Tahitian Women on the Beach
Tahitian Women on the Beach | |
---|---|
Artist | Paul Gauguin |
Year | 1891 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 69 cm × 91 cm (27.2 in × 35.8 in) |
Location | Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
Tahitian Women on the Beach (French: Femmes de Tahiti) is an oil painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin.[1] Depicting two Tahitian women, this piece is one of a series of works completed by Gauguin during his first stay on the Pacific island chain. Enamored by the environment and people of the islands and their separation from European cultural and aesthetic attitudes, Gauguin portrays two figures shrouded in the mystery and symbolism of Tahiti’s paradise.[2]
The painting is currently in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, located in Paris, France.[1]
Context
The painting was constructed towards the conclusion of the artist’s first trip to Tahiti (1891-1893). Gauguin had travelled to the French Colony in search of what he described as “ecstasy, calm, and art,” away from European materialism.[3] These ideas reflected what he described in his letters to Van Gogh as “the savageness…that is also in myself.”[4]: 128 Although France’s colonial impact by that point washed away some of these qualities he had hoped to find,[5] Gauguin nevertheless was productive and created this particular piece within the context of a greater series of many other works. Art historians today most associate these works with Gauguin's symbolist, syntheticist, and primitive styles.[6] The works depict natives (almost all of whom are women) in an ideal, unspoiled Eden.[7]
These works belong to the middle point in Gauguin’s career; they center on Tahitian subjects yet while retaining a sense of reality that is less present in his later works such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, which focus less on observation and more on the symbolic and supernatural.[8] Tahitian Women on the Beach was eventually sent by Gauguin to Paris to be exhibited by Durand-Ruel at the suggestion of Gauguin’s friend and biggest supporter, Edgar Degas.[4]: 129
Composition and analysis
The piece depicts two Tahitian women sitting statically in a state of aloof indolence. Although a topic of debate amongst art historians, the title is misleading in that the two women may not be on the beach. The diagonal lines in the ocher and yellow paint zones as well as the white lines in the background separating the green and blue may represent architecture rather than sand and waves. The art historian Charles Stuckey suggests that the ambiguity only adds to the mystery and sense of unknown felt in the piece.[9] Unlike his previous Tahitian paintings, these women aren't actively engaged in any type of work.[10] While the woman on the left is wearing traditional native pareu, the one on the right is covered by a missionary dress that indicates French colonial influence and the enduring presence of Christian missionary efforts upon the islands.[11][8]: 475
The women themselves are mysterious, evoking melancholy. Gauguin was mystified by this new world and its silence in particular, which he said "is even stranger than anything else...I can understand why these people can remain hours and days sitting immobile and gazing at the sky."[2]: 26 This silence and the women's reflection of it is palpable, challenging European conceptions of paradise and instead revealing the mystery behind it. The women's features also challenge existing ideas. Their deep amber-colored skin and powerful physiques display immense musculature, making them almost androgynous figures that are more akin to sculptures.[2]: 27 At the same time, their faces seem more like masks, turning the painting away from portraiture towards genre.[10]: 60 By depicting them this way, Gauguin challenges European notions of beauty and paradise.[10]: 60 [1]
Compositionally, the painting departs from the conventions of the era. Gauguin crowds the two figures into the space of the canvas, yet they are completely independent of one another.[11]: 236 Art historians have compared this aspect of the work to the treatment of figures in Manet's On the Beach.[9]: 236
The colors Gauguin employs include orange, yellow, pink, ocher, deep reds, turquoises, and browns. These colors are arranged in an ornamental and pattern-like structure.[10]: 60 The elements of line and color form simplified shapes and motifs. This construction is typical of symbolism, synthetism/cloisonism, and primitivism. While the painting is centered on reality unlike his later works, Gauguin's observations of Tahitian life are deconstructed through his composition to highlight the mystery and strangeness around the idea of Tahiti's paradise, bending the conceptions of this reality.[8]: 478–481 Gauguin achieved this symbolic conception of the women and their environment through his usage of synthetism. A term he coined himself, it was derived from cloisonism, which used dark lines to separate flat sections of color to reduce the sense of the real, observable subject and instead focus on the inner, symbolic poetry of it.[8]: 473 The piece, through this technique, blends the reality of Gauguin's observations with this mystical world. This mysticism also relates to the painting's most controversial aspect: primitivism. Art historians long described the work as part of Gauguin's reaction against the "oppressiveness" of European civilization.[12] However, more recently, art historians have criticized this work as a reflection of colonial imperialism over natives, suggesting that this painting and others involved exploitation of native "savageness."[13]
Parau Api (What News?)
Parau api, completed in 1892, is a variant reproduction of Tahitian Women on the Beach. Gauguin was reportedly enraged when Parau api was sold, and the work underscores how important Tahitian Women on the Beach was to him.[10] It contains virtually all the same elements but includes a number of modifications. Gauguin removes the missionary dress for a striped pareu. The ocher color is also replaced with a deep yellow. Most importantly, however, the addition of a wood post in the upper-right corner of the piece provides some additional evidence that in fact the women are not on the beach but rather sit on a traditional Tahitian veranda.[9] Parau api is currently exhibited at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, Germany.[14]: 236
Gallery
- Gauguin, Aha oe feii? (What? Are You Jealous?), 1892
- Gauguin, Nafea faa ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), 1892
- Gauguin, E haere oe i hia (Where Are You Going?), 1892
See also
List of paintings by Paul Gauguin
References
- ^ a b c "Femmes de Tahiti". musée d'Orsay. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ a b c Shackleford, George T.M (2004). Gauguin Tahiti. Boston, MA: MFA Publications. pp. 23–33.
