorat en histoire de l'art, sous la direction de Françoise Levaillant, Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1998, cat.115
Do you have a question where you have additional knowledge about this work? You can write to us to suggest improvements to the file.
Make a suggestion