Still Life: Wood Tankard and Metal Pitcher

Paul Gauguin · 1880

Medium

Oil on linen canvas

Original size

54 × 65 cm (21 1/4 × 25 9/16 in.); Framed: 71.2 × 82 × 7 cm (28 × 32 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Post-Impressionism

Painted before Gauguin abandoned his career as a Paris stockbroker, this quiet still life reveals the disciplined observation that would underpin his later, more radical work. In 1880, Gauguin was still an ambitious Sunday painter, absorbing the lessons of his mentor Camille Pissarro and exhibiting alongside the Impressionists. His handling of the wooden tankard and metal pitcher — contrasting warm, absorbent timber against the cold reflective surface of the metal — shows an already sophisticated understanding of how materials hold and reject light. The subdued palette and careful arrangement sit closer to Chardin than to the sun-drenched canvases Gauguin would eventually produce in Tahiti, making this an unusual window into a transformative period in his development. Gauguin had first exhibited with the Impressionists the year prior, at their fourth group show in 1879, and this work reflects the rigorous attention to surface and tone he was cultivating in that circle. Our hand-painted oil reproduction on linen captures the earthy textures and muted tonal contrasts of the original, held at the Art Institute of Chicago, bringing the same deliberate brushwork and careful material study of this rarely discussed early Gauguin into your home.