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The Yellow Christ
Paul Gauguin · Post-Impressionism & Neo-Impressionism
- Artist
- Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
- Date
- 1889
- Dimensions
- 92.1 x 73.3 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, United States
The Yellow Christ shows a crucifixion set in the Breton countryside near Pont-Aven. Three women in local costume kneel at the foot of the cross, while the autumn fields behind them glow in yellow, orange and red.
A closer look
Gauguin based the figure of Christ on a painted wooden crucifix in the small chapel of Trémalo near Pont-Aven, but he transformed it with an intense, unnatural yellow that echoes the colours of the landscape. The forms are flat and outlined in dark lines, like stained glass or folk prints, a style called Synthetism or Cloisonnism. The scene is not a historical event but a vision: the faith of the Breton peasant women made visible. Gauguin wanted to paint not what he saw but what he felt, a decisive step towards modern art.
History of the painting
The painting first belonged to Gauguin’s friend and fellow painter Émile Schuffenecker, then to the collector Gustave Fayet, and later to the Paris dealer Paul Rosenberg. When the Germans occupied France in 1940 the Nazis looted Rosenberg’s collection; the Yellow Christ was recovered and returned to him after the war, and in 1946 the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo (today Buffalo AKG Art Museum) bought it.
More by Paul Gauguin
In this gallery
When Will You Marry? (Nafea Faa Ipoipo)
Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)
Arearea (Joyfulness)
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manaò tupapaú)