Paul GAUGUINBiblio.com
2 résultats
189684738s. l. Tahiti 1896. Fine. ""I'm gifted he says to the point of making others jealous."" s. l. Tahiti août 1896 20.50 x 27 cm quatre pages sur deux feuillets Yes I have sarcasm in my words yes I do not know how to flatter and bend my back how to beg in official salons I am nothing but a braying schemer but if I had submitted - yes I would be comfortable."" Long autograph letter dated August 1896 and signed by Paul Gauguin to painter Daniel de Monfreid. Four pages in black ink on two lined sheets. Small tears to margins not affecting the text traces of folds inherent to sending. In the midst of his descent into hell abandoned in his Tahitian artificial paradise Gauguin feels cursed : Definitely I was born under a bad star. he laments. His quest for primitive freedom leaves him in destitution and misery. Suffering agony the painter sends paintings to one of his few supporters his faithful friend Daniel de Monfreid - but writes the wrong address. Published in Lettres de Paul Gauguin à Georges-Daniel de Monfreid 1918 p. 146 n° XXIII; our letter reveals the name of Émile Schuffenecker his friend and associate on the Paris stock exchange and then Pont-Aven - anonymized in the published version - whom Gauguin vilifies on numerous occasions in these pages. This exceptional missive was written in Tahiti where the painter had returned the previous year bidding a final farewell to the old Europe. Gauguin had just come out from a stay in hospital in Papeete to treat his bruised legs following the beating he had received in Concarneau two years earlier for defending his muse Annah the Javanese. The painter could not escape the aftermath of this altercation and suffered from a terrible purulent eczema on his leg as well as syphilis drowning his torments in alcohol. The letter is a perfect example of Gauguin's correspondence from the summer of 1896 which ""smells of the fever that has seized a mind overheated by pain and lack of sleep"" David Haziot. In his confusion the painter misspelt the address of Monfreid's studio at the Cité Fleurie a famous chalet-like artists' residence where Gauguin had stayed : I sent you a bunch of paintings last month. I'm afraid for them because it seems to me that I put 55 Bd Arago instead of 65 This mailing included his composition Eihaha Ohipa painted in his studio in Punaauia and now kept at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Shipped via a naval officer - fees to be paid by Monfreid - the paintings did not arrive until November. Beyond his feverish fears Gauguin delivers in these lines a true manifesto of his integrity as an artist - the perfect counterpart to his famous Christlike self-portrait Near Golgotha painted around the same period. To him his destiny and generosity are nothing short of Christ-like: in the most difficult moments of my life I more than shared with unfortunate people and never had any reward other than complete abandonment. He had in fact helped display Schuffenecker's paintings in Impressionist exhibitions saved his friend Laval from suicide and opened his purse to so many others. Instead of returning the favor Schuffenecker prefers to feel sorry for himself: Schuff really wrote me a crazy and unfair letter and I don't know what to answer because he is a sick mind . he would be more unhappy than me who has glory strength and health. Let's talk about it! I'm good at making others jealous he says. Gauguin who had always refused to make concessions and compromise is finally betrayed by one of his closest relations Schuffenecker who becomes in the letter a true Judas Iscariot: Schuff has just made a useless petition I believe for the State to come to my aid. This is the thing that can offend me the most. I'm asking friends to help me out for the time it takes to get back the money I'm owed and their efforts to recover it but begging the State was never my intention. The painter reaches a point of no return not only bruised in his flesh but also unknown
1895Gauguin2<p><b>GAUGUIN Paul 1848-1903</b></p><p>Autograph letter signed " Paul Gauguin " to Daniel de MonfreidTahiti November 1895 3/4 p. in-4°Tears on folds some spots and browning</p><p><b>Fascinating letter opening the last chapter of his life: his second trip to Polynesia</b><b>Gauguin evokes his settlement in Tahiti his life of sexual and financial debauchery his desires for painting and his family who remained in Europe</b></p><p><i>" Mon cher Daniel<b>À l'heure où je reçois votre aimable lettre je n'ai pas encore touché un pinceau si ce n'est pour faire un vitrail dans mon atelier.</b> Il m'a fallu rester à Papeete en camp volant prendre une décision ; finalement me faire construire une grande case tahitienne dans la campagne. Par exemple c'est superbe comme exposition à l'ombre sur le bord de la route et derrière moi une vue de la montagne épastrouillante. Figurez-vous une grande cage à moineaux grillée de bambous avec toit en chaume de cocotier divisée en deux parties par les rideaux de mon ancien atelier. Une des deux parties forme chambre à coucher avec très peu de lumière pour avoir de la fraîcheur. L'autre partie a une grande fenêtre en haut pour former atelier. Par terre des nattes et mon ancien tapis persan. Le tout décoré avec étoffes bibelots et dessins.Vous voyez que je ne suis pas trop à plaindre pour le moment.