Paul Gauguin - Pour faire un bouquet 1880
Pour faire un bouquet 1880
54x65cm oil/canvas
Sold for: USD 2.69 million
Auction house: Christie's, London
Sale date: 29 June 1999
Seller: Hans Jggli-Corti, Winterthur, the husband of the late owner
Buyer: Anonymous buyer
From Christie's, London:
Painted in 1880, Pour faire un bouquet is a seminal work of the artist's Impressionist period. The framing of the image and unorthodox use of perspective anticipate Gauguin's later masterpieces from 1901, Tournesols sur un fauteuil I (Zurich, Emil G. Bhrle Collection, W.602) and Tournesols sur un fauteuil II, where the artist displayed the same eccentric use of a chair as a surrogate table, captured from a daringly foreshortened angle. This device was also used by Van Gogh in two of his best known paintings of the Arles period: Vincent's Chair (1888, London, Tate Gallery, F.498) and, particularly, Gauguin's Chair (1888, Amsterdam, Vincent van Gogh Foundation, F.499), where the single, empty chair bears the sparest still-life - a candle and two books.