The Grasshoppers and the Ants: A Souvenir of Martinique, from the Volpini Suite: Dessins lithographiques

Paul Gauguin

1889 · Zincograph on chrome yellow wove paper; first edition · Drawings and Prints

On the fairgrounds of the Paris World's Fair of 1889, at Volpini's Café des Arts, Gauguin exhibited a brand new suite of ten zincographs printed on bright yellow paper. Known as the "Volpini Suite," the prints served as a pictorial souvenir of Gauguin's recent travels in Brittany, Martinique, and Arles. Here Gauguin depicts a group of women by the sea in Martinique. Some walk along a path balancing baskets on their heads while others rest upon the ground. Their graceful poses and balletic movements have a decorative, choreographed quality. Gauguin was enchanted by the women he encountered on the French Caribbean island, as he described in a letter: "The thing that makes me smile the most are the figures, and each day it's a continual coming and going of negresses dressed up in colored garments with graceful movements infinitely varied." The title of the work refers to a fable by Jean de la Fontaine.

Artist

Paul Gauguin

Date

1889

Medium

Zincograph on chrome yellow wove paper; first edition

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1922