Head of a Man with a Study of His Back; Various Sketches with a Peasant Woman and a Goose [recto]
1884-1888
![Head of a Man with a Study of His Back; Various Sketches with a Peasant Woman and a Goose [recto] by Paul Gauguin](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/head-of-a-man-with-a-study-of-his-back-various-nga-74247.webp)
Medium
graphite and crayon on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 16.9 x 22.5 cm (6 5/8 x 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
The Armand Hammer Collection
Accession Number
1991.217.56.a
Art Historical Context
In the late 1880s, Paul Gauguin, a pioneering Post-Impressionist, filled sketchbooks with rapid, expressive studies like this recto sheet from 1884–1888. Titled *Head of a Man with Study of His Back; Sketches with a Pe Woman and a Goose*, captures multiple vignettes on a modest 16.9 x 22.5 cm wove paper: a detailed male profile and muscular back view, alongside looser sketches of a peasant and a goose. These intimate drawings reveal Gauguin's fascination with everyday rural subjects, hinting at his growing interest in the simplicity and authenticity of peasant life during his time in Brittany ...
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 ...