Where Is The Yellow Christ? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see The Yellow Christ?

It's at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (now Buffalo AKG Art Museum) in Buffalo, New York. Paul Gauguin painted it in 1889 in Pont-Aven, Brittany. It's one of the key paintings of his pre-Tahiti period.

Q: What does the painting show?

A bright yellow Christ on a crucifix set in the Breton countryside. Three peasant women kneel nearby in traditional Breton clothing. The fields are orange and yellow, the trees autumnal red. Gauguin based the Christ figure on a wooden crucifix in the chapel of Trémalo near Pont-Aven.

Q: Why is Christ yellow?

Gauguin used color symbolically rather than naturalistically. The yellow Christ may represent spiritual light, folk simplicity, or the harvest season. Gauguin rejected Impressionist naturalism for a style where color conveyed emotion and meaning directly, without imitating nature.

Q: What art movement is this?

It's a landmark of Post-Impressionism and Cloisonnism, a style using bold outlines and flat color areas inspired by medieval stained glass and Japanese prints. Along with Émile Bernard, Gauguin developed this approach in Pont-Aven. It influenced the Nabis group and early Fauvism.

Q: How big is The Yellow Christ?

It measures 92.1 cm × 73.4 cm (36.2 × 28.9 inches). The simplified forms, dark outlines, and non-naturalistic color represented a radical break from the Impressionists. Gauguin painted it two years before leaving for Tahiti, where he would push these ideas even further.

Paul Gauguin painted The Yellow Christ in 1889 during his time in Pont-Aven, Brittany. The work depicts a crucified Christ rendered in bright yellow, based on a 17th-century wooden crucifix from the nearby Trémalo Chapel. Three Breton women in traditional dress kneel at the foot of the cross against an autumn landscape.

Gauguin chose the bold yellow color to express his feelings about the isolated life and deep piety of the Breton peasants. The harvest season in Brittany carried spiritual significance, as grain was believed to mirror the Christian cycle of death and rebirth. This Symbolist approach rejected naturalistic color in favor of emotional truth.

The painting has a dramatic wartime history. Confiscated by the German Army in 1940, it passed through the Louvre and Jeu de Paume before ending up at the German embassy. After the war, it was returned and sold to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in 1946, where it remains today.

It's at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (now Buffalo AKG Art Museum) in Buffalo, New York. Paul Gauguin painted it in 1889 in Pont-Aven, Brittany. It's one of the key paintings of his pre-Tahiti period.

A bright yellow Christ on a crucifix set in the Breton countryside. Three peasant women kneel nearby in traditional Breton clothing. The fields are orange and yellow, the trees autumnal red. Gauguin based the Christ figure on a wooden crucifix in the chapel of Trémalo near Pont-Aven.

Gauguin used color symbolically rather than naturalistically. The yellow Christ may represent spiritual light, folk simplicity, or the harvest season. Gauguin rejected Impressionist naturalism for a style where color conveyed emotion and meaning directly, without imitating nature.

It's a landmark of Post-Impressionism and Cloisonnism, a style using bold outlines and flat color areas inspired by medieval stained glass and Japanese prints. Along with Émile Bernard, Gauguin developed this approach in Pont-Aven. It influenced the Nabis group and early Fauvism.

It measures 92.1 cm × 73.4 cm (36.2 × 28.9 inches). The simplified forms, dark outlines, and non-naturalistic color represented a radical break from the Impressionists. Gauguin painted it two years before leaving for Tahiti, where he would push these ideas even further.

The Yellow Christ

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Paul Gauguin

Mette asleep on a sofa

Spirit of the Dead Watching

Port de Grenelle

The Forest Path

Also at Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Spirit of the Dead Watching

Portrait of Jacques Francois Desmaisons

Carcass of Beef

Related Post-Impressionism Works

Self-Portrait

Starry Night Over the Rhône

Irises

The Night Café

Almond Blossoms

The Starry Night

Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Sunflowers

About The Yellow Christ

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