Fox, Busts of Two Women, and a Rabbit, headpiece for Le sourire

Fox, Busts of Two Women, and a Rabbit, headpiece for Le sourire is a powerful wood-block print created by Paul Gauguin French, 1848-1903 between 1899 and 1900. This highly illustrative work served as a symbolic headpiece for the artist's satirical journal, Le sourire (The Smile). Gauguin executed the print using a demanding technique, relying on wood-block printing in black ink on cream Japanese paper for the recto image.

The composition features the kind of enigmatic, quasi-mythological imagery characteristic of Gauguin’s late career, juxtaposing natural elements like a fox and a rabbit with two stylized, mask-like busts of women. The piece showcases the raw, rough-hewn quality of the wood-block medium, reflecting the artist’s rejection of polished academic techniques prevalent in France at the time.

Unusually, this piece is presented as a complex double-sided image, or a rare state proof. The verso features a second impression of a wood-block print in black ink applied over subtle, hand-drawn passages of blue and green pencil on the same cream Japanese paper. This layering demonstrates Gauguin's intense experimentation with print states and the integration of color into the printing process during this period.

Gauguin’s innovative approach treated the wood surface less as a mere reproductive tool and more as a direct carving medium, establishing him as a pioneer in modern graphic prints. Today, this significant example of late Symbolist work is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, offering crucial insight into the artist’s visual vocabulary. Images of the work frequently enter the public domain for scholarly research and appreciation.