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Haystacks in Brittany
Paul Gauguin1890
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Details
- Title: Haystacks in Brittany
- Creator: Paul Gauguin
- Date Created: 1890
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 74.3 x 93.6 cm (29 1/4 x 36 7/8 in.) framed: 96.5 x 115.6 x 7.6 cm (38 x 45 1/2 x 3 in.)
- Provenance: Probably Emile Schuffenecker [1851-1934], Paris;[1] acquired by (Ambroise Vollard, Paris); sold to Gustave Fayet [1865-1925], Igny, France, by 1904.[2] Gerald Brooks [d. 1936], New York;[3] by inheritance to Mrs. Helen Brooks; sold June 1936 to (Marie Harriman Gallery, New York);[4] her husband, The Hon. W. Averell Harriman [1891-1986]; W. Averell Harriman Foundation; gift 1972 to NGA. [1] Per Roseline Bacou, ‘Paul Gauguin et Gustave Fayet’, in _Gauguin, Actes du colloque Gauguin_, Musée d’Orsay, 11–13 janvier 1989, p. 25. Bacou, an art historian and granddaughter of the collector Gustave Fayet, gives Schuffenecker as the first owner of this painting, although the circumstances and timing of its acquisition are lacking. Schuffenecker parted with it around the time of his divorce, when he was obliged to see much of his collection go to his half-brother Amédée, from whom it must have been acquired by Gustave Fayet. Previously the work was believed to have been included in the Gauguin sale at the Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, 18 February 1895, no. 44 or 47. However, no. 44 is listed as _Paysage_, and was bought in by Gauguin, and no. 47, _Paysage Breton_ was bought by M. Carbonneau. [2] Fayet was a wealthy wine grower, an amateur painter, a collector, and friend of artists, who had a number of Van Goghs and Gauguins in his possession. At the time of Gauguin’s death in 1903, Fayet’s Gauguin collection had already grown to a significant size. _Haystacks_ was added by 1904 at the latest, being among the several Breton works that, according to Bacou, Fayet bought from Schuffenecker between 1903 and 1904. It is visible in a photograph taken by Druet of his Paris residence, 51 rue de Bellechasse, the earliest date for which would be January 1905. In 1908, when he and his wife acquired the Abbey of Fontfroide, he sold some of the collection. However, this painting is visible in a photograph of the interior of Fayet's Château d'Igny, dated c. 1914. He kept it until his death in September 1925. Earlier that year J.-G. Goulinat visited Fayet and wrote a profile of his collection ("Les Collections Gustave Fayet," _L'Amour de l'Art_ 6 (1925): 131-142). As the critic confessed, the size of the collection made it impossible for him to realise his initial ambition of enumerating all the important works in the collection, so Haystacks is not named. [3] Brooks purchased the painting around 1925, possibly at the Fayet sale. [4] According to the Marie Harriman Gallery inventory card in NGA curatorial files, Mrs. Brooks sold this and six other objects to Harriman in June 1936.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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