Jean René Gauguin (April 12, 1881 – April 21, 1961) was a French-Danish
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
in the
art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Art competitions were held as part of the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Medals were awarded in five categories (architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture), for works inspired by sport-related themes.
Art competitions were ...
for his ''Boxer''.
Biography
The fourth child of the marriage of
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
(1848–1903) and Mette Sophie Gad (1850–1920), Jean René Gauguin was born in Paris in 1881. His family moved to Copenhagen in 1884 where his father briefly and unsuccessfully tried making a living as a
tarpaulin
A tarpaulin ( , ) or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforce ...
salesman. Six months on, his father left Copenhagen for Paris and beyond to pursue his life of creativity and wanderlust. Jean René last saw his father at age ten when Paul spent two weeks in Copenhagen before leaving for
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...
. They had little communication as Jean René spoke no French at that time and his father spoke no
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
.
Jean René was raised in Copenhagen by his mother Mette and maternal grandparents. Albeit from a bourgeois Danish family he was brought up in very modest circumstances. At the age of eight he fell out a third floor window and sustained severe injuries from which he recovered. He left school in 1895 and undertook an 11-month sailor's training program. Thereafter he apprenticed as a carpenter but hated the trade and went back to working as a sailor.
In 1904 shortly after Paul Gauguin's death he inherited three of his father's paintings that he immediately sold. With these funds he traveled throughout Europe, venturing as far as
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, visiting museums and viewing monuments wherever he went. These travels initiated his long artistic career.
He loved to travel and visited his birthplace, Paris, a number times learning French fluently. In 1927 he set off on an extremely long cycling tour of France. Starting in Lyon, he pedaled on to Montpellier,
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
Narbonne
Narbonne (, also , ; oc, Narbona ; la, Narbo ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the ...
,
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
,
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Dunkerque, and completed the feat with a return leg all the way to Copenhagen. He visited
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
in 1930 and visited Paris anew in 1937. Despite his wanderlust, his life and work remained rooted in Copenhagen. He was an outspoken socialist, not afraid to make his political views known. In December 1913 Jean René married Clara Federsen (1889–1966), from this marriage was born a son Pierre Sylvester. They settled at Nyhavn 33, Copenhagen but later separated. He married a second time 1935 with cartoonist Sys Poulsen (1909–1999) and from this union was born Lulu Gauguin in 1937. He is buried with a simple gravestone in the Vor Frelser cemetery in Copenhagen.
His work
Jean René Gauguin was an active and prolific ceramist and
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
from 1910 until shortly before his death in 1961. His ceramic production pieces were made in collaboration with Sleiss of Gmunden (
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
),
Bing & Grøndahl
Bing & Grøndahl was a Danish porcelain manufacturer founded in 1853 by the sculptor Frederik Vilhelm Grøndahl and merchant brothers Meyer Hermann Bing and Jacob Herman Bing. The trademark backstamp for Bing & Grøndahl (B&G) porcelains is the t ...
, Copenhagen and
Manufacture nationale de Sèvres
The ''Manufacture nationale de Sèvres'' is one of the principal European porcelain factories. It is located in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine, France. It is the continuation of Vincennes porcelain, founded in 1740, which moved to Sèvres in 1756. It ...
. His earliest works were wood carvings however these rapidly evolved into bronze castings of athletes, dancers, centaurs, and classically inspired male and female torsos.
In 1921 he traveled to Gmunden, Austria and worked at the Sleiss Factory where he created tin glazed ceramic figures. As of 1923 he started working for the Bing and Grondahl ceramic studios for whom he continued creating new models throughout his life. His first major sculpture was a ''Boxer'' ( col. Statens Museum for Kunst) created in 1922 for the
1924 Paris Olympics
The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...
. For this work the Olympic committee awarded him a bronze medal following a competition held at the Grand Palais in Paris. Jean Rene Gauguin exhibited several works created for B§G at the seminal 1925 Paris 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs'. His large
stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...
sculptural groups with themes from mythology won him critical acclaim and an article in the October issue of the influential revue 'Art et Décoration'. For these works he was awarded the 'Grand Prix de la Ceramique' . He equally showed a massive silver guild hall chalice created in collaboration with
Georg Jensen
Georg Arthur Jensen (31 August 1866 in Rådvad – 2 October 1935 in Copenhagen) was a Danish silversmith and founder of Georg Jensen A/S (also known as Georg Jensen Sølvsmedie).
Early life
Born in 1866, Jensen was the son of a knife gr ...
and
Anton Rosen
Anton Rosen (13 September 1859 – 2 July 1928) was a Danish architect, furniture designer, decorative artist and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In his architecture, he combined a free Historicist style with inspiration ...
. In 1927 he worked as guest artist at the
Sèvres
Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for ...
porcelain works. Around this time he received a commission to create a sculpture for the
Jardin des Tuileries
The Tuileries Garden (french: Jardin des Tuileries, ) is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in ...
. Referred to as ''La Fontaine de Chine'', no sign of this structure exists today and its whereabouts remain a mystery.
