La Guerre et La Paix: La Paix
War and Peace: Peace
1901
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
Object Place: Oceania, Tahiti
Dimensions
48.26 x 99.69 cm (19 x 39 1/4 in.)
Accession Number
63.2765
Medium or Technique
Painted tamanu wood
On View
Sidney and Esther Rabb Gallery (Gallery 255)
Collections
Classifications
Pair to 63.2765, “La Guerre et la Paix: La Paix”
This panel, one of a pair with 63.2764, incorporating motifs from classical reliefs and from the Javanese Buddhist sanctuary Borobudur, was among the last sculptures Gauguin carved in Tahiti. These two panels, from very late in the artist’s career, were commissioned by Gustave Fayet, an important early French collector of Gauguin’s art.
Provenance
1901, sent by the artist in Tahiti to Gustave Fayet (b. 1865 - d. 1925), Béziers, France [see note 1]; to Fayet's uncle, Léon Fayet, Arles. By 1961, Mr. and Mrs. Laurence K. Marshall, Cambridge, MA; 1963, year-end gift of Laurence K. and Lorna J. Marshall to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 30, 1963)
NOTES:
[1] Gauguin executed the reliefs War and Peace (La Guerre et La Paix; MFA accession nos. 63.2764 - 63.2765) for the collector Gustave Fayet in 1901. This is discussed in a series of letters between Daniel de Monfried and Gauguin written in 1901. See Christopher Gray, Sculpture and Ceramics of Paul Gauguin (New York, 1980), pp. 73, 272-273 (with further bibliography).
Credit Line
Gift of Laurence K. and Lorna J. Marshall