Paul Gauguin

Painted at Pont-Aven in northwest France, this depiction of a nude figure throwing herself into the sea suggests a metaphor for a modern European woman forsaking civilization and abandoning herself to her natural, primitive instincts. The simplified lines and exaggerated colors, especially the contrasting green and orange, seem invented rather than observed from life. Exhibiting the painting at the Café Volpini in Paris in 1889, Gauguin established himself as a leader of the Symbolist movement in art.

Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).

Year in Review: 1978

Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).

Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960

The Art of Paul Gauguin. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (organizer) (May 1-July 31, 1988); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (September 17-December 11, 1988); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France, Paris, France (January 9-April 24, 1989).

The Art of Paul Gauguin

Gauguin's 'Nirvana'. Painters at Le Pouldu, 1889-1890. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (organizer) (January 27-April 29, 2001).

Gauguin's 'Nirvana'. Painters at Le Pouldu, 1889-1890

Gauguin and the Origins of Symbolism. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (September 28, 2004-January 9, 2005).

Gauguin and the Origins of Symbolism

CMA Highlights. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 21-September 11, 2005).

CMA Highlights

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art

Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4, 2009-January 18, 2010); Van Gogh Museum, 1070 AJ Amsterdam, Netherlands (February 18-June 6, 2010).

Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889

Gauguin: Maker of Myth. Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (September 30, 2010-January 18, 2011); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (February 21-May 30, 2011).

Gauguin: Maker of Myth

Friction of Ideas: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Bernard. Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund, Copenhagen, Denmark (organizer) (February 6-June 22, 2014).

Friction of Ideas: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Bernard

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (June 25-September 10, 2017); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (October 9, 2017-January 21, 2018).

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist

Paris, Café de M. Volpini. Exposition de peintures du Groupe Impressionniste et Synthétiste (1889), no. 44, Dans les vagues.

Paris, Société du Salon d'Automne au Grand Palais. (1906), no. 25, L'Ondine (Bretagne), G. Fayet collection.

Paris, Galerie L. Dru. Exposition rétrospective de P. Gauguin (1923), no. 12, 1889, La femme de la mer.

Basel, Kunsthalle. Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 (1928), no. 59, Die Welle, Leicester Galleries, London.

Berlin, Galerie Thannhauser. Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 (1928), no. 42.

New York, Museum of Modern Art. Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh (1929), no. 42 (repr.).

Cleveland, Kinney and Levan Building. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition under the Auspices of the Cleveland School of Art (1936), no. 275.

New York, Wildenstein. Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 (1936), no. 11.

Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum. Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 (1936), no. 12.

Toledo Museum of Art. Cézanne-Gauguin (1936), no. 4 (repr.), lent by Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Ginn.

New York, Wildenstein. A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin (1946), no. 6, lent by Mr. and Mrs. W. Powell Jones; 22 (repr.).

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Paul Gauguin, His Place in the Meeting of East and West (1954), no. 14 (Odine [sic] or Woman in the Waves).

New York, Wildenstein. Loan Exhibition: Gauguin (1956), no. 18, 37 (repr.).

Palm Beach, Society of the Four Arts; Coral Gables, Lowe Gallery of the University of Miami. Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 (1956), no. 13 (repr.).

Art Institute of Chicago; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gauguin (1959), no. 18, 35 (repr.).

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Gauguin and the Decorative Style (1966), 46.

London, Tate Gallery. Gauguin and the Pont-Aven Group (1966), 21, no. 17 (Woman in the Waves), 22, pl. 14c.

Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum. Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism (1981), 44, 65 (repr.), 204-5.

Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery. Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven (1994-95), 43, add. no. 1 (repr.).

A vertically oriented oil painting depicts a nude woman with light skin tone swimming through dark green waves. Her body arcs out of the water from the buttocks up, extending diagonally from the lower left to upper right. With defined contours, she raises her arms, elbows bent, and looks up. She has solid red-orange hair falling over her left shoulder and contrasting with the green waves. Rows of arcing white streaks highlight the frothing waves.

On consignment with Boussod & Valadon, Paris, FR.

(Gauguin sale, Paris, FR, February 23, 1891, lot 14, to M. Jeanson)

(Joseph Hessel, Paris, FR, March 1906, sold to Gustave Fayet)

(Gustave Fayet [1865–1925], Paris, FR, February 1907, sold to Ambroise Vollard)

(Paul Éluard, Paris, FR, who probably bought it at Galerie Dru in 1923)

(Drouot, Paris, FR, December 12, 1927, lot 103, sold to Hessel)

Purchased by Frank H. Ginn, Cleveland, OH

Mr. and Mrs. Powell Jones, Gates Mills, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

The woman pictured in Paul Gauguin's painting has her back to the viewer.

Facing Away

In the late 1850s, after hundreds of years of self-imposed seclusion, Japan was opened to trade with the West. Japanese goods, including prints, appeared for sale in shops in France and elsewhere, sparking a rage for all things Japanese. The broad expanses of color and flattened shapes in this painting were inspired by Japanese prints.

Japanese Prints

Gauguin chose to render the waves in rich green hues rather than more naturalistic shades of blue, using color to express ideas and emotions rather than depict realistic images of nature.

In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)

Paul Gauguin

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In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)

Paul Gauguin

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In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)

Paul Gauguin

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In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)

Paul Gauguin

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