COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1943.392
AMICA Library Year:
1998
Object Type:
Paintings
Creator Name:
Gauguin, Paul
Creator Nationality:
European; French
Creator Role:
artist
Creator Dates/Places:
1848 - 1903
Gender:
M
Creator Name-CRT:
Paul Gauguin
Title:
L'appel
Title:
The Call
Title Type:
Foreign
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
1902
Creation Start Date:
1902
Creation End Date:
1902
Materials and Techniques:
oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Unframed: 130.2cm x 90.2cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1943.392
Credit Line:
Gift of the Hanna Fund
Inscriptions:
signed lower right: P. Gauguin/1902
Context:
Gauguin painted The Call a year before his death in the remote Marquesas Islands of the French Polynesia, the artist's fourth and final stop since he began his flight from civilization in 1891. The painting belongs to a series of late works that explorethe mysteries of life and death. Two women stand in the center of the composition; their bare feet and the white lily in the foreground suggest they may be on sacred ground. One woman glances toward the viewer, but shields herself with one hand. The other woman gestures to something or someone outside the picture, perhaps in response to a "call" from fate or destiny. Poetic, dreamlike, and filled with exotic colors, The Call fulfills Gauguin's goal of freeing himself from naturalism.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1943.392.tif
The Call
