Paris (AFP)

A rare painting of the Tahitian period of Paul Gauguin, "Te Bourao II", was auctioned Tuesday 9,5 million euros at Artcurial in Paris, "almost twice his estimate" ", while the painter is today under the fire of critics, because of the relations he would have had with Tahitian minors.

This oil on canvas from 1897 is part of a cycle of nine paintings made in Tahiti. The French painter (1848-1903) had sent them to Paris for an exhibition at the Ambroise Vollard Gallery, with limited success.

The Tahitian period of Gauguin, from which are derived several of his most beautiful paintings exhibited in the largest museums, is the most popular collectors and the most known of the general public.

But it is more and more controversial. The sale took place in the context of a wide-ranging movement of opinion for the denunciation of sexual abuse by artists against women, at the time of MeToo and criticism against the filmmaker Roman Polanski.

The table that reached 9.5 million euros (including costs) has had a fairly linear history: Ambroise Vollard had kept it, and, at his death, "Te Bourao (II)" had returned to his heirs who had resold in 1995 to the buyer who shed it today.

- Lost paradise -

Probably evocation of "a lost paradise with a virgin nature and a very limited presence of Man" (a horseman who goes away), "Te Bourao II" is the last painting of this cycle to be still in the hands private. He has exhibited at MET in New York from 2007 to 2017.

For Bruno Jaubert, associate director in charge of the modern art department at Artcurial, "the fleeting earthly stay of man is revealed under the brush of the creator: from the lost paradise of childhood to the mysterious mystery of the beyond" .

The auction, said Artcurial, was won by an "international collector", who said the painting would remain in France.

No work of the Tahitian period of the artist had been presented on the French market for more than twenty years.

The last painting of this period sold at auction, "Cavalier in front of the box", was in 2017 at Sotheby's in New York for $ 7.5 million.

The absolute record for a Gauguin painting dates back to 2006: "The Ax Man" was then awarded $ 40.3 million at Christie's in New York.

This sale at Artcurial was an event as it is rare to find a Gauguin of this period in a very good condition.

The other paintings in this cycle are exhibited in museums all over the world: the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Barber Institute in Birmingham and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

The best known, true testament work, entitled "Where do we come from, what are we, where are we going?", Is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

In 1891, the painter settled in Tahiti, hoping to escape a Western civilization too artificial for his taste.

He will paint many paintings. Then he will sink into depression, loneliness and material distress. That will not stop him from painting in 1897 "Where are we from?" and, among others less famous, "Te Bourao II".

© 2019 AFP