In the waves-Paul Gauguin-From Monet to Picasso

 

 

In the Waves, 1889
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903)
oil on fabric
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Powell Jones, 1978.63

A piece of permanent collection of The Cleveland Musuem of Art

 

From Monet to Picasso,Masterworks of CMA,Beijing World Art Musuem

 

Special Exihibitions in The China Millennium Monument

 

Gauguin painted this canvas in a small village in northwest France. He left Paris for this remote area along the Atlantic coast in hopes of finding a more primitive and natural life,Because he hated the modern European culture in the city.

The painting shows a nude woman with red hair, one hand raised to her mouth, throwing herself into the sea. This mysterious image has been interpreted as symbolic of the soul abandoning itself to nature. Intensifying the painting's emotional impact, the simplified lines and colors, especially the contrasting green and orange, seem invented rather than observed from life.

Gauguin maintained that the arts is a method of distorting,exaggrating and enhancing the nature to release and expose its internal meaning rather than a just simply reflection of the real world.He was a important member of the post-impressionism painter,which includes other famous artist such as Vincent van Gogh,Paul Cézanne etc.

Furthermore.through this oil painting,Gauguin was considered to be a pioneer artist of the symbolists.He opened a new era in visible art.