Stéphane Mallarmé
1891, printed 1919
Medium
etching printed in brown on Japan paper
Dimensions
sheet: 33 × 24 cm (13 × 9 7/16 in.) plate: 18.3 × 14.5 cm (7 3/16 × 5 11/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.16.69
Art Historical Context
In 1891, Paul Gauguin, the pioneering Post-Impressionist artist known for his bold colors and symbolic imagery, created this intimate etching portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé, the French Symbolist poet. the time, Gauguin was in Paris, immersed in avant-garde circles where literature and art intertwined. Mallarmé, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, embodied the era's fascination with dreams, mystery, and the inner life—ideas that resonated deeply with Gauguin's own evolving style, bridging Impressionism and the exotic visions that would define his later Tahitian works. The artwork is an ...
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 ...