On April 6, 1932, Jean René Gauguin leapt off a ten-meter diving board into the gigantic swimming pool of the resort town of Havested. This was a fitting way to inaugurate his largest work, ''Sea Horse''. An enormous stoneware structure built in this studios of Bing § Grondahl, ''Sea Horse'' was a remarkable undertaking. Inspired by the myths of Europa and Poseidon, it dominated a massive public swimming pool where it was totally destroyed by a falling scaffolding on June 14, 1952.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, his work continued to alternate between two principal mediums, bronze and stoneware. On the one hand he produced stylized athletes and animals cast in bronze. Alongside these he expressed his fascination with the sea and its myths and it's monsters creating a fascinating ceramic opus of tritons,
nereid
In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; grc, Νηρηΐδες, Nērēḯdes; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the ' Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sisters ...
s, underwater creatures, octopuses, and unusual depictions of the
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
s of
Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...
. The production pieces he created for Bing § Grondahl were executed in polychrome glazed stoneware or porcelain for the smaller figures. Expressive monkeys, water buffaloes, tigers and lions in ceramic form also populated his universe. In his studio pieces he often opted for rough surfaced unglazed stoneware, witness his impressive urns with Chinese inspired temple dogs as lid handles.
In the 1950s, his ceramics became inspired from pre-Columbian
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
home of his paternal grandmother. He created a series of bottle shapes incorporating sculptural depictions. In the last year of his life these evolved into a surreal series of screaming agonizing ceramic vessels.
In interviews with journalists he clearly stated that his namesake had been a hindrance to his career. Although his work would never become a pillar of modern art like his father's, his oeuvre was totally original and not a pastiche based on a recognizable name. He expressed that bearing the Gauguin name had been a barrier to museums and art critiques accepting his work seriously.
His work interpreted the vibrant bright color spectrum used by Scandinavian painters of the early years of the 20th century onto stoneware. His formal language created a rapprochement between the erotic and the fantastic. In his depiction of an underwater world he excelled in the illustration of the phantasmagorical and the grotesque. His technical prowess with glazed figural stoneware remains unparalleled to this day as were his experiments in polychrome glaze work. Paienne cultures as diverse of China and Peru were amongst his many sources of inspiration. With his mastery of the human figure he brought to life musicians, storytellers, athletes, dancers, and jockeys, and his capture of animal movement vitalized a whole menagerie of beasts, real and imagined.
Catalog of works
Although there is to date no catalogue raissoné of the works of Jean René Gauguin, an excellent listing was established by Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon in 1947. A major cataloged exhibition of his works was held at the Vejen Kunstuseum (Denmark) in 2002–2003 with 176 photos of individual works.
Collections
*Art Institute of Chicago. (catalog no. 1971.815). ''Triton and Nereid''
*The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York U.SA, ceramic sculpture ''Surf'', inventory number 46.94.1
*Royal Copenhagen Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, numerous ceramics
*Fyns Kunsmuseum Odense bys Museer inv. JWL 188
*Arthus Kunsmeuseum inv. S72
*Statens Museum for Kunst inv. 5723
*Storstroms Kunsmuseum, Maribo
*Det danske Kunstindustriemuseum
The above listing is incomplete.
Bibliography
*''Revue Commerciale Danoise'' No. 7 Avril 1925, publieé par le Ministère des Affaires Etrangères par les soins de la Danish Publishing Office, Copenhagen
*Asger Bremer, Monograph Jean René Gauguin 1941
*''Vejen Kunstuseum (Denmark)'' 2002–2003, catalogue
*"Jean René Gauguin And The Underwater World" Annette Rosenvald in ''Ordrupgaard Focus'', 02, Ordrupgaard Denmark 2007
Exhibitions
Gauguin exhibited throughout Europe as well as the US with one man shows and group showings of the Bing § Grondahl ceramic studios. His monumental works created huge interest and were the subject of many press articles. Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon
provides a very complete listing of his expositions.
*Den frie Udst. 1911–12; Der Sturm, München 1913;
*Charl. Forår 1914, 1916–17, 1919–21, 1923, 1937–44, 1946;
*Høstudst., Kristiania (Oslo) 1915- 16;
*Grønningen 1915, 1921–22, 1926, 1929–33;
*da. udst., Liljevalchs, Sth. 1918–19;
*KE 1920–21, 1923;
*Nord. konst, Göteborg 1923;
*Olympiske Lege, Paris 1924;
*verdensudst., Paris 1925, 1937, Bruxelles 1935;
*Det da. Kunststævne, Forum 1929;
*Barcelona 1929;
*
Salon des Artistes décorateurs
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (Pa ...
, Paris 1930;
*Exhib. of Painting, Sculpt. and Arch., Edinburgh 1934;
*da. udst., Amsterdam 1934;
*bien., Venezia 1936; da udst., Riga, Budapest, Bukarest 1936, Beograd 1937;
*Da.-norsk billedh.sammenslutn., Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo 1938; N.Y. 1939;
*Den off. da. Kunstudst. i Oslo 1946;
*Ny Carlsbergfondets jub.udst. Charl.borg 1952;
*Charl. Eft. 1953, 1958, 1961 (mindeudst.);
*Deense beeldhouwkunst, Stadspark Groningen 1957;
*Carl Gruvemans kunstsaml., Anneberg 1978;
*Erling Koefoeds saml. af maleri, skulp., grafik, Nikolaj, Kbh. 1980;
*Grønningen, de tidlige år, Glyptoteket 1990. Separatudstillinger: Oslo 1912, 1918;
*Bird, Eriksen & Ko., Vestervoldg., Kbh. 1913;
*Da. Kunsthdl., Kbh. 1918; Sèvres 1927; Sth. 1928; Kunsthallen, Kbh. 1936;
*Chr. Larsens Kunsthdl., Kbh. 1938; Bing & Grøndahl, Kbh. 1941, 1943, 1951, 1981.