Martinique Pastorals, from the "Volpini Suite: Dessins lithographiques"

Martinique Pastorals, from the Volpini Suite: Dessins lithographiques by Paul Gauguin, is a seminal print created in 1889. The work is executed as a zincograph on distinctive yellow wove paper, representing an early and experimental phase of Gauguin’s career as a printmaker. This first edition suite, which was notoriously exhibited at the Café Volpini in Paris during the Exposition Universelle, helped establish the artist's burgeoning reputation as a leader of the Symbolist and Synthetist movements, favoring flattened forms and strong outlines over naturalistic representation.

The subject matter directly recalls Gauguin’s transformative 1887 stay on the Caribbean island of Martinique. The composition features idealized depictions of native Women amidst lush tropical growth. Rendered in simplified, heavy outlines characteristic of Synthetism, the figures tend to domesticated Goats beneath stylized Trees. This graphic simplification moves the work away from strict realism, emphasizing a perceived sense of a lost, primal existence that Gauguin sought to portray in his subsequent and more well-known Tahitian works. The dramatic use of black and white contrasts gives the tropical landscape a bold, decorative force.

The importance of the Volpini Suite lies in its status as some of Gauguin's earliest major prints, demonstrating his skill in creating highly graphic forms derived from earlier color studies. As a significant example of fin-de-siècle printmaking, this piece contributes significantly to the understanding of the artist's graphic output before his departure for the South Seas. This specific impression of Martinique Pastorals is held in the comprehensive collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it serves as a critical bridge between his early Parisian explorations and his later mature Symbolist style.