The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

The Call

1902

Paul Gauguin

(French, 1848–1903)

France, late 19th-early 20th Century

oil on fabric

Framed: 160.5 x 119 x 9.5 cm (63 3/16 x 46 7/8 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 131.3 x 89.5 cm (51 11/16 x 35 1/4 in.)

Gift of the Hanna Fund 1943.392

Location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

Did You Know?

Although known as one of the founders of modern art, Gauguin found inspiration in ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian art. The woman with the pointing finger on the right side of this painting was taken from a figure on the Parthenon frieze.

Description

Painted on a remote island in Polynesia a year before the artist's death, The Call belongs to a series of late works that explore the mysteries of life and death. Two women stand with bare feet, as if on sacred ground. One woman gestures to someone outside the picture, perhaps responding to a "call" from fate or destiny. Gauguin realized his ambition of painting from memory and the imagination through such mysterious, dreamlike images.

Ambroise Vollard [1866-1939], Paris, France
by 1912-1933
Baron Wolf Kohner [1866-1937], Budapest, Hungary
by 1933-1943
(Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY, November 9, 1943, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1943-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Haberfeld, Hugo. "Die französischen Bilder der Sammlung Kohner." Der Cicerone 3 (1911): 579-589. Reproduced: p. 587, abb. 8; mentioned: p. 589
Petrovics, Elek. "Báró Kohner Adolf Gyüjtémenye." Magyar Müvészet (Hungarian Art) 6 (1929): 300-322. Reproduced: p. 319; mentioned: p. 321
"List of Paintings." Art Digest 8 (June 1, 1934): 12-24. Mentioned: p. 17
Gauguin, Paul. translated by Van Wyck Brooks. Paul Gauguin's Intimate Journals. New York: Crown Publishers, 1936. Reproduced: p.51
Frankfurter, Alfred M. “Gauguin: Fifty Paintings in a First American One Man Loan Exhibition.” ARTnews 34 (March 21, 1936): 5–6. Reproduced: p. 6
Apollo: A Journal of the Arts 24 (July to December 1936): 278. Reproduced: p. 278
Rewald, John, and André Gloeckner. Gauguin. New York, NY: French and European Publications, 1938. Reproduced: p. 134
Gaunt, William. “Paul Gauguin.” London Studio 16 (November 1938): 232–38. Reproduced: p. 232
Malingue, Maurice. Gauguin. Monaco: Les Documents d'Art, 1943. Reproduced: pl. xii
Francis, Henry S. "L'Appel by Paul Gauguin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, no. XXXI, no. 31 (January, 1944): 3-5. Reproduced: cover, mentioned: p. 3-5
“Gauguin’s L’Appel Given to Cleveland.” Art Digest 18 (January 15, 1944): 8. Reproduced: p. 8
"Gauguin l'Appel." ARTnews 42, no. 17 (15-31 January, 1944): 15. Reproduced: p. 15
“Year in Art: A Review of 1944 Including Art News’ Selection of the Ten Outstanding One Man Shows.” ARTnews 43 (January 1, 1945): 26–27. Reproduced: p. 26
Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. [4] archive.org
“L’appel.” American Artist 9 (December 1945): 23. Reproduced: p. 23
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen. Französische Impressionisten und ihre Zeitgenossen in Farbdrucken; eine Auswahl von siebzig Gemälden mit neun Biographien und vierundzwanzig Abbildungen. Baden-Baden, Germany: W. Klein, 1946. Reproduced: p. 58
