Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) Woman picking fruits and Oviri. 1896-1897. Woodcut. 87 x 103 [212 x 237]. Mongan, Kornfeld, Joachim 36. A very interesting proof on modest ivory vellum, annotated on the reverse in the right margin in blue pencil by the artist: "C / 30 numbered to 8 f". Long brushstroke of Indian ink, covering an old handwritten annotation in pen at the top of the sheet (one can decipher: "offered [...] 2500"). Impression of a line drawing perceptible in the upper third of the folio (trace of the passage of a pencil on a sheet that has been affixed to it and has produced a decal, forming drawings or arabesques). Discharge of bistre ink on the reverse, transpiring on the front, most likely from a monotype or impression drawing of the artist (a seated Maori woman figure can be discerned on the left, with one arm raised and folded, and another more blurred figure on her right). Two short tears at the left edge of the leaf, one of them 20 mm reaching the edge of the engraved subject. Oblique broken fold in the lower right corner of the leaf. Provenance: Georges-Daniel de Monfreid (1856-1929), friend of the artist. This print is worth as much for the engraved subject as for the traces it gives us of the artist's work in his studio. The annotation in blue pencil is identical on another proof cited by Mongan, Kornfeld and Joachim, that of the plate Eve, from the Agnès Huc de Monfreid collection, in Corneilla-de-Conflent (Pyrénées-Orientales). (E. Mongan, E. W. Kornfeld, H. Joachim, Paul Gauguin, Catalogue raisonné of his Prints, Bern, Kornfeld Publishers, 1988, p. 168, n° 42 II a). It should be noted that the print referenced by these authors is printed on a large sheet of paper and bears a print of our subject, Woman Picking Fruit and Oviri, at the foot - evidence that the two subjects were printed at the same time.