Caricature of Paul Gauguin — About This Work
Émile Bernard, 1889
About the Work
Gauguin sits with a walking stick in a deliberately exaggerated portrait. Bernard gives the figure an air of ceremony, turning a recognisable colleague into the subject of a pointed visual performance.
The watercolour dates from the period of their close collaboration at Pont-Aven. The museum reads the seated pose as presenting Gauguin as the leader of a new painting school, a context that helps explain the caricature's theatrical authority.
The inscription and black-ink description belong to the sheet's public character as an image of an artist. Colour and exaggeration work together, making the drawing more than a neutral record of appearance.
The Work
Artist: Émile Bernard
Title: Caricature of Paul Gauguin
Date: 1889
Medium: Watercolor and black ink on paper
Recorded dimensions: 15.5 × 19.9 cm (W × H)
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession number: 2018.75
Print & Presentation
Palatine presentation: 20 × 25 cm Classic Frame, portrait.
The complete artwork is reproduced at its recorded scale, subject only to negligible whole-pixel rounding, without enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion. The surrounding white presentation area accommodates the artwork within the framed presentation and is incorporated into the print rather than added as a separate mount.
Frame finishes: Black, White or Natural.
Paper & glazing: Enhanced Matte + Perspex; or Enhanced Matte + Moth-Eye.
Why Original Scale?
Most art-print shops offer the same image in a choice of Small, Medium and Large sizes. We take a different approach. For each edition, we begin with the recorded dimensions of the original work and reproduce the complete image at that scale, preserving its proportions and avoiding enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion.
Source: Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0. Bequest of William Kelly Simpson in memory of his wife Marilyn M. Simpson and her grandfather, John D. Rockefeller Jr.. 2018.75.
Care: Display in a dry interior away from prolonged direct sunlight and sources of moisture.
Notes from Palatine
If you would like to stay with us, Notes from Palatine is an occasional letter about newly added works, artists and the thinking behind the collection. There is no fixed schedule; we write when there is something worth sharing.
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