A unique and richly illustrated text by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin comes to the United Kingdom. Part-memoir and part-manifesto, the 213-page manuscript, titled Avant et après (Before and after) reveals important insights into Gauguin’s life. This includes his relationships and thoughts plus numerous drawings and prints by the artist.

Gauguin’s Avant et Apres, Front Cover  @The Courtauld

The manuscript will be displayed, in London, alongside Gauguin’s paintings and sculpture in The Courtauld Gallery’s Great Room when it reopens in 2021.  By late 2020, The Courtauld has announced it will be available to view and study as a scroll-through document online. Plus the pages will be accompanied by a revised transcription and new English translation. The transcript remains as close to the original French as possible. Unfiltered representation of Gauguin’s language should aid research on the artist and his legacy. A special Courtauld Research Forum online event ‘Rethinking Gauguin’ is open on 1 October. The plan is to start a conversation around Gauguin’s legacy. Additionally to present discussions that can arise from examining the manuscript.

The volume includes anecdotes on his friends Degas, Pissarro, Signac and Cézanne. Plus Gauguin shares one the brief but tumultuous periods when he stayed with Vincent van Gogh in Arles. Gauguin describes the incident in which Van Gogh severed his own ear after a violent quarrel with his fellow artist. An exciting artist, man and book of memories.  For the complete article.

Thanks to society member Paul Albright for sharing this article.