?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
PAUL GAUGUIN Mahna no Varua Ino.
Woodcut printed in ochre on cream wove China paper, 1893-94. 202x352 mm; 8x14 inches, full margins. Fourth state (of 4). A proof in this state, printed before the Pola Gauguin edition of 100 published in 1921 (impressions of which were printed in black). A superb, richly-inked, dark and evenly-printed impression of this very scarce proof.
This impression, unrecorded by Kornfeld, is likely unique. Kornfeld notes two impressions of other Noa Noa subjects printed before 1904 by Tony or Jacques Beltrand for Eugène Druet and neither of these is in ochre ink (Kornfeld 20 and 22). According to Kornfeld, Eugène Druet acquired 8 of the Noa Noa wood blocks sometime around 1914-18 and had Beltrand print impressions. In 1921, Druet sold the wood blocks to the artist's son, Pola Gauguin, and he prodcued the edition of 100 impressions of each. The Pola Gauguin printings, as well as many of the Beltrand impressions, are evidenced by the splits in the blocks (which are particularly noticeable in the 1921 impressions). The current impression has no signs of splitting in the block and is likely an early impression from the 1890s or early 1900s.
An impression of L'Univers est Crée printed in ochre on China paper, and an impression of Nave Nave Fenua, printed in ochre on Japan paper, both from Noa Noa, were sold at Sotheby's, London (1998) and Drouot, Paris (1989( respectively. Kornfeld 19.
