"Gros succès avec mon déballage Gauguin."

Handwritten signed letter from Victor Segalen addressed to Emile Mignard: “Great success with my Gauguin unpacking”
Handwritten signed letter from Victor Segalen addressed to émile Mignard, three pages written in black ink on a double leaf of squared paper.
Transverse folds from having been sent.
One of the very rare letters recounting the extraordinary rescue of Gauguin's works by his “champion”.
Segalen left Tahiti, after having transited through Colombo, Port Said and Toulon, he is in Paris for a few days and tells his friend of the reactions to Gauguin's works that he brought back from Polynesia.
The auction of Gauguin's goods and works, which remained in his Maison du Jouir after his death, took place in the autumn of 1903. One of the few purchasers present at the liquidation was Victor Segalen who thus made it possible to rescue several of the painter's capital pieces, which were at risk of being destroyed in general indifference. Segalen, who had hoped to arrive in time to meet Gauguin, revives his memory by trying to acquire – despite his low salary – as many works as possible from his late mentor. In his « Hommage à Gauguin » (preface to Lettres de Paul Gauguin à George-Daniel de Monfreid, 1918), he recounts this now incredible dispersion: "Then there is the judicial sale, in the most legal, most sordid forms. The 'useful' objects, clothing, cookware, preserves and wines were sold on site. Another auction sale took place in Papeete and included some paintings, two albums, the image of Satan and of the concubine Thérèse, the pediment and the panels of the Maison du Jouir, the painter's cane, his palette. For purchasers: merchants and civil servants; some naval officers; the reigning governor at the time; onlookers, a teacher of painting without pupils who became a public writer. [...] The palette fell to me for forty cents. I acquired at random everything that I could grasp on the run from the auction. A painting [Village breton sous la neige], presented upside down by the auctioneer who called it 'Niagara Falls', was met with great laughter. It became my property for the sum of seven francs. As for the woods – pediment and metopes from the Maison du Jouir, no one bid higher than my...one hundred cents! And they stayed with me. [...] The woods of the Maison du Jour, I then destined them to this Breton Mansion, at the other end of the world, that Saint-Pol-Roux also built as a final home, overlooking the Toulinguet bay, on the Atlantic peninsula. The palette, I could not decently pay better tribute to it than to the only one worthy of holding it, – not between his fingers, like a relic whose origin we assess with faith, – but passing the thumb through the oval to the double bevel which carries and presents the song of colors, ... to Georges Daniel de Monfreid. [...] This painting (Village breton sous la neige), I have kept. The gift itself would be insulting. Gauguin died painting it, it is a legacy.”

David Haziot's biography of Gauguin gives an accurate inventory of the works purchased by Segalen: “Segalen was able to acquire seven out of ten paintings. Among them the self-portrait Près du Golgotha [today at the Saõ Paulo Art Museum]. The sculptures Père Paillard and Thérèse disappeared, as did a second version of the three women by the sea including one breastfeeding at their feet. [...] Segalen [...] took away the sketchbook from Auckland, four of the five wooden panels that adorned the door of the Maison du Jouir (for 100 cents!), the photographs of Arosa, notably with the images of Borobudur and the Parthenon, and the Village breton sous la neige painted after the Concarneau disaster and which Gauguin took with him.”
These works, among the most famous of our artistic heritage, are today preserved at the Musée d'Orsay (Paris) and in other major world institutions.
“Great success with my Gauguin
unpacking. Some who sneered in Tahiti will be disconcerted at the only argument that holds for them: the commercial value. It is significant. Nevertheless, I intend to bring everything back, including the Sandwich that we have piously removed, and which offers an admirable note to the complete works. General formula: Gauguin was not a "painter" but a Decorator.”
The “Sandwich” referred to here seems to be Près du Golgotha, a self-portrait of Gauguin which, in very bad condition, had been laminated (therefore sandwiched) to protect it in transport from Tahiti in France.

This brief stay in Paris is finally an opportunity for Segalen to meet George-Daniel de Monfreid with whom he has corresponded since Tahiti. It is probably he who makes the young doctor aware of the value of the works reported from Polynesia, as evidenced by a letter from Segalen written to his mother the same day as ours: “It may be that I derive significant financial benefits from my Gauguin unpacking. [...] I do not waste a minute, helped by an old painter [G.-D. de Monfreid, 49 years old!], follower of Gauguin, and with whom I go round museums.” The “old painter” notes elsewhere in his Carnets on 16 March 1905: 'Visit from Dr Segalen who advised us by telegram in the morning. He arrives very punctually at 11:30am and has lunch with us'. Next, he takes me to his house where he lets me see what he has brought back. Finally, we carry the most damaged painting (portrait of Gauguin) [The famous “sandwich”], to Tisserand on rue Guénégaud, and I leave him at 5am in Luxembourg.”
Segalen wastes no time in Paris and undertakes a real cultural marathon: “Heard: At [André] Antoine's: Les Avariés. Two very scenic acts followed by a third rather conferential and tedious. Yesterday at the Gymnasium: Le Retour de Jérusalem, and an admirable figure of a Jewess who would be coldly Nietzschean. This evening, “our”Lohengrin, tomorrow Tannhauser. I do not think I can complete my various explorations before Tuesday and Wednesday. Do not expect me before Thursday.” He also took the opportunity to visit the editorial staff of Mercure de France in which he published an interesting article entitled “Gauguin dans son dernier décor” (“Gauguin in his last setting”) in June 1904: “I have already met the “Mercurielle” crew: by Gourmont, always kind but plump and, from symbolist became enraged “biologist”. What Morache would gloat about! Considering [Alfred] Vallette, “my” director who asked me for the studies. Promise. So, guaranteed investment, and then, it is all the same to me, I write to write and for some friends.”

Exceptional and extremely rare letter by Victor Segalen mentioning the repatriation and reveal of Gauguin's last works to Monfreid and some insiders.