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Four young women with medium brown skin sit or stand on a pumpkin-orange ground in this horizontal painting. The women are divided into pairs by a broad, gold, undulating brushstroke running down the middle of the ground they occupy. They are mostly nude, and three have long black hair while one has flame-red hair. To our left, the woman with red hair stands facing us, wearing a glittering, silver necklace as she gazes off to our right. She presses a white patch, perhaps the end of a loincloth, to her upper leg with both hands. Seated next to her is a woman with most of her body turned away from us. She leans over onto her left arm and turns her head over that shoulder to look down and off to our right. Both women to our right are seated close to each other, their shoulders overlapping. One woman wears a white cloth around the hip we can see, and the other wears knee-length breeches. They both look toward us. Beyond the women is what appears to be a stream running diagonally from the lower left to end in a small pool in the middle right. It transitions from muted oranges and green to smoky blue and gray. Opposite us, more orange ground is lined with dense groves of dark green trees that wind into the distance. A woman wearing a coral-colored hood and blue robe holds the arm of a child, and a black dog crouches at their feet. They stand near a slightly larger-than-life-sized topaz-blue statue of a standing woman with her elbows bent and arms raised. The sky beyond the trees is streaked and swirled with bright orange, yellow, and blue. The artist signed and dated the painting, along with the title, in the lower left corner, “Paul Gauguin 98 TE PAPE NAVE NAVE.”

Paul Gauguin

Te Pape Nave Nave (Delectable Waters), 1898

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 74 × 95.3 cm (29 1/8 × 37 1/2 in.)

framed: 90.8 × 111.4 × 7.62 cm (35 3/4 × 43 7/8 × 3 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1973.68.2

Artists / Makers

Paul Gauguin (painter) French, 1848 - 1903

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower left: Paul Gauguin / 98 / TE PAPE NAVE NAVE

Provenance

The artist until at least 1898.[1] (Paul Rosenberg et Cie, Paris).[2] The private collection of Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by 1919 until at least 1935;[3] Acquired 1947 by (Wildenstein & Co., London, New York and Paris);[4] sold 1947 to Leigh B. [1905-1987] and Mary Lasker Block [1904-1981], Chicago,[5] until at least 1964.[6] Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, VA, by 1966;[7] gift 1973 to NGA.

[1] According to the digital Gauguin catalogue raisonné of paintings 1891-1903 published by the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute in 2021, the painting was possibly on consignment with several dealers over the course of three months in 1898: George-Daniel de Monfreid in September; Georges-Alfred Chaudet in November; and Ambroise Vollard in November 1898. See entry for painting at https://digitalprojects.wpi.art/gauguin/artworks/detail?title=te%20pape%20nave&a=71741-te-pape-nave-nave

[2] See the inventory list from the Rosenberg records (as La scène religieuse), available at the Musée d’Orsay website under Fonds de la galerie Rosenberg: https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/node/199562

[3] The painting was published in Bernheim-Jeune's L'Art Moderne et quelques aspects de l'art d'autrefois in 1919. It was lent in 1927 by Bernheim-Jeune to The Classics of Modern Paintings, at De Hauke & Co., New York, and then published by Bernheim-Jeune in Arsène Alexandre, Paul Gauguin, sa vie et le sens de son oeuvre in 1930, and in Bernheim-Jeune's 1935 catalogue, Quelques tableaux d'Ingres à Gauguin, no. 7, reproduced.

[4] According to the provenance on the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute's Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings 1891–1903, Wildenstein acquired the work directly from Bernheim-Jeune (Reference number PGNWOI).

[5] See letter dated 18 June 1999 from Wildenstein & Co., in NGA curatorial files.

[6] The painting was published as in the Block collection in Wildenstein's 1964 catalogue raisonné. It was not included in the 20 May 1981 sale of the Block collection held at Sotheby's, New York.

[7] Exhibited with Paul Mellon Collection at the National Gallery of Art in 1966.

