Description
A reclining nude extends diagonally across The Queen of Beauty — Langorous, a woodcut by Paul Gauguin dated 1898. Her head rests toward the right, and patterned cloth occupies the lower part of the image. Headlike forms above the reclining body complicate the scene, preventing it from becoming a simple study of repose. The title suggests ease, while the surrounding imagery leaves the atmosphere less readily settled.
Printed on thin tissue paper, the woodcut draws strength from the alternation of dark shapes and lighter openings. The figure’s horizontal movement contrasts with the forms suspended above her, giving the eye more than one direction to follow. Gauguin uses the carving’s direct marks to connect bodily presence with pattern and invention. Beauty becomes an evocative subject whose meaning remains open within the image’s unusual combination of rest and visual tension.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Paul Gauguin collection.
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