The White River

The White River[a] is a June 1888 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin and now in the Museum of Grenoble, which bought it for 20,000 francs in 1923.[2][3][4]

It shows a landscape in the countryside of Brittany on the banks of the River Aven around Pont-Aven. On the other side of the work is the August 1888 Portrait of Madeleine Bernard by the same artist, seemingly using both sides of the same canvas for practical reasons, due to lack of funds or because he could not find canvases in Pont-Aven at that time.[5][6][7]

It was initially acquired by a collector from Montpellier, Maurice Fabre, who then sold it to Eugène Druet. It then passed to Alexandre Bernheim and was bought by its present owner in 1923 for 20,000 francs or - as that museum's curator Andry-Farcy put it - "10,000 francs per Gauguin!".[8] It was stolen in June 1978 whilst being brought back from an exhibition in Marseille, but was recovered in a poor state of conservation the following year. It has now been re-framed and restored.[9] It also appeared on a 2013 French stamp designed by Valérie Besser.[10]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Known as Brittany Landscape until 1906 - it took on its current title at the Gauguin retrospective at Paris's autumn salon of that year.[1]

References

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  1. ^ (in French) Site /sites.google.com, page philamuseums Paul Gauguin, "La Rivière blanche".
  2. ^ (in French) Sous le numéro d'inventaire MG 2190 ; tableaux identifiés par Daniel de Montfreid, achat à la galerie Bernheim-Jeune en 1923.
  3. ^ (in French) Site navigart.fr, page "Paul Gauguin, Portrait de Madeleine Bernard, (recto), La Rivière blanche, (verso)".
  4. ^ (in French) Daniel Wildenstein (2001), Gauguin : Catalogue de l’œuvre peint, 1873-1888, Paris, Seuil, no. 285
  5. ^ (in French) Site museedegrenoble.fr, fiche du tableau.
  6. ^ (in French) Site letelegramme.fr, article Peinture. Un Gauguin « caché » exposé à Grenoble.
  7. ^ (in French) Site ledauphine.com, article Quand Madeleine Bernard quittait Gauguin puis Grenoble.
  8. ^ (in French) Site ledauphine.com, article "Un tableau de Gauguin… peut en cacher un autre".
  9. ^ (in French) Dominique Poiret (3 November 2011). "Un Gauguin… peut en cacher un autre". liberation.fr.
  10. ^ (in French) phil-ouest.com, page « L'impressionnisme et l'eau, Paul Gauguin : La rivière blanche ».