Amateur art collector David A. Hiser, Jr. knew who drew the woman's arm in the carving because he had been collecting art and antiques for over forty years. The outline of the arm was a soft French curve, but yet the arm was muscular. He knew of only one artist who drew like this - Paul Gauguin. But why did the carving look German? Wasn't Gauguin French or Peruvian?
The unattributed carving was being sold on a Craigslist website ad in 2017, and David purchased it for $500, without knowing much more than who created it.
In Finding Gauguin: Paul Gauguin's Lost Masterpiece, David A. Hiser, Jr. deciphers this complicated Symbolist carving and puts the piece in historical context.
The carving was made at the beginning of 1885, in Denmark, at an earlier but significant stage in Gauguin's career, where his ideas about music, literature, and painting were forming. It has many firsts in it, and Gauguin then carried many of these images and ideas forward throughout the rest of his career. Most know Gauguin for his Tahitian works, but his career started well before he ever envisioned Tahiti.
This book gives us new insight into the early part of Gauguin's career and answers many questions that have perplexed admirers of his art for years.
After years of research, David A. Hiser, Jr. believes this is not only one of Gauguin's most mysterious works, but also one of his most historically important, due to its significance in laying the groundwork for the rest of his career.
