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Vision
After the Sermon, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
Oil on Canvas
1888: 73 × 92 cm
National Gallery of Scotland
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This
is one of Gauguin's masterpieces, painted in 1888, now in the National
Gallery of Scotland. Gauguin painted this after spending time painting
with Van Gogh in Arles. Monet confessed to liking the painting,
which he saw at the exhibition Gauguin organized in 1891 to finance
his plans for an excursion to Tahiti. (Degas bought several of
Gauguin's paintings at this exhibition.)
The painting 'The Vision'
is remarkable for is radical design, and incredible shapes and
colors. The large, white hats worn by the nuns are fantastic, biomorphic
surreal shapes, with earlike streaming flaps. A strong narrative
and emotion exists at the same time Gauguin reduces the wrestling
figures, and the on looking nuns into beautiful shapes and forms.
The tree trunk slices diagonally across the painting, making the
most strange and fantastic composition. Gauguin paints the earth
in a surprising rust red that winds around and in-between the nuns'
imaginative hats. The wrestling is muscular between Jacob and the
angel. This is a down to earth battle, on the red soil, which makes
the struggle seem very human and sincere. This painting is characteristic
of Gauguin's soul searching and philosophical themes.
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