Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Powell Jones · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗
In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)
- Date
- 1889
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 123.8 x 106 x 7 cm (48 3/4 x 41 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 92.5 x 72.4 cm (36 7/16 x 28 1/2 in.)
- Country / context
- France
- Movement / tradition
- Post-Impressionism · Source ↗
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Pathway
- European and American art ↗
Painted at Pont-Aven in northwest France, this depiction of a nude figure throwing herself into the sea suggests a metaphor for a modern European woman forsaking civilization and abandoning herself to her natural, primitive instincts. The simplified lines and exaggerated colors, especially the contrasting green and orange, seem invented rather than observed from life. Exhibiting the painting at the Café Volpini in Paris in 1889, Gauguin established himself as a leader of the Symbolist movement in art.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.