Wildenstein and Company (New York, N.Y.), Vladimir Visson, and Raymond Cogniat. A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin, For the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. April 3-May 4, 1946 at Wildenstein. 1946. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 39
Cogniat, Raymond. Gauguin. Paris, FR: P. Tisne, 1947. Reproduced: pl. 116
Unesco. Catalogue de reproductions en couleurs de la peinture de 1860 à ... = Catalogue of colour reproductions of painting from 1860 to ... = Catálogo de reproducciones en color de la pintura de 1860 a. Paris, FR: Unesco, 1949 Reproduced: p. 113
Elgar, Frank. Gauguin. Paris, FR: F. Hazan, 1949. Reproduced: pl. 22
Sutton, Denys. "Paul Gauguin 1848-1903." Maandblad voor Beeldende Kunsten 25 (1949): 106-110. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 110
Venturi, Lionello. Impressionists and Symbolists: Manet, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir, Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec. New York, NY: Scribner, 1950. Reproduced: p. 173, fig. 177
Dovski, Lee van. Paul Gauguin, oder, Die Flucht vor der Zivilisation. Olten: Delphi, 1950. Mentioned: p. 355,no. 396
Davis, Richard S. "Gauguin Landscape Purchased from Eliel Memorial Fund." Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 39, no. 13 (April 1, 1950): 62-67. Reproduced: p. 67
"Gauguin in Tahiti" Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts 39 (1 April 1950): 66-67
Bazin, Germain, and Marc Logé. History of Painting. New York, NY: Hyperion Press, 1951. Reproduced: p. 86, vol. 2
Dorival, Bernard. "Sources of the Art of Gauguin from Java, Egypt and Ancient Greece." Burlington Magazine 93 (1951): 118-123. Reproduced: fig. 25; mentioned: fig. 25
Robb, David M. The Harper History of Painting: The Occidental Tradition. New York: Harper, 1951. Mentioned: p. 789-790, 794, 806-807; reproduced: p. 788
Wildenstein and Company (New York, N.Y.). Masterpieces from Museums and Private Collections: Wildenstein Jubilee Loan Exhibition, 1901-1951 ... November 8 - December 15, 1951 ... New York. [New York]: Wildenstein, 1951. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 52
“L’appel.” Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 12 (December 1953): 144. Reproduced: p. 144
Dorra, Henri. “Gauguin and His Century; a Houston Museum Show Reveals How East Meets West in Gauguin’s Style.” Art Digest 28 (March 15, 1954): 12–13. Reproduced: p. 13
Gauguin, Paul. Paul Gauguin: His Place in the Meeting of East and West : Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, March 27-April 25, 1954. Houston [Tex.]: Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, 1954. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 33
Gauguin, Paul. An Exhibition of Paintings, Engravings & Sculpture [by] Gauguin. Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Academy, 1955. Mentioned cat. no. 63, p. 35, Reproduced: frontispiece
Gauguin, Paul, Sigurd Willoch, and Kunstnervorbundet (Norway). Paul Gauguin : 11. November-1. December 1955. Oslo: Kunstnerforbundet, 1955. Mentioned: cat. no. 35, Reproduced: opp. title page

