Portrait of Madeleine Bernard
Portrait of Madeleine Bernard is an August 1888 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Museum of Grenoble, which bought it for 20,000 francs in 1923.[1][2][3] It shows Madeleine Bernard, sister of the French painter Émile Bernard (1868-1941) (they both visited Gauguin around that time) and is painted on the other side of the June 1888 The White River by the same artist. He seemingly used both sides of the same canvas for practical reasons, due to lack of funds or because he could not find canvases in Pont-Aven at that time.[4][5][6]
The joint work was initially acquired by a collector from Montpellier, Maurice Fabre, who then sold it to Eugène Druet. It then passed to Alexandre Bernheim and was bought by its present owner in 1923 for 20,000 francs or - as that museum's curator Andry-Farcy put it - "10,000 francs per Gauguin!".[7] It was stolen in June 1978 whilst being brought back from an exhibition in Marseille, but was recovered in a poor state of conservation the following year. It has now been re-framed and restored.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ (in French) Sous le numéro d'inventaire MG 2190 ; tableaux identifiés par Daniel de Montfreid, achat à la galerie Bernheim-Jeune en 1923.
- ^ (in French) Site navigart.fr, page "Paul Gauguin, Portrait de Madeleine Bernard, (recto), La Rivière blanche, (verso)".
- ^ (in French) Daniel Wildenstein (2001), Gauguin : Catalogue de l’œuvre peint, 1873-1888, Paris, Seuil, no. 285
- ^ (in French) Site museedegrenoble.fr, fiche du tableau.
- ^ (in French) Site letelegramme.fr, article Peinture. Un Gauguin « caché » exposé à Grenoble.
- ^ (in French) Site ledauphine.com, article Quand Madeleine Bernard quittait Gauguin puis Grenoble.
- ^ (in French) Site ledauphine.com, article "Un tableau de Gauguin… peut en cacher un autre".
- ^ (in French) Dominique Poiret (3 November 2011). "Un Gauguin… peut en cacher un autre". liberation.fr.