A Horse and Birds, headpiece for Le sourire
1899
Medium
Wood-block print in black ink on thin ivory laid Japanese paper
Dimensions
Image: 14.1 × 22.1 cm (5 9/16 × 8 3/4 in.); Sheet: 15.3 × 23 cm (6 1/16 × 9 1/16 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
54708
Art Historical Context
In 1899, Paul Gauguin, the pioneering Post-Impressionist known for his depictions of Tahitian life and rejection of Western conventions, created *A Horse and Birds* as a headpiece for *Le sourire (The Smile). This woodcut captures the artist's fascination with exotic, dreamlike motifs—a majestic horse amid fluttering birds—reflecting his time in Tahiti, where he sought inspiration from Polynesian culture and nature's raw vitality. Produced during Gauguin's later years (he lived 1848–1903), it exemplifies his experimental printmaking phase, bridging European modernism with non-Western aesthetic...
About the Artist
Paul Gauguin · 1848–1903
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose bold experiments with color, form, and subject matter made him one of the most influential figures in the transition from 19th-century art to modernism. His rejection of European civilization for the perceived authenticity of 'primitive' cultures established an archetype of artistic exile that continues to resonate. Gauguin's ...