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Portrait de StŽphane MallarmŽ |
A shoulder-length portrait of a man occupies the bottom half of the image. The upper portion of the image is untouched. The man's head is silhouetted against a very dark background created by dense marks and hatching that prints very dark. The man looks away from the viewer to the left; behind his head is a partially drawn crow or raven. The man has short hair, moustache and beard.
Paul Gauguin
1891
Mallarmé was a friend to many of the Impressionist painters in the late 1800s, including Whistler, Redon, Manet, Degas, Monet, and Renoir. For both Gauguin and Mallarmé the role of imagination was paramount, and Gauguins image of the poet contrasts sharply with that of Whistlers. Just as with Whistlers portrait, Gauguins also shows the figure emerging from a shaded background although the figures placement within the image is quite different. Gauguin brings Mallarmé closer to the viewer than Whistlers more psychologically distant rendering. Mallarmé translated Edgar Allen Poes poem, The Raven, into French and a raven occupies the space just behind the French poets head.
This is Gauguins only attempt at etching, although he worked extensively in woodcut, and was executed shortly before he left for Polynesia. Very few impressions were taken of this image during Gauguins lifetime; this impression, although taken posthumously, is among the limited number taken from the plate.
Museum purchase made possible by the Jean Paul Slusser Memorial Fund
2007/2.18
Tuesday, June 28, 2022