<b>Toutes les nuits des gamines endiablées envahissent mon lit ; j'en avais hier trois pour fonctionner. Je vais cessercette vie de patachon pour prendre une femme sérieuse à la maison et travailler d'arrache-pied d'autant plus que je me sens en verve et je crois que je vais faire des travaux meilleurs qu'autrefois.</b><b>Mon ancienne femme</b> </i>Teha'amana<i><b>s'est mariée en mon absence et j'ai été obligé de cocufier son mari mais elle ne peut habiter avec moi malgré une fugue de 8 jours qu'elle a faite.</b>Voilà l'endroit de la médaille ; l'envers est moins rassurant. <b>Comme toujours quand je me sens de l'argent dans la poche et des espérances je dépense sans compter me fiant à l'avenir et à mon talent puis j'arrive vite au bout du rouleau</b>. Ma maison payée il va me rester 900 F et je ne reçois de France aucune nouvelle ce qui me fait unpeu peur. Quand je suis parti Lévy devait m'envoyer 2600 que me devait le café des variétés. Avec d'autres créances il m'est dû en tout 4300 F je ne reçois pas même de lettre.Vous êtes comme toujours le premier qui pensiez à moi et je vous en suis bien reconnaissant. Au reçu de ma lettre voyez Lévy rue St Lazare 57 et dites-lui que je suis très inquiet et de mon argent et de mes affaires de tableauxchez lui.Si vous êtes à Londres écrivez à Mollard.On me dira : Pourquoi allez-vous si loin – Mais quand je suis absent tout près comme en Bretagne par exemple c'est la même chose.Vous voilà donc décorateur et à Londres j'en suis très heureux pour vous. Si vous pouvez faire un voyage productif en tous cas intéressant. Je vois dans votre lettre que vous avez été dans le midi et que vous vous êtes occupé de divorce. Mais vous ne me dites pas comment cette affaire s'est terminée. Que <u>d'ennuis</u>on se crée fatalement avec le mariage cette stupide institution. Et je vois que Mailhol</i> Maillol <i>est dans le train : je lui souhaite bonne chance. Mais j'ai peur pour lui et ce serait dommage car c'est une bonne âme et un artiste.<b>Voyez ce que j'ai fait du ménage : j'ai filé sans prévenir. Que ma famille se démerde toute seule car s'il n'y a que moi pour l'aider !!!</b><b>Je compte bien finir mon existence ici dans ma case parfaitement tranquille</b>.<b>Ah oui je suis un grand criminel qu'importe. Michel-Ange aussi et je ne suis pas Michel-Ange.</b>Bien le bonjour à vos amis et à AnnetteTout à vous grandementPaul GauguinJ'écris par ce courrier à Schuffenecker "</i></p><p>From the port of Marseille Gauguin embarked on L'Australien a steamboat to arrive in Tahiti on September 9 1895. Disappointed by the transformations of the small town occupied by more and more foreigners between his first stay 1891 and the new one he decided to move 13 kilometers away from the capital to settle as close as possible to nature in Punaauia. It is here that his new traditional Tahitian hut made of bamboo and palm leaves was built with the help of the locals and which he describes here in detail.</p><p>He also evokes without naming her Teha'amana a very young girl whom he married during his first stay she was then 13 years old but meanwhile the painter's absence between 1893 and 1895 married another man Ma'ari. When he arrived in the autumn of 1895 Gauguin waved at her she became his vahinée again. The romance lasted only a week during which Gauguin boasted of having "cuckolded" the said Ma'ari: "<i>My former wife married in my absence and I was forced to cuckold her husband</i>."The painter refrains to say that Teha'amana was horrified by the syphilitic wounds covering her legs. She ran away and returned to her Ma'ari.</p><p>From then on Gauguin enjoyed more than ever the pleasures of the flesh spent without counting and multiplied the adventures with "<i>wild girls</i>".The painter is already at a loss barely two months after his installation: "<i>As always when I feel money in my pocket and hopes I spend without counting relying on the future and my talent then I quickly become broke</i>".He married Pau'Ura a few months later to get out of this "<i>life of couch potato to take a serious woman at home</i>" as he writes.</p><p>If the first Tahitian period 1891-1893 reflects a discovery of culture it opens with the second on a new approach: "<i>I feel in verve and I believe that I will do better work than before</i>". Gauguin paints a mythical world where Eastern Western and Oceanian religious traditions past and present merge. His paintings are reflections of a world he believes in an ideal world that he stages.</p><p>Gauguin is finally very direct with his correspondent then in the throes of a conflictual divorce: "<i>See what I did with the household I spun without warning. Let my family go crazy on their own because there is only me to help them!!!</i> "Despite the violent remarks he makes towards his family it is obvious that the thought of his children has never left Gauguin. The premature death of his favorite daughter Aline in 1897 will put him in deep of sorrow.</p><p><u>References:</u><i>Lettres de Gauguin à Daniel de Monfreid Crès. 1918 lettre XXGauguin à Tahiti et aux îles Marquises</i> Bengt Danielsson éd. du Pacifique<i>Gauguin.</i> David Haziot Editions Fayard. 2017 p. 620-622</p>
