Decorated Wooden Box
1884
Medium
Stained wood with iron, leather, and inlaid with two netsuke masks
Dimensions
22 × 14.8 × 51.5 cm (8 5/8 × 5 7/8 × 20 1/4 in.)
Classification
carving
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
229060
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Paul Gauguin experimented with techniques in a variety of media including ceramics, woodcut print, sculpture, and wood carving. In high and low relief across the front of this box, the artist fashioned dancers reminiscent of those seen in the work of his contemporary Edgar Degas. On the back, Gauguin inlaid Japanese fasteners, called netsuke, shaped as miniature masks. Inside, he hewed a rough, macabre human figure inspired by oak coffins of the Danish Bronze Age, which the artist saw in late 18...
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 ...