Fake, forgery or bum wrap?
When it comes to what had been one of the most valued paintings at Stockton’s Haggin museum, it’s one of the three.
The museum has extended an exhibition highlighting the mystery surrounding its most controversial painting, a still life called “Flowers and Fruit” that is merely “attributed” to French artist Paul Gauguin. Now, museum-goers can try to unravel the puzzle for themselves through July 6.
In what serves as a guide before visiting the Haggin, a book that came out last year delves into the painting’s mysterious past. “The Case of the Disappearing Gauguin: A Study of Authenticity and the Art Market” was penned by Stephanie Brown, assistant director for the Johns Hopkins University’s master’s graduate program in Museum Studies.
It’s amazing such a simple painting would kick up such a fuss. The work depicts two flower-filled vases — one red and one blue — surrounded by pieces of fruit strewn across a tabletop.
But then again, the art world has always loved an enigma (witness centuries of attention devoted to the Mona Lisa’s smile). And the irony is that “Flowers and Fruit” probably draws more attendance and interest in its current is-it-or-isn’t-it state than it would if the question were firmly settled.
In some ways, it’s hard to see how it ever became a mystery in the first place.
Brown’s book notes that Gauguin wasn’t attached to still life paintings. The famed turn-of-the-century French post-impressionist was best known for paintings of natives in the South Pacific, especially Tahiti. Gauguin is renown for those paintings in the same way that Vincent van Gogh is known for his self-portraits — with and without his left ear — as well as his colorful impressionistic depictions of fields. Likewise, Edgar Degas is forever linked to his portraits of dancers and the ballet.
The appeal of “Flowers and Fruit” isn’t lost on the Haggin’s CEO.
“The exhibition has been really well-received, and there’s been a lot of great conversation,” Susan Obert said. “The one problem is everyone wants an answer … and there isn’t a definitive answer.”
In the absence of proof either way, “I think this story will keep rearing its ugly head,” Obert said.
But she seems fine being the mediator between the two camps.
“There’s a lot of compelling information in each direction,” she added.
This much is known:
Museum founder Eila Haggin McKee purchased “Flowers and Fruit” in 1929 from a respected Paris auction house. The museum has the receipt to prove it. The artwork, which was well known in European art circles, had changed hands at least twice before McKee bought it.
After it came to Stockton, Europe’s art fanciers gradually lost track of it.
When its whereabouts became known again to the global art world around 2018, the question of authenticity was raised when the Gauguin Committee of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute refused to include the piece in its catalog. Naysayers found the colors in “Flowers and Fruit” a little too vibrant compared to earlier Gauguin still lifes. The WPI’s respected inventory lists all of Gauguin’s known, verified works.
And “Flowers and Fruit” is not the only painting called into question after many years on display. Another still life attributed to Gauguin, a self-portrait that hangs in Detroit, was similarly kept out of the WPI catalog, Brown writes in her book.
Maybe the whole controversy is a veiled knock on Stockton, home to thousands of hard-working folks who aren’t part of an elitist art world. Perhaps the howls would have died down if “Flowers and Fruit” had found its long-term residence in New York, Los Angeles, Paris or London.
After working at the museum for 23 years in the constant company of “Flowers and Fruit,” Obert said she’s still on the fence about its legitimacy as a Gauguin work.
“I’ll vacillate almost day to day,” she said.
Her hope is that one day, the case can be firmly settled. That will be the day the Gauguin Committee will give the painting a fresh look.