Landscape at Le Pouldu
1890
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 73.3 x 92.4 cm (28 7/8 x 36 3/8 in.) framed: 103.2 x 122.9 x 10.4 cm (40 5/8 x 48 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
1983.1.20
Art Historical Context
Paul Gauguin created *Landscape at Le Pouldu* in 1890 while staying in the remote Breton village of Le Pouldu on France’s northwest coast. Seeking escape from urban Paris, the artist turned to the region’s rugged terrain and simple rural rhythms, using this oil-on-canvas work to explore a new direction in painting. The sizable canvas (roughly 73 by 92 centimeters) allowed him to render sweeping views that feel both intimate and expansive. As a leading figure of Post-Impressionism and the Synthetist movement, Gauguin moved beyond Impressionist light effects toward flattened shapes, strong outl...
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 ...