Boy's Face; Two Sheep [verso] 1884 - 1888

Editor: So, this is Paul Gauguin's "Boy's Face; Two Sheep" from around 1884-1888, a pencil drawing with sketches on both sides. I'm struck by the contrast between the almost comical simplicity of the boy's face and the barely-there quality of the sheep. What layers of meaning am I missing? Curator: What I find most compelling here is the context. Gauguin made this around the time he was abandoning his life as a stockbroker, confronting societal expectations to embrace a bohemian existence. Editor: How does that tie into the sketches? Curator: Consider the figure of the boy – his simplified features, almost mask-like, raise questions of identity. Was Gauguin perhaps thinking about constructed roles and societal expectations, particularly in contrast with what some perceive as the simple life suggested by the sheep on the verso? Who gets to define which is simple and what value is assigned? Editor: So, you see the drawing as Gauguin grappling with his own identity, and societal expectations? The act of sketching, discarding, layering images…it becomes a visual metaphor for his internal conflicts. Curator: Precisely. This work anticipates the later emphasis on “authenticity” for which Gauguin is both celebrated and heavily critiqued. What is truly authentic and for whom is the question raised? How complicit was he, consciously or unconsciously, in constructing that myth of the primitive, to appeal to the expectations of the art market? Editor: I hadn't considered it that way, it’s far more complicated than a simple sketch. Now the contrast really hits. Thank you. Curator: Indeed. It's in these tensions—between societal expectations and individual desire, artistic expression and social critique—that the drawing reveals its richness.