Tralbaut, M. E. "De Gauguin-tentoonstelling te Londen." Museumjournaal 1, no. 5/6 (December 1955): 93-97. Reproduced: p. 104
Sutton, Denys. "Notes on Paul Gauguin Apropos a Recent Exhibition." Burlington Magazine 98 (March 1956): 84-92. Mentioned: p. 91
Goldwater, Robert. Paul Gauguin. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1957. Reproduced: p. 156-157
Rewald, John. Gauguin Drawings. New York, NY: T. Yoseloff, 1958. Mentioned: p. 111-115
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 511 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Reproduced: no. 51
Milliken, William Mathewson. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1958. Reproduced: p. 56
Frankfurter, Alfred. "Cleveland: Model Museum for a Modern Cosmopolis." ARTnews 57, no. 1 (March 1958): 24-37. Reproduced: p. 36, fig. 27
Gauguin, Paul, and Theodore Rousseau. Gauguin--Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture: [Exhibition], the Art Institute of Chicago, [Feb. 12-Mar. 29, 1959], the Metropolitan Museum of Art, [Apr. 23-May 31, 1959]. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1959. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 68, p. 21-22
"Gauguin at the Metropolitan." Pictures on Exhibit 22, no. 8 (May 1959): 4-5. Reproduced: p. 5
Henning, Edward. "From Turner to Guston." Apollo: A Journal of the Arts 68, no. 22 (December 1963): 481-488. Reproduced: p. 485; mentioned: p. 487
Wildenstein, Georges. Gauguin. Paris, FR: Les Beaux-Arts, Éditions d'Études et de Documents, 1964. Reproduced: no. 612
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 181 archive.org
Cachin, Françoise. Gauguin. Paris, FR: Librairie générale français], 1968. Reproduced: p. 313-315
Krause, Joseph H. The Nature of Art. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Reproduced: pl. 32
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. , Reproduced: p. 181 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned: p. 1 archive.org
Munro, Thomas. Form and Style in the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetic Morphology. Cleveland, OH: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1970. Reproduced: pl. VII
Pickvance, Ronald . The Drawings of Gauguin. Feltham, UK: Hamlyn, 1970. Reproduced: p. 106
Awazu, Norio. Gōgyan Gauguin. Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1971. Reproduced: pl. 64
Mandel, Gabriele. L'opera completa di Gauguin. Milano, IT: Rizzoli, 1972. Reproduced: no. 440
Bowness, Alan. Modern European Art. [New York]: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1972. Reproduced: p. 62, fig. 57
Wadley, Nicholas. Gauguin: 116 Reproductions. Oxford, UK: Phaidon, 1978. Reproduced: pl. 94
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 223 archive.org
Henning, Edward B. The Spirit of Surrealism. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979. Mentioned: p. 46-47, 185; Reproduced: p. 46, fig. 5; colorplate I
Fezzi, Elda. Gauguin: Every Painting I-II. New York: Rizzoli, 1980. Reproduced: p. 90, no. 594
Amann, Per Amann. Paul Gauguin. Ramerding, Germany: Berghaus, 1980. Pl. 69
Yasunori, Tanʼo. Gōgan. Tōkyō, Japan: Kōdansha, 1980. Reproduced: p. 124, no. 57
Goldwater, Robert. Paul Gauguin. Norwalk, Conn: Easton Press, 1983. Reproduced: p. 124-125
Vance, Mary Lynn Zink. Gauguin's Polynesian Pantheon As a Visual Language. Thesis Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara 1983. Mentioned: p. 171, 189
Henning, Edward B. “Looking at Art: The Woman in the Waves.” ARTnews 83 (March 1984): 104–6. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 104-106
Le Pichon, Yann. Sur les traces de Gauguin. Paris, FR: R. Laffont, 1986. Reproduced: p. 6
Motoe, Kunio. Gōgyan. Tōkyō: Shūeisha, 1986. Reproduced: pl. 59
Abe, Nobuo, and Kimio Nakayama. Gōgyan: rakuen no maboroshi. Tokyo, Japan: Sankei Shinbun Shashin Nyūsu Sentā, 1987. Reproduced: p. 37
Faulkner, Ray, Edwin Ziegfeld, and Howard J. Smagula. Art Today: An Introduction to the Visual Arts. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1987. Reproduced: p. 64, pl. 10
Hoog, Michel. Paul Gauguin, Life and Work. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1987. Reproduced: pl. 204; mentioned: p. 269, 281
Le Pichon, Yann. Gauguin: Life, Art, Inspiration. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1987. Reproduced: p. 6
Prather, Marla and Charles F. Stuckey. Gauguin: A Retrospective. New York, NY: H.L. Levin Associates, 1987. Reproduced: p. 346
Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 109
Brettell, Richard R. The Art of Paul Gauguin. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1988. Reproduced: p. 494, Mentioned: p. 492-494
Cachin, Françoise. Gauguin. Paris, FR: Flammarion, 1988. Reproduced: p. 274
Cachin, Françoise. Gauguin "ce malgré moi de sauvage". Paris, FR: Gallimard, 1989. Reproduced: p. 124
Cahn, Isabelle. Gauguin. Milano, IT: Giorgio Mondadori, 1990. Reproduced: pl. 68
Motoe, Kunio. Gōgyan = Paul Gauguin. Tōkyō: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1990. Reproduced: pl. 66
