A Henhouse 1884

Curator: Today, we’re looking at Paul Gauguin's “A Henhouse,” painted in 1884. It's a genre scene, done with oil paints in the plein-air tradition. Editor: Oh, it’s... rustic. Almost unbearably charming. All those chickens, pecking around in the warm light. It feels incredibly intimate, like stumbling upon a secret little world. Curator: The subject is humble – everyday rural life. But consider the broader context: Gauguin was interested in depicting labor, especially manual labor close to the earth. Painting the henhouse is not just bucolic romanticism. Editor: But that light, though. The way it dapples the ground. It’s… transformative. The ordinary is becoming something else, something more poetic, maybe? I wonder if this wasn't just an observation of place, but an attempt to create some private pastoral. Curator: Notice the paint application. Thick strokes. Impasto. Very different from the smoother surfaces of academic painting. The visible labor in producing that paint texture echoes the subject. Also, consider his shift towards post-impressionism shortly after. He's starting to pull away from the direct observation of the impressionists. Editor: That shift feels so personal, doesn't it? You almost see him searching here, working to find his own voice in this quiet corner of France, you can nearly feel the clucking of the hens and the damp ground. It has that 'end of summer' feel for me... bittersweet somehow. Curator: Right. And while seemingly simple, it also marks Gauguin engaging with broader questions about art, work, and the construction of the rural idyll. Editor: I agree. Even in the mundane there's such an obvious story happening here about life and craft. Curator: The way labor is expressed through materiality in a canvas like this—that's key to Gauguin. Editor: Precisely, thanks to you I will keep looking closer from now on at these genre paintings!