The Yellow Christ is a painting executed by Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...

 in autumn 1889 in Pont-Aven

Pont-Aven

Pont-Aven is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French Pontavenistes.-History:...

. Together with The Green Christ

The Green Christ

The Green Christ is a painting executed by Paul Gauguin in autumn 1889 in Pont-Aven, Brittany, France. Together with The Yellow Christ, it is considered to be one of the key-works of Symbolism in painting. It depicts a Breton woman at the foot of a calvary, or sculpture of Christ's crucifixion...

, it is considered to be one of the key-works of Symbolism

Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...

 in painting.

Gauguin first visited Pont-Aven in 1886. He returned to the village in early 1888 to stay until mid-October, when he left to join Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

 in Arles

Arles

Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....

, for little more than two months. Early in 1889, Gauguin was back to Pont-Aven to stay there until spring 1890. It was only for a short visit in summer 1889 to Paris to see the Exposition universelle

Exposition Universelle (1889)

The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a World's Fair held in Paris, France from 6 May to 31 October 1889.It was held during the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event traditionally considered as the symbol for the beginning of the French Revolution...

 and to arrange the Volpini Exhibition

The Volpini Exhibition, 1889

The Exhibition at the Café des Arts in summer 1889 was arranged by Paul Gauguin and his circle, on the walls of a café just outside the gates of the Exposition universelle, and run by a certain Monsieur Volpini...

 that Gauguin interrupted this sojourn. Soon after his return to Pont-Aven he painted The Yellow Christ:

The Yellow Christ was painted by Gauguin at Pont Aven in 1889. It is a symbolic piece that shows the crucifixion of Christ taking place in nineteenth century northern France as Breton

Breton people

The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 women are gathered in prayer. Gauguin relies heavily on bold lines to define his figures and reserves shading only for the women. The autumn palette of yellow, red and green in the landscape echoes the dominant yellow in the figure of Christ. The bold outlines and flatness of the forms in this painting are typical of the cloisonnist style.

A study done in pencil of the Yellow Christ is preserved in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and a sketch in watercolor in the collection Chapman in New York.