Vessel with Women and Goats

Paul Gauguin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gauguin made about one hundred ceramic vessels (about sixty survive) in which he explored the expressive qualities of the medium. He began making pottery in 1886 after meeting Ernest Chaplet, with whom he collaborated on his earliest pieces. Gauguin soon developed his own technique, sculpting the clay by hand without the use of a potter's wheel. Unconventional shapes and a tough "primitive" appearance characterize his brown stoneware. The sloped, asymmetrical profile of this vase is representative of his approach. Gauguin could have developed the imagery of the woman and a goat during his sojourns in Brittany and Martinique.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art