Landscape with Dog

Landscape with Dog (1903) at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is among the last canvases Gauguin completed before his death on Hiva Oa in May 1903. The landscape with an incidental animal — a dog moving through a tropical or rural setting — belongs to the category of informal observation paintings he made throughout his career alongside his more programmatic figure compositions. In his final Marquesan months he was working with increasing economy, the simplifications of his mature Synthetist style becoming even more reduced as both his physical capacity and his artistic goals demanded the most essential statement. The Israel Museum's possession of this late canvas alongside its substantial holdings from earlier in his career provides one of the most complete institutional surveys of his development available outside France, spanning from the 1880 Houses at Vaugirard through this final Marquesan landscape painted months before his death.

The dog is rendered with summary, quick marks that suggest its form and movement without laboured detail. The landscape setting provides the dominant visual interest. The palette and handling are consistent with Gauguin's Breton landscape work, with the characteristic simplification of plane and colour that distinguishes it from his Impressionist period.