Associated Names

Bernheim-Jeune
Block, Leigh B. and Mary Lasker
Mellon, Paul
Rosenberg & Co., Paul P.
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1927: Classics of Modern Painting, De Hauke & Co, New York, 1927, repro in unnumbered catalogue.

1935: Quelques Tableaux d'Ingres à Gauguin, Bernheim-Jeune et Cie., Paris,1935, no. 7, repro.

1948: A Loan Exhibition of Six Masters of Post-Impressionism, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1948, no. 18, repro.

1956: Loan Exhibition, Gauguin, for the Benefit of the Citizen's Committee for Children of New York City, Inc., Wildenstein Galleries, New York, 1956, no. 48, repro.

1959: Gauguin, paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1959, no. 63.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 127, repro

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1988: The Art of Paul Gauguin, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Art Institute of Chicago; Grand Palais, Paris, 1988-1989, no. 227, repro.

1989: Gogen: Vzgliad iz Rossli, The State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1989

1996: The Collection Reviewed: Hina and Her Attendants by Paul Gauguin, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 1996-1997, no cat.

1998: Paul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies, Museum Folkwang Essen; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1998-1999, no. 45, repro. (shown only in Berlin).

1999: The Artist and the Camera: Degas to Picasso, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, 1999-2000, no. 132, repro.

2003: Gauguin-Tahiti, L'atelier des tropiques, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2003-2004, no. 149, repro.

2007: Paul Gauguin: Artist of Myth and Dream, Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2007-2008, no. 107, repro.

2009: Paul Gauguin, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, 2009, no. 48, repro.

2010: Gauguin: Maker of Myth, Tate, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, no. 86, repro.

2012: Gauguin y el Viaje a lo Exótico [Gauguin and the Voyage to the Exotic], Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2012-2013, no. 15, repro.

Bibliography

1919: L'Art Moderne et quelques aspects de l'art d'autrfoi. Paris, 1919: pl. 50.

1930: Alexandre, Arsène. Paul Gauguin: Sa vie et le Sens de son Oeuvre. Paris, 1930: repro. 240.

1949: Leymarie, J. Gauguin: Exposition du Centenaire. Exh. Cat. Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1949: 61.

1950: Lewandowski, Herbert. Paul Gauguin, oder, Die Flucht vor der Zivilisation. Bern, 1950: 352.

1953: Dorra, H. "The First Eves in Gauguin's Garden." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 41 (March 1953): 201.

1956: Wildenstein, Georges. "L'Idéologie et l'Esthétique dans deux tableaux-clés de Gauguin." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6e périod, 47 (January-April 1956): 147, repro.

1964: Wildenstein, Georges. Gauguin. 2 vols. Paris, 1964: no. 568.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966: repro. no. 127.

1967: Danielsson, Bengt. "Gauguin's Tahitian Titles." The Burlington Magazine 109, no. 769 (April 1967): 233.

1972: Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'ouevre peint de Gauguin. Milan, 1972: no. 391, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 148, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: repro. 528.

1981: Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gauguin. Paris, 1981: no. 391, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 524, no. 786, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 170, repro.

1988: Bretell, Richard R. The Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Washington, D.C., 1988: 419-420, no. 227, repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 277, 280, color repro.

1993: Christensen, Carol. "The Painting Materials and Technique of Paul Gauguin." Studies in the History of Art 41 (1993): 80, repro. no. 12.

2007: Eisenman, Stephen. "Paul Gauguin--artista di mito e sogno." Exh. brochure, Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2007: 9.

2007: Stuckey, Charles F. Paul Gauguin, artista di mito e sogno. Edited by Stephen F. Eisenman. Exh. cat. Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2007: 348-349, no. 107, color repro. (Italian edition, 2007: 348-349.)

2015: Jakobi, Marianne. Gauguin, Signac: la genèse du titre contemporain. Paris, 2015: repro. 187.