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



