Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé. by Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903

Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé.

Original etching with aquatint, open-bite and drypoint. 1891. Signed with the monogram and dated in the plate. (No impressions were pencil signed). One of a total of c.12 known impressions printed in the artist's lifetime. This impression previously unrecorded. Prior to the 1913/19
proofs and the edition issued by Floury in 1919 for the album 'Gauguin', Charles Morice.) Extremely rare.
Ref: Kornfeld-Mongan-Joachim 'Gauguin Prints' no 12 ii a (Before the cancellation or restoration)

Absolutely superb rich impression with brilliant tonality in black-brown in. On laid japan paper. Generally excellent condition; slight trace of rubbing just outside the left platemark edge; some very minor margin foxing. Not restored. Sheet: 330x240mm. Plate: 7 1/4 x 5 3/4ins. (183x145)

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

The poet Stéphane Mallarmé was the key figure in the creation of the Symbolist movement. He was in fact probably the first real ?modern? poet for he saw the role of words not as merely descriptive but as an evocation. Words were an abstract tool, which by the way in which they were linked and grouped, and by their associations, could be made to suggest rather than to have a finite meaning. The Symbolists adopted all his concepts - the use of a symbol to act as a trigger for ideas, the idea that art is an entity separate from the real world yet able to influence it, the use of ambiguity as a stimulus. Gauguin was a great admirer of Mallarmé and his ideas greatly influenced the concepts of Gauguin?s Synthetism, the combination of ideas and elements of reality with those of imagination to create a separate reality. Gauguin acknowledged that without the stimulus of Mallarmé?s inspiration his own art would never have developed. They met frequently and Gauguin was often at Mallarmé?s evening receptions at his Rue de Rome apartment in Paris. It was in tribute to Gauguin?s admiration of Mallarmé that he drew this etched portrait in 1891 a profound and deeply revealing interpretation of the poet?s features, with the key symbol of the raven, taken from Mallarmé?s poem, in the background. The only work in etching that Gauguin made it his unique masterpiece and a key icon of late 19th century French printmaking.

Gauguin etched this plate in 1891 after a period at Pont Aven and shortly before his decision to leave France for Polynesia. At that time he printed just a very few proofs - some five or so of the recorded early proofs probably date from this period. Then, probably in 1894, when he was back in Paris before finally going back to Tahiti, he decided to print a few more proofs. This second group of proofs (perhaps some eight or ten impressions) can be distinguished from those of 1891 by the introduction of an aquatint tone on Mallarmé?s collar and lower face and by traces of oxidisation around the drypoint lines of the collar. In the most recent Mongan-Kornfeld- Joachim catalogue of Gauguin?s prints 12 impressions of the ?Portrait of Mallarmé? are recorded as being printed in Gauguin?s lifetime (although at least one of these is incorrectly described).

These first impressions were followed by a few proofs printed for the publisher Floury in 1913-19, after Gauguin?s death, before the edition of 79 impressions for Floury?s album on Gauguin by Morice. The impressions for Floury, both proofs and edition, are very uniform in their rather contrast-free style of printing despite their differing papers as is confirmed by a comparison of the impressions in the print rooms of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and in the British Museum in London for example, whilst the paper type and format easily identifies the album impressions.

Our impression above must now be included amongst the small group of lifetime proofs. It has the aquatint tone, and traces of slight oxidisation, but it also has the identical printing and inking style found in annotated or dedicated lifetime impressions. The paper format and style also distinguishes it from the Floury edition. With a provenance from a French private collection the early date of the impression was not previously recognised. It joins the small group of some 12 recorded lifetime impressions of one of the greatest masterpieces of French etching of the late 19th century.