GAUGUIN (Paul). [Support for the Maoris of the Marquesas aga - Lot 29

Lot n° 29
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Result : 3 900EUR
GAUGUIN (Paul). [Support for the Maoris of the Marquesas aga - Lot 29
GAUGUIN (Paul). [Support for the Maoris of the Marquesas against the colonial administration]. Autograph draft of a letter to a jurist in Papeete. [Hiva Oa Island in the Marquesas Archipelago], March 6, 1903. 2pp. in-folio; some ink stains. Letter written in the Marquesas two months before his death. "May it be permissible for a painter eager to learn many things he does not know, for lack of being able to hear you at the law course you are kind enough to give in Papeete; may it be permissible for him to ask you, without however wishing to disturb you, for a simple piece of information that might be useful to him later as honorable conduct to follow with regard to the gendarmerie in the Marquesas, and to justice as well. In Atuana [chief town of the Marquesas on the island of HivaOa], I asked the Justice of the Peace for permission for a certain number of natives to perform their services after [Paul Gauguin first wrote and then crossed out "doing their maioré harvest"] having prepared their food for several months (harvesting the few breadfruit that the cyclone had spared) [this cyclone had ravaged the Tuamotu and Marquesas in January 1903]. I was told that benefits were not a matter for the courts, but for the administration. Today, March 6, 1903, at noon, my native servant has just received a summons in French that he does not understand to appear before the judge at 8 a.m. on Monday, March 9, 1903, as accused of having refused to do his work (contravention provided for by art.471§15 of the Penal Code). His services were paid by me to the gendarmerie sergeant, who accepted them and gave me a receipt. The summons is also dated March 4, 1903 and signed by the judge, whereas the judge left for sea on March 3 and returned on March 6 at 5pm. I confess, Sir, that my poor intelligence cannot solve such a problem... The summons and receipt are in the hands of Maître Brault défenseur [lawyer and pressman Léonce Brault]." ÀHIVA OA. In September 1901, the artist had left Tahiti to settle on the island of HivaOa in the Marquesas archipelago, where he experienced a final burst of creativity: paintings, sculptures, writing. He took up the cause of the island's natives in the face of vexations by the French administration, and was condemned following one of his protests.
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