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Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? by Paul Gauguin

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Paul Gauguin

Painted in Tahiti on rough sacking, a support that has made this one of the most structurally delicate large canvases in America.

Artist
Paul Gauguin
Date
1897–1898
Medium
Oil on coarse jute
Dimensions
139.1 × 374.6 cm
Location
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

History

What the record shows

Gauguin worked on coarse jute because proper canvas was unavailable, producing a weak, acidic support.

The fabric has embrittled with age. Loans are rare and require a purpose-built travelling frame with full perimeter support.

Provenance

Chain of ownership

  1. 01Sent to Paris for exhibition, 1898
  2. 02Ambroise Vollard, Paris
  3. 03Marie Harriman Gallery, New York
  4. 04Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Tompkins Collection, 1936

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