Lot 121: CHARLES LAVAL

1862-1894 paysage de la martinique oil on canvas 92 by 71 cm., 36 1/4 by 28 in. Painted in Martinique in 1887. Provenance Ambroise Vollard, Paris Fabiani, Paris (1939-1945) Meissner Collection, Switzerland Dr. Kisler, Switzerland Hugo Perls, New York (acquired from the above in the early 1950s) Monica Perls, New York (wife of the above) Thence by descent to the present owner Exhibited (possibly) Paris, Cafe Volpini, 1889, no. 89 Vienna, Osterreichische Galerie im Oberen Belvedere, Paul Gauguin 1848-1903, 1960, no. 10 Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent oeuvres de Gauguin, 1960, no. 28, illustrated in the catalogue Literature Raymond Nacenta, Gauguin, Paris, 1960, pl. 5, illustrated in colour Alfred Karasek-Langer, Paul Gauguin, Leipzig, 1963, no. 17 Nina S. Zamfirescu, Gauguin, London, 1973, no. 9, illustrated in colour Karen Kristine Rechnitzer Pope, Gauguin and Martinique, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, 1981, pp. 104-111, 231-240 (mentioned) Laval met Paul Gauguin at Pont-Aven in 1886, and in the following year the two artists travelled together to Martinique, where they painted alongside each other, often depicting the same views. Laval was greatly influenced by Gauguin's work, and adopted a style reminiscent of Gauguin's. In fact, the present work was for a long time considered to be by Paul Gauguin, and was included in several exhibitions and illustrated in books as such. Based primarily on stylistic grounds and Gauguin's letters to his friends and fellow artists, scholars have attributed Paysage de la Martinique (the present work) and Paysage panoramique (Georges Wildenstein, Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1964, vol. I, no. 225) to Laval. In her doctoral thesis Gauguin and Martinique, Karen Kristine Rechnitzer Pope discusses and confirms this attribution. This tropical landscape, exemplary of Laval's plein-air style, depicts a view of the Bay of Saint-Pierre, where the artists spent most of their time on Martinique. The rich vegetation is dominated by two elegant, slender palm trees, and the only element suggestive of human presence is the narrow path leading towards the sea.