Portrait de Stéphane Mallarmé / Paul Gauguin
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 2007/2.18
- Title
- Portrait de Stéphane Mallarmé
- Artist
- Paul Gauguin
- Artist Nationality
- French
- Artist Life Dates
- 1848 - 1903
- Object Creation Date
- 1891
- Object Creation Place
- Europe (continent)
- Creation Place 1
- Europe (continent)
- Dimensions
- 48.5 cm x 36.1 cm (19 1/8 in. x 14 3/16 in.)
- Century
- 19th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Primary Object Type
- portrait
- Physical Description
- A shoulder-length portrait of a man occupies the bottom half of the image. The upper portion of the image is untouched. The man's head is silhouetted against a very dark background created by dense marks and hatching that prints very dark. The man looks away from the viewer to the left; behind his head is a partially drawn crow or raven. The man has short hair, moustache and beard.
- Subject Matter
- Mallarmé was a friend to many of the Impressionist painters in the late 1800s, including Whistler, Redon, Manet, Degas, Monet, and Renoir. For both Gauguin and Mallarmé the role of imagination was paramount, and Gauguin’s image of the poet contrasts sharply with that of Whistler’s. Just as with Whistler’s portrait, Gauguin’s also shows the figure emerging from a shaded background although the figure’s placement within the image is quite different. Gauguin brings Mallarmé closer to the viewer than Whistler’s more psychologically distant rendering. Mallarmé translated Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Raven, into French and a raven occupies the space just behind the French poet’s head.
- This is Gauguin’s only attempt at etching, although he worked extensively in woodcut, and was executed shortly before he left for Polynesia. Very few impressions were taken of this image during Gauguin’s lifetime; this impression, although taken posthumously, is among the limited number taken from the plate.
- Primary Keywords
- aquatint
- copper engraving (printing process)
- drypoint (printing process)
- etching
- man
- portrait
- Secondary Keywords
- transfer method
- descriptors
- engraving (printing process)
- etchings
- image-making processes and techniques
- intaglio printing processes
- intaglio prints
- objects we use
- people
- people (agents)
- people and culture
- people by gender
- printing and printing processes and techniques
- printing processes
- prints
- prints by process
- prints by process or technique
- processes and techniques
- processes and techniques by specific type
- visual works
- visual works by medium or technique
- visual works by subject type
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 2281 x 2825
- File Size
- 857 KB
- Record
- 2007/2.18
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2007-sl-2.18/2007_2_18.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Portrait de Stéphane Mallarmé; Paul Gauguin." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2007-sl-2.18/2007_2_18.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 25, 2024.
