Earthly Paradise

1888

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
Émile Bernard (French, 1868–1941)

Combining painting, sculpture, and carpentry, this unique object was created collaboratively by Paul Gauguin and his younger contemporary Émile Bernard. Their artistic experiments, often undertaken in the spirit of friendly competition, challenged hierarchical distinctions between fine art, grounded in aesthetics, and decorative art, associated with functionality. Bernard carved the left panel and possibly the bottom panel. Both artists incorporated animals, trees, and people from village life in Brittany, France, motifs they also used in their paintings. The figures on the right panel were inspired by Gauguin’s trip the previous year to the Caribbean island of Martinique. This visit informed his later decision to leave France, which ultimately led him to Tahiti.

Status: On View, Gallery 247
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Paul Gauguin
Title: Earthly Paradise
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1888
Medium: Chestnut and pine, carved and polychromed; glass, metal hardware
Dimensions: 101 × 120 × 60.5 cm (39 3/4 × 47 1/4 × 23 13/16 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior gift of Henry Morgen, Ann G. Morgen, Meyer Wasser, and Ruth G. Wasser; purchased with funds provided by Edward M. Blair
Reference Number: 2007.247
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/188629/manifest.json

André Salmon, “Chamaillard et le groupe de Pont-Aven,” L’art vivant 1, no. 13 (July 1, 1925), p. 15.
Marcel Guérin, L’oeuvre gravé de Gauguin (H. Floury, 1927; Alan Wofy Fine Arts 1980), p. 13.
Probably Henri Dorra, “Extraits de la correspondance d’Émile Bernard des débuts à la Rose-Croix (1876–1892),” Gazette des beaux-arts 96 (Dec. 1980), p. 235.
Charles-Guy Le Paul, L’impressionnisme dans l’école de Pont-Aven: Monet, Renoir, Gauguin et leurs disciples, with Judy Le Paul (Bibliothèque des arts, 1983), p. 268. Translated: Judy Le Paul and Charles-Guy Le Paul, Gauguin and the Impressionists at Pont-Aven (Abbeville, 1987), p. 270.
Denise Delouche, Gauguin et la Bretagne (Apogée, 1996), p. 54 (ill.).
André Cariou, L’aventure de Pont-Aven et Gauguin, exh. cat. (Skira, 2003), pp. 134; 135 (detail); 136; 137, cat. 36 (ill.).
André Cariou, Gauguin e la Bretagna, exh. cat. (Skira, 2003), pp. 92; 93 (detail); 94; 95, cat. 23 (ill.).
Belinda Thomson, ed., Gauguin’s Vision, with Frances Fowle and Lesley Stevenson, exh. cat. (National Galleries of Scotland, 2005), pp. 58, fig. 68; 59.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 2006–2007 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2007), p. 33.
Gloria Groom, “Earthly Paradise,” Notable Acqusitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 35, no. 2, (2009), pp. 64–65 (ill.).
Douglas Druick, “Material Perspectives: The Art Object, the Art Museum and the History of Art,” in Claire Barbillon, Catherine Chevillot, and Françoise-René Martin, Histoire de l’art XIXe siècle (1848–1914): Bilans et perspectives (École du Louvre, 2012), pp. 277; 281, fig. 6.
Fred Leeman, Émile Bernard (1868–1941), with Béatrice Recchi-Altarriba and Annie Champié (Wildenstein Institute/Citadelles & Mazenod, 2013), pp. 140; 141, cat. 70 (ill.); 142.
Martin Schwander, “Paul Gauguin: The Great Inconsolable Magician, An Introduction,” in Raphaël Bouvier and Martin Schwander, eds., Paul Gauguin, exh. cat. (Foundation Beyler: asel, 2015). p. 14, 15 fig. 7.
“Gauguin, Cat. 9, Earthly Paradise (2007.247),” in Gauguin Paintings, Sculpture, and Graphic Works at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), https://publications.artic.edu/gauguin/reader/gauguinart/section/140163.
Gloria Groom, ed. Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/ Yale University Press, 2017). p. 104, 142, 143, 329, cat. 69.
Claire Bernardi and Ophélie Ferlier-Bouat, Guaguin: L’alchimiste, exh. cat. (Musée d’Osay/ Réunion des muséea nationaux-Grand Palais/ Graphicom, 2017), p. 60, 299-300, cat. 60.
Van Dijk, Maite, et. al., Gauguin and Laval in Martinique, exh. cat. (The Van Gogh Museum/Thoth Publishers, 2018) pp. 134-137, cat. 125

Paris, Musée du Luxemburg, L’aventure de Pont-Aven et Gauguin, Apr. 2–June 22, 2003, cat. 36 (ill.); Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts, July 12–Sept. 30, 2003; Naples, Castel Sant’Elmo, as Gauguin e la Bretagna, Oct. 19, 2003–Feb. 11, 2004, cat. 23 (ill.).
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, June 25-Sept. 10. 2017; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Oct. 9, 2017-Jan. 1, 2018.
Amsterdam, Netherlands, Van Gogh Museum, Gauguin and Laval in Martinique, October 5, 2018-January 13. 2019, cat. 125.

Commissioned by Henri-Ernest-Ponthier de Chamaillard, Pont-Aven and Mesquéon-en-Gourlizon, France, 1888 to at least 1911 [this and the following according to Cariou 2003]. Lluís Garriga Roig (died 1939), Paris, by 1935; by descent within the family, 1939 [according to Thomson 2005]. Sold to Maurana Art Ltd., Zurich, about 1993 [according to Jean-Marie Le Fell to Gloria Groom, Oct. 8, 2015; email copy in curatorial object file]; sold by Galerie Le Fell, Paris, as an agent for Maurana Art Ltd., Zurich, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2007.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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