Physical Dimensions: overall: 67.9 x 91.5 cm (26 3/4 x 36 in.)
framed: 92.4 x 114.9 x 10.1 cm (36 3/8 x 45 1/4 x 4 in.)
Provenance: (Gauguin sale, Paris, 18 February 1895, no. 27, bought in); Paul Gauguin; possibly sold 1895 to (Ambroise Vollard [1867-1939], Paris). William Molard, 1897. George Daniel de Monfreid [1856-1929]; sold 7 June 1898 to Ernest Rouart [1874-1942], Paris.[1] (Galerie L. Dru, Paris); sold 1928 to Louis L. Horch [d. 1979], New York;[2] sold 11 June 1928 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Assuming this is the painting referred to in the chronology published in _Gauguin: Tahiti_, Exh. cat., Galerie nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2004: 347.
The painting was lent by Ernest Rouart to the 1906 Salon d'Automne. Ernest was the son of collector Henri Rouart and inherited with his siblings his father's collection. The collection was dispersed at auctions in Paris in 1912 and 1913, none of which included this Gauguin. Neither was it included in an anonymous sale of some of Ernest Rouart's collection held 22-23 March 1918 in Paris.
[2] Horch was the financial backer of the first Roerich Museum on Riverside Drive, New York City, that existed between 1924-1938. Chester Dale's papers, copy in NGA curatorial files, record the Roerich Museum as his source for the Gauguin, but this is crossed out and Horch written in.