{"id":185062,"date":"2026-08-13T13:57:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/?post_type=product&p=185062"},"modified":"2026-08-13T13:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:57:52","slug":"vision-of-the-sermon","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/paul-gauguin\/vision-of-the-sermon\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Gauguin \u2013 Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) \u2013 Gauguin\u2019s turning point at Pont-Aven<\/h2>\n

In 1888, at Pont-Aven in Brittany, Paul Gauguin painted a canvas that falls into two worlds: in the foreground Breton peasant women in white coifs kneel in prayer, while on the far side of the tree trunk Jacob and the angel wrestle in a field of vermilion red. The episode from Genesis is not painted as an event that happened, but as what the women see before them after the sermon. The canvas measures 72,2 x 91 cm and is horizontal \u2013 a landscape composition in which an apple branch divides the real from the visionary.<\/p>\n

What the painting shows<\/h3>\n

The Breton worshippers are painted from behind and in profile, so the viewer stands among them. Above them spreads a field that is neither grass nor sky but pure red. In the upper right corner two figures lock together: Jacob and the angel. The cow beside the trunk is the only everyday thing left of the real world. Gauguin presents religious experience as something that happens in the believer\u2019s mind rather than in front of the believer\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

The technique: cloisonnism and flat red<\/h3>\n

The painting counts as one of the first mature examples of cloisonnism: the areas of colour are bounded by a dark outline and laid flat, without modelling and without depth perspective. The red field is not a background but a surface in its own right, carrying the mood of the whole scene. Colour becomes the carrier of feeling instead of a description of nature, and it is that decision which separated Pont-Aven from Impressionism.<\/p>\n

Where the original hangs<\/h3>\n

The National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh hold the original under accession number NG 1643; the gallery purchased it in 1925. The stated measurement of 72,2 x 91 cm and the medium oil on canvas agree across both publicly available records: the gallery catalogue and the encyclopaedic entry on the painting.<\/p>\n

How a hand-painted reproduction is made<\/h3>\n

We paint the reproduction in oil on canvas, brushstroke by brushstroke, and it arrives on a stretcher frame ready to hang. The demanding part of this subject is the large red area: it has to stay even without going dead, or it loses the tension the original has. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the painting for approval, and we adjust it further on request.<\/p>\n