The Fire at the River Bank

Gauguin, Paul
París, 1848 - Atuona, Islas Marquesas, 1903
The Fire at the River Bank, 1886
Signed & dated lower left: ''Paul Gauguin 86''.
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Oil on canvas
60 x 38 cm
CTB.1993.4
Artwork history
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Dr. Walter Müller, Zurich, c. 1931
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Sotheby’s Auctions, London, Lot 36, June 22, 1993
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Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections
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-Cogniat, R. y Rewald, J.: Paul Gauguin. Carnet de croquis. París, 1961, p. 25, lám.
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-Wildenstein, Georges: Gauguin. París, Les Beaux Arts, 1964. L’Art Français; vol. 1: Catalogue , n. 193, p. 71, lám.
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-Sugana, G. M.: L’opera completa di Gauguin. Milán, Rizzoli, 1972. Classici dell’arte; vol. 61, n. 33, p. 88, lám.
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-Sotheby’s: Impressionist and modern paintings, drawings and sculpture, part I. [Auction Cat.]. London June 22, 1993 , p. 40, lám.
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-De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras maestras de la colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Exhib. Cat. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza]. Llorens Serra, Tomàs (ed.). Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1996 , n. 71, p. 188 (listed as “Orilla de río, campesinos alrededor de un fuego”). [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance]
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-Wildenstein, Daniel: Gauguin. Premier itinéraire d’un sauvage. Catalogue de l’oeuvre peint (1873-1888). Crussard, Sylvie y Heudron, Martine. Milan, Skira – París, Wildenstein Institute, 2001 , vol. 1, n. 211, p. 254-255, lám.
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-Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Arnaldo, Javier (ed.). 2 vols. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004, vol. 2, p. 82, lám. p. 83 [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance]
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-Solana, Guillermo: ”El despertar del fauno. Gauguin y el retorno de lo pastoral”. Madrid 2004-2005. pp. 14-63, cit. p. 28.
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-Solana, Guillermo: Gauguin y los orígenes del simbolismo. [Exhib. Cat. 2004-2005]. Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza – Fundación Caja Madrid, 2004.
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-Rusiñol, Monet, Gauguin, Sunyer. El paisaje en la Colección Carmen Thyssen, Gerona, CaixaForum; Tarragona, CaixaForum; Lérida, CaixaForum, 2012, n. 35, p. 122, lám. p. 123. ( Lérida)[Exhib. Cat.]
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-Courbet, Van Gogh, Monet, Léger. Del paisaje naturalista a las vanguardias en la Colección Carmen Thyssen, Málaga, Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, 2013, n. 28, p. 112, lám. p. 113. [Exhib. Cat.]
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-Un món ideal: De Van Gogh a Gauguin i Vasarely. Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen. Espai Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guíxols. p. 48, 49, 144, 145, 178 y 179. [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance]. [Exhib. Cat.]
Expert report
Certain pictures readily conform to the prevailing view of an artist’s oeuvre at a particular moment in his career. Others-odd-ones out, so to say-strike a different note from the usually accepted view: eccentric and nonconformist. Our conception of Gauguin in Pont-Aven in 1886-his first visit to Brittany-is dominated by landscapes of the locality whose “Breton-ness” is not unduly exaggerated. An unspoilt, pastoral ambience could be mistaken for a rural idyll, especially when, in introducing figures, Gauguin presents us with picturesquely costumed young women of Pont-Aven.
This strange, almost malevolent painting has acquired a rather misleading title. The landscape element does not immediately and unequivocally proclaim a Pont-Aven provenance. A hillside declines to the bank of a river, on which the masts of two sail-boats can be discerned, with a glimpse of the far bank, and just a little sky. And rather than the quaintly costumed Bretonnes, all the actors in this enigmatic drama are male. Men whose caps, at least in three instances, suggest douaniers are gathered around mysterious fires that burn not far from the river’s bank. In a sketchbook used by Gauguin in Brittany in 1886 is a sequence of five consecutive pages in which highly schematic drawings of douaniers and other male figures can be seen-as well as a skeletal compositional sketch. Several of these hastily executed figures reappear in the painting. The adapted Impressionist morphology of brushstroke and colour articulation typifies Gauguin’s style during his three months’ stay in Pont-Aven. In that respect, the painting qua painting conforms to our expectations. What was thematically aberrant (a cause of contraband?) turns out to be stylistically conformist.
Ronald Pickvance