Schneeberger, Pierre-Francis. Gauguin, Tahiti. Paris, FR: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1991. Reproduced: p. 74-75
Turner, Evan H. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Mentioned: p. 85, 113; Reproduced: p. 113
Kimura, Shigenobu, Shūji Takashina, Kōichi Kabayama, Yasuto Ōta, and Yasunori Tanʼo. Seikimatsu no yume = The dream of fin de siècle. Tōkyō, Japan: Kōdansha, 1992. Reproduced: p. 23
Thomson, Belinda. Gauguin by Himself. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1993. Reproduced: pl. 220
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 82
Maillol, Aristide, Ursel Berger, and Jörg Zutter. Aristide Maillol. Paris, FR: Flammarion, 1996. Reproduced: p. 26
Pelfrey, Robert H. Art and Mass Media. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1996. Reproduced: fig. 7, p. 26; Mentioned: p, 188
Eisenman, Stephen. Gauguin's Skirt. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Reproduced: p. 101, Mentioned: p. 100
d' Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 282-286, no. 102
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. p. 53, Mentioned: p. 52-53, Listed: p.118
Natter, Tobias G. Die Galerie Miethke: eine Kunsthandlung im Zentrum der Moderne. Wien, Austria: Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien, 2003. Reproduced: p. 172
Rebeyrotte, Jean-François. Rebeyrotte. Paul Gauguin. Paris: Somogy Editions d'Art, 2003. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 48-49
Cahn, Isabelle, and Bernadette Caille. Gauguin - Tahiti- l'Atelier des Tropiques: [3 octobre 2003-19 janvier 2004, Galeries Nationales du Grand P alais, Paris]. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2004. Reproduced: p. 257, fig. 4
Robinson, William, "World Tour Comes to Cleveland", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 08, October 2007 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 archive.org
Eisenman, Stephen, and Guillermina Rosenkrantz. Paul Gauguin. Barcelona, Spain: Estudi Poligrafa, 2010. Reproduced: p. 87
Walther, Ingo F. Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903 : the primitive sophisticate. Taschen America Llc, 2013. Reproduced: p. 84-85
Figura, Starr, Elizabeth C. Childs, Hal Foster, and Erika Mosier. Gauguin: Metamorphoses. The Museum of Modern Art, NY: 2014. Reproduced: p. 219, fig. 184
Molnos, Péter. Aranykorok romjain: tanulmányok a modern magyar festészet és műgyűjtés történetéből a Kieselbach Galéria alapításának huszadik évfordulóján. Budapest: Kieselbach, 2015. Reproduced: p. 98
Brettell, Richard R. On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cezanne. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019. Reproduced: P. 45, no. 30
Paul Gauguin: Teuraheimata a Potoru, a Rediscovery. New York: Jill Newhouse Gallery; [Akron, Ohio]: Thomas French Fine Art, 2019. Mentioned: P. 7
Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4, 2009-January 18, 2010).
Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (February 12-March 29, 1959); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (April 22-May 30, 1959).
In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).
The Turn of the Century-Exhibition of Masterpieces. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (organizer) (October 1-November 18, 1956).
An Exhibition of Paintings, Engravings and Sculpture by Gauguin. Gallery of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (August 21-September 18, 1955); Tate Britain, London (September 29-October 26, 1955).
Paul Gauguin, His Place in the Meeting of East and West. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 27-April 25, 1954).
Masterpieces From Museums and Private Collections. Wildenstein & Co. (organizer) (November 7-December 15, 1951).
Gauguin in Tahiti. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (April 1-May 14, 1950).
The Variety of Artistic Production. Akron Art Museum (January 12-February 26, 1950).
A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Wildenstein & Co. (organizer) (April 3-27, 1946).
The Great Tradition of French Painting. Wildenstein & Co, New York, NY (1939).
Paul Gauguin 1848-1903. Wildenstein & Co, New York, NY: 1936; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA: 1936. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (1936).
Masters of French 19th Century Painting. New Burlington Galleries, London. United Kingdom (1936).
A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1934).
Five Centuries of European Painting. Los Angeles Museum, Los Angeles, CA (1933).
An Exhibition of Literature and Poetry in Painting since 1850. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT (1933).
Exhibition of Modern French Paintings. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (1931).
Städtische Ausstellungshalle am Aachener Tor. Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler. Cologne, Germany (1912).
Manet and the Post-Impressionists. Grafton Galleries, London, United Kingdom (1910-1911).
Exposition Paul Gauguin. Galerie Ambroise Vollard, Paris, France (1903).
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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.392