The Yellow Christ
1889 · Oil on canvas · Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo
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About this work
- Artist
- Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
- Year
- 1889
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 92.1 × 73.3 cm
- Collection
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo
- Movement
- Post-Impressionism
A yellow Christ hangs on a dark cross in an autumn landscape of yellow fields and red trees, while Breton women in regional dress kneel in prayer at its foot. Gauguin painted it at Pont-Aven in the autumn of 1889, basing the figure on a seventeenth-century painted wooden crucifix in the nearby chapel of Trémalo. He said the colour was chosen to convey what he felt about the isolated, pious life of the peasants, and the harvest setting carries its own meaning in a region where the grain cycle was read as a parallel to Christian death and rebirth. With its flat planes and heavy outlines the painting is a central work of cloisonnism and, with The Green Christ, a key to Symbolist painting. Seized by the Nazis in Paris in 1940 and assigned to Göring, it was recovered after the war and bought by the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, now the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, in 1946.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A yellow Christ in an autumn landscape of yellow fields and red trees, for a study, hallway or quiet bedroom at 24×32 in black. A warm ochre or deep green wall; it is a devotional picture and hangs alone.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Post-Impressionism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1889)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- butter yellow
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- bedroom, hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×32. Prints at 12×16, 18×24, 24×32 in — 12×16 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 18×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×32 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Yellow Christ (Le Christ jaune) in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Yellow Christ (Le Christ jaune) painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
