
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00002284Seated Breton Woman
by Paul Gauguin
Inscriptions
Signed recto, upper right, in charcoal: "à M. Laval / Souvenir / P G."
Provenance
Given by the artist to Charles Laval (1862–1894), Paris [inscription on recto]. Sold by the estate of André Teissier (died 1927), Mâcon, France, to Henri Cottereau, Galerie Choiseul, Paris, 1928 [Harrison collection notes]; sold to Carter H. Harrison (1860-1953), Chicago, 1928; given to the Art Institute, 1933.
Exhibition history
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, "Modern Drawings," February 16-May 10, 1944, p. 91, as Brittany Woman, cat. by Monroe Wheeler. The Art Institute of Chicago, "Drawings: Old & New," 1946, p. 15, cat. 21, pl. XXVI (ill.) as Woman of Brittany (Une Brettone). Birmingham, Ala., Birmingham Museum of Art, "Exhibition of French Drawings (Le fin du siècle)," October 5–November 1, 1952, no cat. New York, Wildenstein and Company, "Gauguin: Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of Citizens' Committee for Children of New York City, Inc.," April 5-May 5, 1956, p. 20, cat. 56 as Woman of Brittany. The Art Institute of Chicago, "Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture," February 12-March 29, 1959, p. 63, cat. 76; traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 23-May 31, 1959. Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan Museum of Art, "A Generation of Draughtsmen," April 25-May 29, 1962, n.pag., cat. 69. Claremont, Calif., Pomona College Gallery, "Muse or Ego: Salon and Independent Artists of the 1880s," 1963, p. 31, cat. 31. Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 71 (ill.). Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 150-151, cat. 72 (ill.). Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, "The Art of Paul Gauguin," April 17-July 31, 1988, p. 64, cat. 19 (ill.); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, September 17-December 10, 1988. Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland City Art Gallery, "Paul Gauguin: Pages From the Pacific," August 4-October 15, 1995, pp. 33 and 49, cat. 2 (ill.), cat. by Douglas Druick and Peter Zegers. The Art Institute of Chicago, "Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist", June 25 - September 10, 2017, pp. 57, 61, 118, 121, cat. 39, cat. by Gloria Groom, et. al., traveled to Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais, October 9, 2017 - January 21, 2018.
Publications
Carther H. Harrison, "Growing Up with Chicago," (Ralph Feltcher Seymour, 1944), pp. 338-39. Monroe Wheeler and John Rewald, Modern Drawings, exh. cat. (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1944), p. 91. Art Institute of Chicago, Drawings Old and New, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1946), p. 15, cat. 21, pl. 26. Robert Goldwater and Carl O. Schniewind, Exhibition, Gauguin: For the Benefit of the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York City, Inc., exh. cat. (Wildenstein & Co., 1956), p. 20, cat. 56 Herbert Read, "Gauguin: Return to Symbolism," Art News Annual 25 (1956), p. 153 (ill.). John Rewald, Gauguin Drawings (New York, 1958), p. 23, no. 6 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1959), p. 63, cat. 76. Merete Bodelson, "Gauguin's Bathing Girl," Burlington Magazine 101, no. 674 (May 1959), p. 187. Merete Bodelsen, "The Missing Link in Gauguin's Cloisonism," Gazette des Beaux-Arts (May-June 1959), pp. 338, 342, 344 (ill.). University of Michigan Museum of Art, A Generation of Draughtsmen, exh. cat. (University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1962), n.pag., cat. 69. Stephen Longstreet, The Drawings of Gauguin (Borden, 1965), n.pag. (ill.). Ronald Pickvance, The Drawings of Gauguin (P. Hamlyn, 1970), p. 21, pl. 12. Harold Joachim and Suzanne Folds McCullagh, Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso, exh. cat. (Secrétariat d’État à la Culture, Éditions des Musés Nationaux, 1976), n.pag., cat. 71 (ill.). Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 2 (University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 56, no. 3E1 (ill.) Nicolas Wadley, Gauguin: 116 Ouevres (SACELP, 1986), no. 10 (ill.). Bates Lowry, Muse or Ego: Salon and Independent Artists of the 1880s, exh. cat. (Pomona College Gallery, 1963), p. 31, cat. 31. Merete Bodelsen, Gauguin's Ceramics: A Study in the Development of his Art (Copenhagen, 1964), pp. 50-51, fig. 15 and 40g (ill.). Stephen Longstreet, The Drawings of Gauguin (Calif., 1965), p. 39 (ill.). Ronald Pickvance, The Drawings of Gauguin (London, 1970), p. 21, pl. 12 (ill.). Nicolas Wadley, Gauguin (Paris, 1986), p. 10 (ill.). Michel Hoog, Paul Gauguin: Life and Work (New York, 1987), p. 47, fig. 25. Françoise Cachin, Gauguin (Paris, 1990), pp. 42, 306, fig. 38. Peggy Vance, Gauguin (London, 1991), p. 13 (ill.). Nicholas Wadley, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing (London, 1991), p. 220, fig. 69b. Anna Maria Damigella, Paul Gauguin: La vita e l'opera (Milan, 1997), p. 64 (ill.). Britt Salvesen, with Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, Gauguin (Chicago, 2001), pp. 75 and 107, no. 4 (ill.). Françoise Cachin, Gauguin (Paris, 2003), p. 42, 302, fig. 38. Parkstone International, Gauguin, 1848-1903 (Parkstone International, 2010), pp. 34-35 (ill.).
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Paul Gauguin / French, 1848-1903
- Date
- 1886
- Medium
- Black fabricated chalk with pastel on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
- 32.9 × 48.3 cm (13 × 19 1/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- charcoal
- Place
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison Collection
- Accession no.
- 1933.910
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