Bouquet of Peonies on a Musical Score
Paul Gauguin
1876
- YEAR:1876
- MEDIUM:Oil on canvas
- DIMENSIONS:55 x 38 cm
Introduction
Paul Gauguin was one of the three great masters of Post-Impressionism and he also served as the prototype in William Somerset Maugham’s novel The Moon and Sixpence. Bouquet of Peonies on a Musical Score was created during Gauguin’s close friendship with the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro and it is an important representative of his early artistic practice. The gentle handling of light and shadow together with brushstrokes in the painting reflect the distinct influence of Impressionism. However, his pursuit of form and symbolism has already begun to emerge—his use of colors carries a subjective tendency, and the composition tends to be decorative, with the peonies bathed in an ideal halo carry poetic associations and spiritual references. The juxtaposition of the musical score and the bouquet foreshadows Gauguin’s later concept of “Synthetism.”
