COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.-An unknown and overlooked side of Gauguin can be experienced at this exhibition of Paul Gauguin’s early works at Ordrupgaard. The works on display at the exhibition were created during the artist’s early years in the late 1870s and in the 1880s. At that time, as an amateur artist, Paul Gauguin was introduced to the impressionist group of painters in Paris by Camille Pissaro, and was strongly torn between his work as a stockbroker and the life as an artist. Therefore, it was during these years that he went through a crucial transformation that formed the foundation for his later artistic work; from amateur artist to professional and from family father to loner - continually searching for artistic, moral and spiritual truths.

Reassessment - Until now, Gauguin’s early work has been considered an awkward prelude to his great painting career as a symbolist when he painted in Brittany and the South Pacific islands. This is a pity, in the opinion of Ordrupgaard’s director Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark. »The time has come to reassess his early works. This extremely productive period in Gauguin’s career is particularly fascinating and sheds new light on the artist’s work. Already at this stage, we can see the contours of the colourfully radiant symbolic art that he would go on to create on Tahiti.«

The exhibition shows the breadth in Gauguin’s work and therefore presents all the media used in his artistic experiments – paintings, sculptures and ceramics. Seventy works have been borrowed from private collectors and museums from around the world.

A new work shows up - At the exhibition you can also see a previously unknown work of Paul Gauguin; a little bust of a child in wax, acquired by Ordrupgaard some years ago from a private Danish collection. This is the first time that the work has been put on display for the public. After a few years’ work, Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark has succeeded in identifying the model for the bust and in placing the bust in an art-historic context of the 1880s. It was during these years that Gauguin and Edgar Degas found themselves in the middle of a splendid artistic duel.

Danish period - Furthermore, in the years 1884-85 Paul Gauguin lived in Copenhagen, whilst married to the Dane, Mette Gad. It was at this moment that the artist definitively decided to go his own way and leave his wife and children in order to devote himself to the world of art. The Danish part of his work is also presented at the exhibition.

International collaboration - Gauguin and Impressionism has been made possible through collaboration with The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The curators are, the leading international expert on French impressionism Richard Brettell – who amongst other work was responsible for the major Gauguin Exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris 1988-1989 – and Ordrupgaard’s director, Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, who likewise has researched the work of Paul Gauguin for many years. Together with Richard Brettell, Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark has written a comprehensive research-based catalogue that is being published by Yale University Press in connection with the opening of the exhibition. The catalogue has been published in Danish by Ordrupgaard. Gauguin and Impressionism has received financial support from A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal , the OAK Foundation Denmark, Ludvig og Sara Elsass Fond, Louis Petersens Legat and the County of Copenhagen.