Vessel with Women and Goats

Paul Gauguin

ca. 1887–89 · Stoneware · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Gauguin made about one hundred ceramic vessels (about sixty survive) in which he explored the expressive qualities of the medium. He began making pottery in 1886 after meeting Ernest Chaplet, with whom he collaborated on his earliest pieces. Gauguin soon developed his own technique, sculpting the clay by hand without the use of a potter's wheel. Unconventional shapes and a tough "primitive" appearance characterize his brown stoneware. The sloped, asymmetrical profile of this vase is representative of his approach. Gauguin could have developed the imagery of the woman and a goat during his sojourns in Brittany and Martinique.

Artist

Paul Gauguin

Date

ca. 1887–89

Medium

Stoneware

Culture

French, Paris

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013