La Perte de Pucelage
Posted: November 27, 2013 Filed under: Art, Painting/Drawing | Tags: 1890, 19th century, Brittany, fox, France, Gauguin, Juliette Huet, loss of virginity, nature, Paul Gauguin, sexual awakening, virginity Leave a comment
La Perte de Pucelage (The Loss of Virginity). Paul Gauguin. 1890-91.
The Loss of Virginity relates a young girl’s sexual awakening to the natural landscape. Gauguin referred to the fox – a recurrent motif in his work – as the ‘Indian symbol of perversity’, though Breton folklore also identifies it with sexual power. The crowd of figures in the background may be a wedding party coming to meet the deflowered girl. Although painted in Paris at a time when Gauguin was closely involved with Symbolist writers and critics, the landscape is recognisable from other works that he made in Brittany. The model was Juliette Huet, a seamstress. She was two months pregnant at the time, and gave birth to their daughter Germaine while Gauguin was in Tahiti.
