Dramas of the Sea: A Descent into the Maelstrom (Les drames de la mer: une descente dans le maelstrom)

1889

Paul Gauguin

Associated Names
Paul Gauguin

Artist/publisher, French, 1848 - 1903

Edouard Ancourt

Printer, French, active 1860s/1890s

The image shows swirling curved lines that resemble ocean waves. A boat with two figures is at the top center. In the lower right corner, a shape suggests a face or a human figure holding onto a boat's edge. The lines create a dramatic scene of sea and sky, depicting the power and chaos of the ocean.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    lithograph (zinc) on yellow wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 30.5 × 44.4 cm (12 × 17 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1950.16.64

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Mongan et al. 1988, no. 3, State only state (A)

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1977

  • Paper in Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1977, no. 121.

Bibliography

1927

  • Guérin, Marcel. L'Oeuvre gravé de Gauguin. 2 vols. Paris: H. Floury, 1927.

1988

  • Mongan, Elizabeth, Eberhard W. Kornfeld, and Harold Joachim. Paul Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonne of his Prints. Berne: Galerie Kornfeld, 1988.

Inscriptions

recto: in stone, at lower left: Les dramas de la mer P Gauguin; at bottom right, in graphite, in later hand: MG 8; verso: at bottom center, in graphite, in later hand: c [circled] / H.P.

Watermarks

none

Wikidata ID

Q65363943

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