Decorated Wooden Box

Paul Gauguin experimented with techniques in a variety of media including ceramics, woodcut print, sculpture, and wood carving. In high and low relief across the front of this box, the artist fashioned dancers reminiscent of those seen in the work of his contemporary Edgar Degas. On the back, Gauguin inlaid Japanese fasteners, called netsuke, shaped as miniature masks. Inside, he hewed a rough, macabre human figure inspired by oak coffins of the Danish Bronze Age, which the artist saw in late 1884 while visiting his wife’s family in Copenhagen. The box showcases Gauguin’s curiosity about global art forms, which he appropriated and combined in the service of his own creative vision.