Vase in the Form of a Tropical Plant with Bird and Deity

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1887/88

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)

In I886 Paul Gauguin was invited to design artistic pottery with the well-known ceramist Ernest Chaplet. Rather than simply decorating premade vessels, Gauguin chose to model his own unconventional forms by hand, jokingly calling them his “monstrosities.” Here the wide lip and distinctive shoulder of the vase echo the shape of the tall plant on its surface, while the protruding leaves on its sides suggest handles yet have no utilitarian function. Gauguin decorated this vase with a mix of motifs, including a goose drawn from the artist’s paintings of Brittany and a Cambodian deity copied from a photograph of a sculpture near Angkor Wat.

Status: On View, Gallery 241
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Paul Gauguin
Title: Vase in the Form of a Tropical Plant with Bird and Deity
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.: 1887–1888
Medium: Stoneware painted with slip and gold
Inscriptions: Signed: PGo 60
Dimensions: 21.5 × 17 × 12 cm (8 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 4 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior purchase of the Estate of Suzette Morton Davidson, Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment, Dellora A. Norris Funds
Reference Number: 2011.306
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/212301/manifest.json

Martin Schwander, “Paul Gauguin: The Great Inconsolable Magician, An Introduction,” in Raphaël Bouvier and Martin Schwander, eds., Paul Gauguin, exh. cat. (Foundation Beyler: Basel, 2015), 14, 15 fig. 8.
“Gauguin, Cat. 7, Vase in Form of Plant (2011.306),” 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. 22, 96, 106, 222, 226, 227,335, cat. 165.
Claire Bernardi and Ophélie Ferlier-Bouat, Guaguin: L’alchimiste, exh. cat. (Musée d’Osay/ Réunion des muséea nationaux-Grand Palais/ Graphicom, 2017), p. 158, 313, cat. 165.

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.

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Vase in the Form of a Tropical Plant with Bird and Deity

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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. Learn more.

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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.

Learn more.