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Auction archive: Lot number 297

GAUGUIN, Paul (1848-1903) Autograph letter signed ("P Gaugui...

Estimate
US$25,000 - US$40,000
Price realised:
US$50,000
Auction archive: Lot number 297

GAUGUIN, Paul (1848-1903) Autograph letter signed ("P Gaugui...

Estimate
US$25,000 - US$40,000
Price realised:
US$50,000
Beschreibung:

GAUGUIN, Paul (1848-1903). Autograph letter signed ("P. Gauguin"), to the art dealer and painter Claude Èmile Schuffenecker (1851-1934) in Paris; Papeete, Tahiti, 13 June 1896. With original postmarked envelope addressed to Monsieur Èmile Shuffenecker Artiste Peintre."
GAUGUIN, Paul (1848-1903). Autograph letter signed ("P. Gauguin"), to the art dealer and painter Claude Èmile Schuffenecker (1851-1934) in Paris; Papeete, Tahiti, 13 June 1896. With original postmarked envelope addressed to Monsieur Èmile Shuffenecker Artiste Peintre." 6 pages, 270 x 210mm., boldly penned in black ink on thin, wove paper (Occasional very light spotting, show-through due to thin paper). FROM TAHITI: A DIATRIBE AGAINST HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN Gauguin had married a Danish woman, Mette-Sophie Gad in 1873 and fathered five children. He and Schuffenecker met while working for a stockbroker, but both resigned to devote themselves to painting. Money, though, remained a perennial problem for Gauguin and disputes over money--vividly shown in the present letter--soured the marriage and drove Gauguin to seek pardisiacal peace in tropical Martinique (alluded to in this letter), and, briefly, Panama. Finally, in 1891 he moved to Tahiti, while Schuffenecker, in Paris, acted as agent for Gauguin. Here, Gauguin inveighs passionately against his spendthrift wife: "Your letter... reveals to me a so-called fortune of 600 francs....It's just a rumor. The 600 francs which the framer...owed me will be paid only against a receipt from me (if he pays at all). So there is still at least five months to wait. Likewise for my paintings at Levi's....This means that after 8 months of writing that I am broke, I am no further along than before...." "I see by the catalogue...that you have been working steadily and that you were satisfied with your exhibition. An important point in your letter relates to Mrs. Gauguin....Well, I'm going to show you the woman you're defending. When we were married, she had for dowry only a few shifts and six tablecloths, and yet she was more demanding about money than a woman brought up in the lap of luxury. Quarrels rained down on our marriage over that horrible question. Later, when I succeeded in earning 35,000 francs a year, I made no personal expenditures whatever except for a few paintings which I bought cheaply and which you know about. Well, Mrs. Gauguin found the means to incur debts everywhere in the quarter....I wrote to her mother about a divorce....A big scene upon the return of Madame, who didn't want to get a divorce, tears and forgiveness. Men forgive so easily." "...Madame sold my collection to her brother-in-law for 15,000 francs, some furniture, 2000 francs; some of my paintings, old and new, for nearly 20,000 francs....There, Schuff, is the situation of Madame who whines and lies....When I left for Panama, they came to play the tender scene because Panama looked like a gold mine;...I leave Panama to go to Martinique. A complete turn-about, no more tenderness, no more letters. I nearly died there without a cent with which to come back....On my return, van Gogh buys a few pictures from me...Once again, great misery at the time of the madness of van Gogh, then success at the auction house. Once again, a tender letter....Then I go to Tahiti. There again, silence, in spite of my letters....Meanwhile, a symbolist exposition is presented in Copenhagen. She sells two pictures from Tahiti for 1000 francs each, then all she had left of the paintings from Brittany....I forgive everything, passions, etc., except for heartlessness and degradation for money. I have tried everything with her....Madame wishes to reap all by herself. (I don't concur.) Let the children do as their father did....If you have time to waste, continue to feel sorry for Mrs. Gauguin."

Auction archive: Lot number 297
Auction:
Datum:
23 Jun 2011
Auction house:
Christie's
23 June 2011, New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

GAUGUIN, Paul (1848-1903). Autograph letter signed ("P. Gauguin"), to the art dealer and painter Claude Èmile Schuffenecker (1851-1934) in Paris; Papeete, Tahiti, 13 June 1896. With original postmarked envelope addressed to Monsieur Èmile Shuffenecker Artiste Peintre."
GAUGUIN, Paul (1848-1903). Autograph letter signed ("P. Gauguin"), to the art dealer and painter Claude Èmile Schuffenecker (1851-1934) in Paris; Papeete, Tahiti, 13 June 1896. With original postmarked envelope addressed to Monsieur Èmile Shuffenecker Artiste Peintre." 6 pages, 270 x 210mm., boldly penned in black ink on thin, wove paper (Occasional very light spotting, show-through due to thin paper). FROM TAHITI: A DIATRIBE AGAINST HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN Gauguin had married a Danish woman, Mette-Sophie Gad in 1873 and fathered five children. He and Schuffenecker met while working for a stockbroker, but both resigned to devote themselves to painting. Money, though, remained a perennial problem for Gauguin and disputes over money--vividly shown in the present letter--soured the marriage and drove Gauguin to seek pardisiacal peace in tropical Martinique (alluded to in this letter), and, briefly, Panama. Finally, in 1891 he moved to Tahiti, while Schuffenecker, in Paris, acted as agent for Gauguin. Here, Gauguin inveighs passionately against his spendthrift wife: "Your letter... reveals to me a so-called fortune of 600 francs....It's just a rumor. The 600 francs which the framer...owed me will be paid only against a receipt from me (if he pays at all). So there is still at least five months to wait. Likewise for my paintings at Levi's....This means that after 8 months of writing that I am broke, I am no further along than before...." "I see by the catalogue...that you have been working steadily and that you were satisfied with your exhibition. An important point in your letter relates to Mrs. Gauguin....Well, I'm going to show you the woman you're defending. When we were married, she had for dowry only a few shifts and six tablecloths, and yet she was more demanding about money than a woman brought up in the lap of luxury. Quarrels rained down on our marriage over that horrible question. Later, when I succeeded in earning 35,000 francs a year, I made no personal expenditures whatever except for a few paintings which I bought cheaply and which you know about. Well, Mrs. Gauguin found the means to incur debts everywhere in the quarter....I wrote to her mother about a divorce....A big scene upon the return of Madame, who didn't want to get a divorce, tears and forgiveness. Men forgive so easily." "...Madame sold my collection to her brother-in-law for 15,000 francs, some furniture, 2000 francs; some of my paintings, old and new, for nearly 20,000 francs....There, Schuff, is the situation of Madame who whines and lies....When I left for Panama, they came to play the tender scene because Panama looked like a gold mine;...I leave Panama to go to Martinique. A complete turn-about, no more tenderness, no more letters. I nearly died there without a cent with which to come back....On my return, van Gogh buys a few pictures from me...Once again, great misery at the time of the madness of van Gogh, then success at the auction house. Once again, a tender letter....Then I go to Tahiti. There again, silence, in spite of my letters....Meanwhile, a symbolist exposition is presented in Copenhagen. She sells two pictures from Tahiti for 1000 francs each, then all she had left of the paintings from Brittany....I forgive everything, passions, etc., except for heartlessness and degradation for money. I have tried everything with her....Madame wishes to reap all by herself. (I don't concur.) Let the children do as their father did....If you have time to waste, continue to feel sorry for Mrs. Gauguin."

Auction archive: Lot number 297
Auction:
Datum:
23 Jun 2011
Auction house:
Christie's
23 June 2011, New York, Rockefeller Center
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