A Grazing Cow; Head of a Woman with Her Hand on Her Cheek, and Head of a Man with His Hand on His Ear [verso]

Art Historical Context

In the mid-1880s, Paul Gauguin, a pioneering Post-Impressionist, created this intimate double-sided drawing on wove paper using pen and brown ink with graphite. Titled *A Grazing Cow; of a Woman with Her Hand on Her Cheek, and Head of a with His Hand on His [verso]*, it captures the artist's early experimentation during a pivotal period. On one side, a serene grazing cow evokes the rural simplicity Gauguin admired, while the verso features expressive portrait studies— a woman in thoughtful repose and a man gesturing attentively—hinting at his growing interest in psychological depth and human emotion. Measuring just 16.9 x 22.5 cm, this modest sheet showcases Gauguin's fluid line work, where ink's warm brown tones blend with graphite's subtlety to suggest form and texture without heavy shading. Such sketches were vital to his practice, serving as quick studies that bridged Impressionist observation with the bold, symbolic style he later perfected in Brittany and Tahiti. Donated through The Armand Hammer Collection to the National Gallery of Art's Department CG-E, it offers a glimpse into Gauguin's evolution from stockbroker to artistic innovator. This drawing reminds us how everyday motifs fueled Gauguin's revolutionary vision, inviting visitors to ponder the quiet poetry in a cow's graze or a hand's gesture.

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 ...