Paul Gauguin
Stéphane Mallarmé
1890
Physical Qualities
Etching with bitten tone, Sheet: 332 × 241 mm. (13 1/16 × 9 1/2 in.)
Plate: 184 × 146 mm. (7 1/4 × 5 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Blanche Adler Memorial Fund
Object Number
1953.87
Gauguin depicts Mallarmé in murky darkness, with a raven (the mirror image of Manet’s bird) perched on his shoulder. The raven’s sharp beak and penetrating gaze echo the French writer’s distinctive appearance and expression.
As early as 1880, Gauguin enjoyed reading Poe’s tales with his wife. In 1891, just before Gauguin departed for Tahiti,Mallarmé and other friends joined him in a Parisian café, where they recited passages from The Raven as a good-bye gesture.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1953; purchased at auction, Parke-Bernet, 7 April 1953, lot 46
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Peintre Graveur: 19th Century French Prints from the Collection," 7 September - 31 October, 1976.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Portraits in Prints," 19 October - 11 December, 1977.
BMA, "Master Prints II: Daumier to Picasso," 25 October, 1983 - 15 January, 1984.
Doreen Bolger, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Haunting Visions of Poe; Illustrations by Manet, Matisse & Gauguin," Sept. 17, 2003-Jan. 11, 2004.
Doreen Bolger, BMA, "Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon," 4 October 2009 - 17 January 2010.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Portraits in Prints," 19 October - 11 December, 1977.
BMA, "Master Prints II: Daumier to Picasso," 25 October, 1983 - 15 January, 1984.
Doreen Bolger, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Haunting Visions of Poe; Illustrations by Manet, Matisse & Gauguin," Sept. 17, 2003-Jan. 11, 2004.
Doreen Bolger, BMA, "Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon," 4 October 2009 - 17 January 2010.
Signed: 1
Inscribed: In plate, at upper center: "91 [reversed] / P.G."