- ^ "Femmes de Tahiti". www.musee-orsay.fr. Retrieved 12 Nov 2023.
- ^ a b Paltry, Sylvie; Guégan, Stephanie (2010). Post-impressionist masterpieces from the musée d'orsay. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. pp. 126–130.
- ^ Rapetti, Rodolphe (2003). "Gauguin, Paul". Grove Art Online. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
- ^ JIRAT-WASIUTYŃSKI, VOJTĚCH (1982). "1886-91 Cloisonism, Synthetism and Symbolism" (PDF). Revue d'art canadienne. 9: 35–46. doi:10.7202/1074970ar. JSTOR 42630024 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Maisels, Ziva Amishai (1973). "Gauguin's 'Philosophical Eve'". The Burlington Magazine. 115 (843): 373–379+381–382. JSTOR 877381 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c d ten-Doesschate Chu, Petra (2006). Nineteenth-Century European Art (3rd ed.). NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 478. ISBN 0-205-70799-8.
- ^ a b c Brettell, Richard; Cachin, Françoise; Frèches-Thory, Claire; Stuckey, Charles F. (1988). The Art of Paul Gauguin. Chicago: National Gallery of Art; Art Institute of Chicago. pp. 235–236. ISBN 0821217232.
- ^ a b c d e Becker, Christoph (1998). Paul Gauguin: Tahiti. Ostfildern-Ruit Germany: G. Hatje. pp. 60–66. ISBN 3775707441.
- ^ a b Groom, Gloria-Lynn (2017). Gauguin : artist as alchemist (1st ed.). Chicago, Illinois: The Art Institute of Chicago. p. 208. ISBN 9780300217018.
- ^ Knapp, James F. (1989). "Primitivism and Empire: John Synge and Paul Gauguin". Comparative Literature. 41 (1): 53–68 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Maleuvre, Didier (2018). "The Trial of Paul Gauguin". Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal. 51 (1): 197–213 – via JSTOR.
- ^ "Art from the Romantic period to the present day". Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. November 18, 2023.
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- List of paintings
- Study of a Nude (1880)
- Still Life with Profile of Laval (1886)
- Still Life with a Sketch after Delacroix (c. 1887)
- Vision after the Sermon (1888)
- The Painter of Sunflowers (1888)
- Landscape near Arles (1888)
- The Wave (1888)
- Portrait of Madame Roulin (1888)
- Fields by the Sea (1889)
- The Beautiful Angel (1889)
- Fruits on a Table (1889)
- The Schuffenecker Family (1889)
- The Flageolet Player on the Cliff (1889)
- The Yellow Christ (1889)
- The Green Christ (1889)
- Christ on the Mount of Olives (1889)
- Self-Portrait with Halo and Snake (1889)
- Still Life with Head-Shaped Vase and Japanese Woodcut (1889)
- Self-Portrait with the Yellow Christ (c. 1890–91)
- Tahitian Women on the Beach (1891)
- Tahitian Woman with a Flower (1891)
- A Man with an Axe (1891)
- Ia Orana Maria (1891)
- The Bunch of Flowers (1891)
- Conversation (1891)
- Early Evening (1892)
- Landscape with Peacocks (Death) (1892)
- Parau na te varua ino (1892)
- Vahine no te vi (1892)
- Vairumati tei Oa (1892)
- Fatata te Miti (By the Sea) (1892)
- Arearea (1892)
- Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892)
- Te Fare (1892)
- When Will You Marry? (1892)
- Aha Oe Feii? (1892)
- Arii Matamoe (1892)
- The Siesta (1892–1894)
- Merahi metua no Tehamana (1893)
- Otahi (1893)
- Self-Portrait in a Hat (1893)
- Mahana no atua (1894)
- Nave nave moe (1894)
- Arearea no varua ino (1894)
- Le violoncelliste (1894)
- Breton Peasant Women (1894)
- Eiaha Ohipa (1896)
- Nave Nave Mahana (1896)
- Te tamari no atua (1896)
- The Queen (1896)
- Vairumati (1897)
- Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897/1898)
- Nevermore (1897)
- Two Tahitian Women (1899)
- The Great Buddha (1899)
- Tahitian Woman and Boy (1899)
- Landscape, Horse on the Road (1899)
- The Call (1902)
- Still Life with Exotic Birds (1902)
- Landscape with a Pig and a Horse (1903)
- Jug in the Form of a Head, Self-Portrait (1889)
- Soyez amoureuses vous serez heureuses (wood panel, 1889)
- Objet décoratif carré avec dieux tahitiens (sculpture, 1893–1895)
- Oviri (ceramic sculpture, 1895)
- Le Sourire (1899–1900)
- Paul Gauguin Museum (Tahiti)
- Paul Gauguin Cultural Center (Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)
- Paul Gauguin Interpretation Centre (Martinique)
- Jean René Gauguin (son)
- Pola Gauguin (son)
- Paul René Gauguin (grandson)
- Flora Tristan (grandmother)
- Émile Bernard
- Vincent van Gogh
- Meijer de Haan
- Charles Laval
- George-Daniel de Monfreid
- Camille Pissarro
- Émile Schuffenecker
- Theo van Gogh
- Ambroise Vollard
- The Moon and Sixpence (1942 film)
- Lust for Life (1956 film)
- Rebel in Paradise (1960 film)
- The Wolf at the Door (1986 film)
- Paradise Found (2003 film)
- Gauguin: Off the Beaten Track (2013 comic book)
- At Eternity's Gate (2018 film)
- Gauguin (crater)
- Paul Gauguin Cruises
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