1950s After Paul Gauguin "The White Horse", First Edition Photogravure

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A beautiful vintage First Edition photogravure, print, of painting "The White Horse" (1898) by Paul Gauguin. Comes from a First … Read more A beautiful vintage First Edition photogravure, print, of painting "The White Horse" (1898) by Paul Gauguin. Comes from a First Limited Edition art folio published in the mid 1950s. Printed on one side. Hand tipped-in on a board of heavy paper. Information regarding the original artwork will be found by lifting the plate. Colors are deep and rich. Excellent condition - never framed.

Overall 10.75"W x 14.5"H
Image 6.25"W x 10"H

The painting illustrates particularly well the peculiar fashion in which Gauguin combined the flat pattern and asymmetrical composition of Japanese prints with an execution derived from the Impressionists and a palette rich in exotic colors and contrasts. He painted this work with vivid brush strokes (occasionally using a pelette knife), applied on a coarse canvas, the rough texture of which adds to its mysterious savagery.

The diagonal branches of the tree - a device frequently used by the Japanese - provide the arabesque that pulls together the various large planes of more or less uniform colors: the dark blue expanse of water with its intense orange accents, and the large green spots of ground. Against these flat areas which give the landscape an abstract character, appear the horses and their riders treated in a three-dimensional way, with shadows carefully modeling their forms. The lone white horse in the foreground is actually of a greenish-gray tone, owing to the reflections of the leaves which protect it from the sun. A flash of purer white is dramatically provided by the radiance of the flower in the lower right corner. Yet contrasts of color, of lines, and of forms are well integrated in a composition that leads the eye from that single white note to the curved lines of the horse and across the meandering branches into an undefined distance. See less