Paul Gauguin - Still life with mangoes and hibiscus 1887
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Still life with mangoes and hibiscus 1887
32x47cm oil/canvas
Sotheby's - LOT SOLD. 2,389,000 GBP Private Collection
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Sotheby's auction house :
Gauguin's still-lifes evoke the sensuous beauty and visual splendour of the tropics. The artist painted this expertly modelled composition of exotic fruits and flora around the time of his trip to the Caribbean island of Martinique, where he stayed from June until November 1887. Although it has commonly been thought that he painted Nature morte aux mangos et à la fleur d'hibiscus while on that island, recent scholarship suggests that it was completed after the artist had already returned to Paris. When he returned to this urban European setting after several months in Martinique, Gauguin fantasised about his experiences abroad and yearned to set out again for another exotic location. Not surprisingly, some of his most striking compositions from this contemplative period at the end of 1887 are his still-lifes. In these pictures Gauguin focused on the brightly coloured orbs of succulent tropical fruit arranged loosely next to objects from his studio. The daring perspective of these pictures calls to mind the compositional procedures of Cézanne, whose still-lifes Gauguin would have seen at the last group exhibition of Impressionist paintings the previous year. But most of all, Gauguin's desire to paint these still-lifes had deeply personal underpinnings. The exotic fruits, readily available in the Paris marketplaces, were a tangible reminder of Gauguin's tropical paradise and the nearest examples of the colours, smells and tastes of his experiences abroad.