By the Stream, Autumn - Paul Gauguin

An early Impressionist work by Paul Gauguin, capturing the golden hues of autumn trees reflected in a winding stream.

Painted in 1885, By the Stream, Autumn captures a period in Paul Gauguin's career when his technique remained closely aligned with the Impressionist movement. Before his departure for Pont-Aven and his later move toward Synthetism, Gauguin experimented with the broken brushwork and light-focused observation characteristic of his contemporaries, such as Camille Pissarro.

The composition centres on a cluster of trees rendered in brilliant shades of yellow and gold, suggesting the height of the autumn season. The foliage is applied with short, rapid strokes that create a sense of movement and texture. Below, a winding stream cuts through the foreground, its dark, reflective surface providing a contrast to the luminous canopy above. The surrounding meadow is depicted in varied tones of green, with hints of orange and red appearing in the distance, indicating the transition of the season across the wider environment.

Unlike his later, more decorative works that emphasised flat planes of colour and symbolic form, this piece relies on a traditional approach to depth and atmospheric perspective. The light appears soft and diffused, typical of an overcast autumn day. The artist's signature and the date are visible in the lower left corner, confirming its creation during his time in Copenhagen. This work provides a clear view into the artist's early technical development, showing his mastery of colour theory and his ability to capture the fleeting qualities of light before he moved toward the more radical stylistic shifts that defined his later career. The focus here remains on the direct observation of nature and the application of paint to convey the specific mood of a seasonal change.