Description
Painted on a remote island in Polynesia a year before the artist's death, The Call belongs to a series of late works that explore the mysteries of life and death. Two women stand with bare feet, as if on sacred ground. One woman gestures to someone outside the picture, perhaps responding to a "call" from fate or destiny. Gauguin realized his ambition of painting from memory and the imagination through such mysterious, dreamlike images.
Provenance
Ambroise Vollard [1866-1939], Paris, France; Baron Wolf Kohner [1866-1937], Budapest, Hungary; (Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY, November 9, 1943, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Dimensions
131.3 × 89.5 cm
Movement / Period
Accession No
1943.392
Official Citations
Curatorial Affinity Stream
Continuing the Universe of Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
Modern European Painting and Sculpture • France, late 19th-early 20th Century • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries
Continuous Discovery