143 - Armand Seguin (1869–1903)

Armand Seguin (1869–1903) Breton Women. 1894. Woodcut. 185 x 225 [200 x 261 mm]. Field, Strauss, and Wagstaff 70. A very fine print in wine-red ink on thin ivory-colored vellum. Full margins. AABM stamp (Lugt 3075). Plate published in *L'Ymagier*, No. 2, January 1895. "There are two states of this work, which has been suggested may have been printed on linoleum. In the first state, the work features a poem by Charles Morice above the image, dated November 21, 1894, and addressed ‘To Paul Gauguin.’ This poem is absent in the second version, which features lines behind the tree trunk, a gap in the foliage at the top right, and a monogram at the bottom right rendered in white cut-out. This monogram was interpreted as “EB” by H. Bock and J.H. Müller during the 1967 Bremen exhibition, who attributed the work to Émile Bernard. It seems utterly absurd that Émile Bernard, who was in Cairo at the time and had been estranged from Gauguin since 1891, would have agreed to defend his rival. On the other hand, this puzzling monogram has been found on two works by Armand Séguin, *Two Cormorants Flying Over the Waves* (Field 8) and *Pines by the River* (Field 12); Caroline Boyle-Turner believes it is likely an “ES,” standing for “Ergasterium Seguin”—that is, in the Nabi style, “Séguin’s studio.” The heavy forms and heads tucked into the shoulders are extremely similar to the etchings of Breton women in the fields that Séguin created in 1893–1894 (Fields 44–64). Finally, issue No. 2 of *L’Ymagier*, in which the second state of this engraving appeared in January 1895, includes the following caption: “A. Seguin, Breton Women, original woodcut.” [...] The Breton Women of 1894 are not “superimposed” on Morice’s verses but, through a graphic correspondence, symbolize the theme of a one-way departure for the unknown islands of Oceania, the promised land of rediscovered innocence and happiness. " (M. Grivel, ed., Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School, exhibition catalog, Paris, National Library, 1989, p. 96).