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Inscription

lower right: Paul Gauguin / 1903

Provenance

Baron Hans Eberhard von Bodenhausen [1868-1918], Munich. Acquired 26 October 1908 by (Bernheim, Paris); sold 7 November 1908 to Elsa Tischner-von Durant, Freising.[1] (Galerie Druet, Paris), c. 1924.[2] (Galerie Thannhauser, Lucerne); acquired by Ralph Harman Booth [d. 1931] and Mary Batterman Booth [d. 1951], Detroit, by 1927;[3] by inheritance to John and Louise Booth, Grosse Pointe, Michigan; gift (partial and promised) 1976 to NGA; gift completed 1981.

[1] The early provenance is according to Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin, Paris, 1964: no. 635. The full name of Mlle von Durant is given in a letter dated 22 November 1977 from the Fondation Wildenstein (in NGA curatorial files).

[2] Published in 1924, courtesy of Galerie E. Druet, Paris.

[3] The painting was lent by the Booths to a 1927 exhibition in Detroit.

Exhibition History
1927
Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1927, no. 78, as Natives of Tahiti.
1931
Exhibition of Modern French Painting, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1931, no. 41, as Haiti: Women in Landscape.
1985
Le chemin de Gauguin, genèse et rayonnement, Musée Départemental du Prieuré, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, 1985-1986, no. 370, repro.
2003
Gauguin-Tahiti, L'atelier des tropiques, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2003-2004, no. 195, repro. (shown only in Boston).
2010
Gauguin: Maker of Myth, Tate, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, unnumbered in catalogue (shown only in London).
2012
1912, Mission Modernedie: die Jahrhundertschau des Sonderbundes, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2012.
2013
Gauguin: Voyage into Myth and After, Seoul Museum of Art, 2013, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
2014
Horizont Jawlensky: Alexej von Jawlensky im Spiegel seiner künstlerischen Begegnungen 1900-1914 [The Jawlensky Horizon: Alexej von Jawlensky in the Reflection of his Encounters from 1900-1914], Museum Wiesbaden, 2014, no. 117, repros.
2015
Loan to display with permanent collection, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, 2015-2016.
2017
Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, The Art Institute of Chicago; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2017-2018, no. 238 (English catalogue), no. 217 (French catalogue), repros.
Bibliography
1938
Scheyer, Ernst. The Ralph Harman Booth Collection, Grosse Point - Detroit, Michigan, Detroit, 1938:unpaginated.
1945
Cheney, Sheldon. A Primer of Modern Art. Rev. ed. New York, 1945: 55, repro.
1956
Wildenstein, G. "L'Idéologie et l'Esthétique dans deux tableaus-clés de Gauguin." Gazette des Beaux-Arts VI période, no. 47 (January - April 1956):150, repro.
1964
Wildenstein, Georges. Gauguin. 2 vols. Paris, 1964: no. 635.
1972
Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'ouevre peint de Gauguin. Milan, 1972: no. 455, repro.
1977
"Acquisitions of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Art by Museums," The Burlington Magazine 119, no. 896, supplement (November 1977): 802, repro.
1977
Richard, Paul. "A Gift to the Gallery: 'The Invocation,' a not so superior Gauguin." The Washington Post (7 March 1977): B11.
1981
Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gauguin. Paris, 1981: no. 456, repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 170, repro.
2004
Shackelford, George T.M., and Claire Frèches-Thory. Gauguin: Tahiti. Exh. cat. Galerie nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 2004: 257-258.
2016
Boyle Turner, Caroline. Gauguin & the Marquesas. Paradise Found?. Brittany, 2016: 209, fig. 9.9.
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